The Search for the Sound of the Putorino

The noted New Zealand Maori authority Te Rangi Hiroa declared that the rich heritage of traditional instruments was now silent, they were no longer played, they would be 'forever mute'(Buck 1949:270). Among the predominant flutes and trumpets of this instrumentarium were voice modifiers (jews harp, mouth bow), whizzers and whirlers, and percussion (rattlers, castanets, gong, and other 'found' instruments). Most enigmatic of all was the pūtωrino, the so-called bugle-flute, perhaps unique in the world's instruments, a combination of three instruments-flute, trumpet and voice modifier. A description of the sound of this instrument 'Me te wai e utuutu ana' (like water 'bubbling into a calabash held under the surface of the water' Anderson 1934: 275) provides our title, and one of the signposts in the revival of the pūtωrino

Acoustics · Art · Art history · Flute · Percussion · Visual arts · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies