Teddy Tahu Rhodes and the Southern Cross Soloists perform 'Hoea Ra', from the new album 'I'l Walk Beside You' - available on ABC Classics from April 13, 2018.
Available here: abcmusic.lnk.to/TTRIWBY
In the early 20th century, a new style of Maori song-writing was developing, which incorporated the diatonic scales, harmony and metres of Western music. 'Hoea ra' was written by political leader Paraire Tomoana in 1916 to support troops heading to the First World War; the original words have since been slightly altered to turn it into a love song. It uses the symbolism of the waka (canoe), so important to Maori culture. An action song, the performers would sit as in a canoe and rhythmically swing their pois (tethered balls). The lilting waltz metre evokes the strokes of paddles through water.
'I’ll Walk Beside You' features music of journeys, physical, emotional and spiritual: from one land to another, life to death, wakefulness to sleep, love to loss, and despair to hope. Songs from all over the world - from Australia, Scotland, Germany and America, as well as two Maori songs from Rhodes’ homeland - find a home alongside each other in gorgeous arrangements by the Southern Cross Soloists, one of Australia’s most formidable chamber music ensembles.
‘Music transcends all cultures, and I think it’s great that we can enjoy music from every culture,’ says Rhodes. ‘I sing opera that’s written in Italy, or France, or Germany, and then we have people from other cultures singing our English language. It’s a wonderful thing that music brings a lot of people together.’
Featuring favourites like ‘Shenandoah’, ‘Loch Lomond’, ‘Going Home’ and ‘She Was Beautiful’ (the Cavatina from The Deer Hunter), I’ll Walk Beside You is a heartfelt and beautiful album from one of Australia’s best-loved voices.