Ururangi | for Orchestra and Choir

Ururangi | for Orchestra and Choir
Duration: 4 Minutes
Level: Grade 5-6
Premiered in 2025 by the Manawa Ora | Wellington Regional Hospital Orchestra and Choir, in the atrium of the Wellington Regional Hospital.
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Commissioned by the 2024 SOUNZ Community Commission for the Manawa Ora |
Wellington Regional Hospital Orchestra and Choir, this piece is part four of a nine
movement suite for the stars of Matariki. The music is intended to be accessible,
memorable, and inspire curiosity about what Matariki means to us individually and as
a community. As lullabies, the suite also seeks to capture the essence of each star from
the perspective of our tamariki; offering a glimpse of each star's significance through
the eyes of our youth.

A key aspect of these works - written with the support and ideas of the Manawa Ora
Orchestra and Choir, for the wider Wellington community - are the lyrics. As part of the
wider project to create these pieces, Jacob Barrett worked with a local primary school to
source poems from our tamariki about each star of Matariki. The words for this piece
come from Matariki by Te Aroha. I especially want to thank Te Aroha for the taonga
they have gifted to us - it was magical in the truest sense to write music to your words,
and I hope that this music inspires you to keep on writing.

Ururangi, meaning "the winds of the sky", is the star which foretells the nature of the
winds for the year to come. Māori have an enduring interest in the wind and weather
as they first travelled to Aotearoa by harnessing its power. To work out whether the weather
will be in your favour this year, pay attention to Ururangi during Matariki
celebrations.