Haere Ra is in the language of Maori and translates to “goodbye” and it also says farewell in parenthesis next to the song title. It is to the Maori soldiers in the Great War. It was created in 1999 composed by Jaz Coleman and Hinewehi Mohi. I found the recording from the composers on youtube and listened to a few pieces until I settled on this one.

The beginning is so beautiful – and the primary reason why this song in particular caught my attention. I am not good at naming instruments, but I think a violin is played right away as the song starts which is SO heartwarming! A singular female voice comes in at 1:10 with a soothing strumming of the guitar (possibly) in the background. The beat feels tropical-like to me. She sings within a one octave range for the most part and it is a very calming, quiet tone.

The tempo and rhythm stays the same for the most part. From 3:30 to 4:15, it is just instrumental with a violin (or some stringed instrument) and a steady beat which I like to hear without the singers voice on top of. At 5:22, a lot of the background noise cuts off and it slowly turns into just her singing and the song ends at 5:35. I think I found this intriguing to me because I did play violin and it just blows my mind that I could have been this good if I had stuck with it, which is so sad. I really hope I end up playing it again soon!