This tone poem with narrated text by Ann McCutchan was crafted as both a children's story and a piece of mature contemporary music, designed to appeal on many levels. The music, using three ancient Hawaiian chant-tunes, many authentic percussion instruments, and six Polynesian scales, is capable of standing alone, and in fact the work can be performed without narration.
The text is a highly evocative and poetic retelling of one of the most famous myths about the Polynesian demigod Maui, known as "the trickster." We meet Maui by reputation first with the recounting of two earlier legends, and then in the story of Haleakala. Maui finds his mother weeping because the sun moves so quickly that "the kapa (tapa cloth) won't dry, and the kalo (taro) and sweet potatoes are withering." Maui is determined to fix this, and devises a plan to entrap the sun as it enters the chasm at Haleakala, the sacred volcano on the island that now bears Maui's name. Once all sixteen legs (rays) of the sun have been snared in a vigorous battle, Maui extracts a promise from the sun to go more slowly for six months of the year, creating the winter and summer seasons.
The score is almost cinematic -- it assigns motives to the various characters and follows the dramatic moods of the narration without ever resorting to the "stop-and-go" method commonly found in works with a narrator. In fact, the story proved so fruitful as musical inspiration that I was able to make use of formal devices to illustrate the action: for instance, Maui's actual snaring of the sixteen-legged sun is set as a quicksilver fugue, in which particular notes are "caught" and held by the brass.
The piece is set as a ritual ceremony. It opens with the blowing of a conch shell and immediately proceeds to a chant-tune played by horns and pahu drums. Following this "frame," the music follows forms suggested by the narration. Episodic sections describe Maui's earlier escapades, the sun's frantic flight over the islands (with evocative cluster-chords in the upper strings suggesting heat and blazing light), and the fantastic trip beneath the ocean in search of the magic elements needed to weave the nooses. Three related interludes called "Dreamscales" introduce the main sections: Maui's confrontation with his mother, the trip to Haleakala, and the morning following the battle with the sun. At the end of the story the opening chant returns, completing the ritual frame in a musical scale.
HALEAKALA was premiered in September 1991. It was commissioned by the Honolulu Symphony as part of the Meet the Composer Orchestra Residency Program.
It may be heard on compact disc (Marco Polo 8.223457) in a recording by the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Donald Johanos, with narration by Richard Chamberlain.