koauau - a maori three hole pipe

THE KOAUAU – A MAORI THREE-HOLE PIPE

Prior to their first contact with Europeans – Captain Cook in 1769, then sealers and whalers – the Maori of New Zealand were an isolated, stone-age people. They had brought traditions and crafts with them from Polynesia several centuries earlier, and these were developed under local conditions in isolation. They had a good variety of musical instruments, to shake, strike or blow, but this talk is limited to the flutes.

Many instruments were collected by Europeans and can still be seen in museums. In the nineteenth century, missionaries discouraged the use of native instruments, and the Maori took to hymn-singing with great gusto. Even today, many so-called traditional Maori songs are firmly based on the harmonies typically found in nineteenth century hymn tunes, and the favourite instrument to accompany them is the ubiquitous guitar.

The famous All Blacks’ haka is probably the most genuine expression of traditional music, with strong rhythm but little pitch variation. Another form of traditional singing is the waiata or song of welcome that greets visitors to a village or to a hui (a meeting).

Traditional Maori music moved in microtones and many individual instruments have a very limited range of notes, typically between a second and a fourth, but with many microtones within that range. Over the past 25 years or so, there has been a revival of interest in traditional instruments, but because of their limited nature, I doubt that they will ever become commonly heard or mainstream.

There is a fairly wide variety of flutes, made in a variety of materials, but they are all end- or cross-blown; there are no fipple flutes. The instruments were not used just to make musical sounds, as all tunes were intended to convey words, and there are many references to words being breathed into the instrument while being played. There are legends of secret messages being given through the playing. Each instrument was seen as an individual and may have had its own name.

The koauau is generally a short pipe and was made from bone, wood or stone. There is one species of kelp with a hollow stem that was sometimes used. Remember that tools to hollow out wood or stone were very limited and made of stone or sharp shells, so making an instrument was a major undertaking. A number of species of wood were used. An albatross wing-bone, being already hollow, was easier, but was so slender that carving to decorate it was limited to incised lines. Koauau range in length from 100mm to 385mm (approx 4” – 15”) and most have three fingerholes but occasionally can have up to five. The finger-holes are usually countersunk. In common with other instruments, they are usually decorated with carvings of some significance, making them fine works of art, and they were often worn on a string round the neck as a pendant.

Perhaps the most famous koauau was the one played by Tutanekai. He lived on the island called Mokoia in the middle of Lake Rotorua, and his playing of the koauau at night guided his lover Hinemoa as she swam across the lake to join him and there she became his wife. Images and carvings of these lovers are to be found in various structures in Rotorua.

When Tutanekai was a child and was adopted by the local tribe, the Ngati Whakaue, the family tohunga or priest, Te Murirangaranga, dedicated the young boy to Tumatauenga, the god of war. However, the priest broke his tapu too soon after the ritual, so Ngati Whakaue had him killed. This koauau was made from Te Murirangaranga's right arm and was named after him. Murirangaranga continued to be a highly revered artefact long after Tutanekai’s death

The mana (respect) associated with playing the koauau was great and this is exemplified by the incorporation of three hole pipe in the longest place name in the world.

I brought my koauau back from New Zealand in 2011. It is made from a wood called kauri, a native softwood which grows in the north of the country, and which because of its huge size and longevity was always revered by the Maori. (Kauri can reach 60 metres and have a trunk five metres or more in diameter. They are slow growing and some kauris are 2,000 years old.) The traditional design on it represents the four winds.

When I first owned it, I tried to blow it without success for a while then abandoned it on a shelf for months. In early January 2012 I broke eight bones in my ankle, so my enforced inactivity gave me plenty of time to practise. Then I read that the koauau has three main functions:

1. To entertain

2. To ease the passage of spirits into and out of this world

3. To heal broken bones

Thereafter I would tell my ankle to pay attention while I was practising!

The range of this pipe is about a major third. With three holes there are eight combinations of fingering that can be used. The pitch can also be adjusted with the lips and tongue, and because it does not overblow, it can be played soft or loud. The three holes are called the softener, the strengthener and the corrector. (mua, roto, taha)

Interestingly, similar instruments have been found from pre-colonisation Mexico!

Typical music for the koauau uses the (limited) range of the instrument, and often incorporates the falling cadence of the waiata. It has a mellow haunting timbre and was also used to imitate natural sounds such as the call of the kokako.