The Breath Moved Upon the Face of the Waters

Abstract

Water is universally seen to symbolise the source of life, an elemental vehicle for cleansing and a facilitator of regeneration. To immerse on-self in the waters and to re-emerge without having been utterly dissolved in them . . . is to return to the well springs and regain fresh strength from that vast reservoir of the potential. A Dictionary of Symbols, Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant. The title refers to the ‘face’ or surface of the water, an intersection between air and water which when breathed upon acts as a point of interchange. This metaphor of intersecting elements resonates throughout the proposed piece, for example the exchange of cross cultural references and the constant interplay between both visual and audio images. The piece drew from images, sounds and beliefs associated with the pristine fresh water site Te Waikoropupu. The piece follows on from recent work and composition processes that reference elemental and natural symbolism, for example ‘The Bone Song’ and ‘A moon that you could hang your coat on’. The musical texture of the electro acoustic component was primarily constructed from short edited and processed samples of close miked musical and environmental sounds amplified to create a sound world that will function like an explorative audio microscope beckoning the listener to intersect the reflective surface of the known and travel further. The intention was to enlarge the auditory perception of minute sounds using specialist sound recording techniques (in particular close miking) and sound manipulation (sound design techniques). One of the specific aims of this project was to create a bi-cultural work, a cross-cultural exchange between Maori and European traditions. The piece being site specific (a reserve and natural spring), is particularly pertinent as there is presently as intense dialogue taking place as each culture seeks to assert and redefine its own unique relationship to the land – whenua, the rivers, lakes and sea. The title for the project is a quote from the book of Genesis. Not only does this excerpt contain the core imagery and central metaphor of the proposed creative work, it intentionally acknowledges significant spiritual cross-cultural links in particular the employment by Nineteenth Century Maori prophets of biblical imagery in a bid to help their people survive the spreading tide of European colonialism.