Te Vaka

Name of the group members

Opetaia Foa'i - Founder, Composer, Lead Singer, Guitarist -Tokelau/Tuvalu
Olivia Foa'i - Singer, Dancer, Choreographer - Tokelau/Tuvalu/New Zealand
Matatia Foa'i - Percussionist, composer - Tokelau/Tuvalu/New Zealand
Sulata Foai-Amiatu - Singer - Tokelau
Douglas Bernard - Singer, keyboardist, percussionist - Samoa
Joe Toomata - Electric guitarist, percussionist - Samoa
Neil Forrest - Bass, flute, percussion - New Zealand
Etueni (Edwin) Pita - Dancer - Tokelau/Tuvalu/Cook Islands
Dave Kuresa - Dancer - Samoa

Style and musical influences

Te Vaka is a contemporary Polynesian band. It is influenced by music all across Polynesia and the Pacific. Their songs contain many instruments which are traditional in these parts includeing the pate drum, pa'u and bass drums. There songs are sung in Tokelauan language and sometimes also sung in Somoan and tuvaluan and Moari. This makes thier music style diverse in that it is inspired from all over Polynesia.

As a group, Te Vaka has made many achievements. Some of which are making the best pacific album several times for the New Zealand Music Awards. They have made many more awards and achievements for their work since the very early 2000's where they were nominated for an award on BBC Radio and also they have gained many achievements internationally. Another one of their achievements is being the main group and creating most of the music for the Disney film, Moana.

Te Hiva - Musical Analysis

Duration:

- The song has a fast, allegro beat, which is set up at the beginning with the fast drum beat and the guitar riffs. The song has a time signature of 4/4. The song also contains mostly short note values and less long note values.

Pitch:

- The song contains ascending movements throughout the song. The instruments play at a moderately high pitch whilst the female singers also sing at a high pitch. This contrasts with the male singers who sing at a low pitch against the female singers. The seems to be played in a major tonality.

Dynamics and expressive techniques:

- The song is played at pretty much the same speed throughout the song. There various crescendos going into some sections and then a decrescendo into the other sections. The whole song is played at MF right from the beginning of the song until the end.

Structure:

- The song doesn't really have any form as it is just straight lyrics with each verse different each time. The whole song is in the Tokelau language. The song does repeat various lines such as, ' Hiva fakamalie mai' several times at the end of each verse, which creates more unity.

Tone Colours:

-The song has a bright and light tone colour. This is for the female singers and the electric guitar which plays the riff at the start. The male singers have a heavy and warm tone colour which contrasts against the female singers which create contrast.

Texture:

- The song has a homophonic texture. It has an electric guitar that plays the riff, an acoustic guitar for the accompaniment, drums and tambourine for the rhythm and some male and some female singers for the melody. Overall the texture seems not that thick or busy. It is quite simple.