Investigating the sonic characteristics of New Zealand’s Indigenous instruments: taonga pūoro and miheke oro (Māori and Moriori musical instruments)

Abstract

This paper investigates the sonic characteristics of taonga pūoro from a performer’s perspective, as well as on how the instruments’ construction and materials affect their sound. It also presents findings from two recent projects that involved making 3D printed models of Indigenous instruments. The first included taonga pūoro from the Otago Museum, and the second the only two known Moriori flutes (held in the Bishop and Canterbury museums). These were CT scanned, and that data used to create digital models, which were printed. The first project utilized one type of print media, whereas the second utilized several. Because playing the museum instruments is not permitted, other instruments have been used as controls to test the prints’ sonic properties – a kōauau (a type of Māori flute) held by the University of Otago in the first project, and replicas of Moriori flutes made from albatross bone (the flutes’ original material) in the second. Recorded.wav files of both the original and printed replica instruments were compared using the application Izotope Rx5. This application enables sound files to be viewed as spectrograms, allowing for the harmonic and resonant content of the recordings to be compared visually.