Pukul Wainui is an adaptation of Farr's percussion quintet Pukul (PE096), first written for the percussion ensemble group STRIKE. In this work the composer has combined the Javanese gamelan orchestra with the original work for percussion quintet.
Pukul Wainui, which translates to "Big Water Percussion", was titled to honor the University of Michigan Gamelan and Bali and the Cook Islands cultures for which the work is inspired. It combines Indonesian gamelan styles, Western orchestral percussion and traditional Cook Island drums. Pukui Wainui is written in the "soft" gamelan style, favouring the softer sounding instruments in the first row of the gamelan that produce a very "floating" sound.
Pukul Wainui is a piece that is effectively a dialogue between the percussion of two different cultures, Indonesian and European. It's a piece for gamelan and Western percussion ensemble that includes tom-toms, brake drums and even flower pots.
