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Much of my work is a marriage (or balancing act) between the Western art music tradition and my own position in time and place. Along with many forms, I have had a love for sacred choral music from Mediaeval times through to the present, but in not being a Christian, I have felt a reluctance to set text in which I don’t fully believe.

In reading the work of spiritual author, Eckhart Tolle, I have discovered a new connection with biblical texts. Tolle quotes the line “Be still, and know that I am God” in his book A New Earth, as an example of a universal truth that is at the heart of all religions and belief systems. In this text “God” may be seen as the Christian God, an omnipresent spiritual dimension or the universe personified. This line, and the rest of the text, is from Psalm 46. In setting this text I have found an opening into the world of sacred choral music that aligns with my own beliefs.

Anthony Young

• Young, A.: Be Still; computer-set 

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• Young, A.: Be Still; computer-set 

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• Anthony Young: Be Still; audio 

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• Works by Anthony Young 

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• Rimmer: Composition 7; electroacoustic part 

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• Rimmer: Composition 7; facsimile 

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• John Rimmer: Composition 7; audio 

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• Rimmer: Electronic Sounds for Compositions 6-10 

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• Watson/ Nock/ Cresswell/ Rimmer: Works 

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Fanfare for Orchestra was commissioned as part of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence programme to open a special concert to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. This short work for large orchestra follows an A-B-A structure with the archetypal brass fanfare is framed by the “bustling crowd” analogy of the other orchestral sections with much jazz-like syncopation.

• Keay: Fanfare for Orchestra; computer-set 

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• Keay: Fanfare for orchestra; computer-set 

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• Nigel Keay: Fanfare for Orchestra; audio 

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• Nigel Keay: Fanfare for Orchestra; audio 

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• Nigel Keay - Various Works 

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• Nigel Keay: Works 

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• Works for Orchestra: Farr, Blake, Keay, Bowater 

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• APO Commissions of NZ Music 1995 - 1997 

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• Lardelli: First Ice; computer-set 

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• Dylan Lardelli; First Ice; audio 

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• Four Works by Dylan Lardelli 

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• Dylan Lardelli 

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• Harris: Five Piano Pieces; computer-set 

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• First Fifteen - a selection of piano music by NZ composers  Year: 1996 

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• Ross Harris: Five Short Pieces For Piano; Guerin; audio 

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• Ross Harris: Five Short Pieces For Piano; Page; audio 

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• Ross Harris: Five Short Pieces For Piano; Rae-Gerrard; audio 

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This poem, by Australian poet Judith Wright (1915-2000) is a simple image of dogs chasing a hare in the light of the full moon. The hare is imagined as jumping into the moon, while the dogs can only howl at the moon in frustration.

Judith Wright spent much of her life involved in campaigning for Aboriginal rights and fighting against environmental destruction.

Full Moon Rhyme was written for Leading Notes choir from Westlake Girls High School (conductor: Fiona Wilson).

• David Hamilton: Full Moon Rhyme - hardcopy score  Year: 2008 

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• David Hamilton: Full Moon Rhyme; audio 

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• The Treble Voice Choral Music of David Hamilton Vol. 4  Year: 2013 

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‘Pao’ is the name given by Maori to two-lined epigrammatic songs which comment on a wide range of subjects such as love, war, politics or religion; often topical, often improvised. Most of the songs set here were collected in 1864 from Maori prisoners captured during the the land wars in the Waikato area south of Auckland. The couplets are not connected in any way except for the central group, for unaccompanied voice, concerning Pikeri, a character famous at the time for his escapades evading the police; in this instance, enforced separation during a love affair is charted.

The English translations of these pao are used with the kind permission of the late Margaret Orbell, and come from her Maori Poetry, an introductory anthology (Heinemann, 1978).

Pao was commissioned by the Northumberland-based Syrinx Trio, with financial assistance from Northern Arts; the first performance was given by Syrinx in Newcastle in 1981.

• Whitehead: Pao; computer set 

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• Whitehead: Pao; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Pao; facsimile 

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• Whitehead: Pikeri; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Pikeri; computer-set 

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• Kowhai - an album of songs by NZ women composers  Year: 1994 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Pikeri from Pao; audio 

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• Rimmer: Preludes of Light; computer-set 

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• John Rimmer: Preludes of Light; audio 

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The composition of the ‘Serenade for Strings’ was undertaken from 2001 and this work succeeds Nigel Keay’s ‘Viola Concerto’. The ‘Serenade’ is a four movement work of around 17 minutes duration in an essentially lyrical style. The initial inspiration for the ‘Serenade for String Orchestra’ came from being involved as a violist in a string orchestra in Caen, Lower Normandy, which was assembling a programme of String Serenades. ‘Serenade for Strings’ is dedicated to Valerie Baisnae who played violin in this group.

From June 2001, work continued on the second movement in Paris and the writing was eventually finished in 2002. The first movement (‘Moderato’) starts very simply, which represents a tabula rasa where the lines accumulate one by one to construct the harmony, a detachment from what had been the heavy task of writing the ‘Viola Concerto’. ‘Serenade for Strings’ starts from nothing to create new harmonies.

Concerning the idea of the serenade, today a very imprecise musical form, the idea of the evening or night is kept through using a musical language that is quite dark. The first movement is based on a short, recurring chromatic melody constructed of quavers, but which is surrounded by a more and more elaborate variation of the background material. The second movement (‘Allegro’) is constructed on a kind of moto perpetuo texture long interwoven lines, which evolve into increasingly ornamented and elaborate melodies. The third movement (‘Adagietto’) is the darkest movement, marked by an often low orchestral tessitura. The bare melodies create the most desperate and tender moments of this work. The fourth movement (‘Vivo’) makes a lively contrast to the third with an optimistic opening. Melodic motives are tossed around the orchestra as in a game. But towards the end the nostalgic themes of the first movement are recalled.

“Comme tu me plairais, o nuit ! sans ces etoiles
Dont la lumiere parle un langage connu !
Car je cherche le vide, et le noir, et le nu !
Baudelaire ‘Obsession’”

• Keay: Serenade for Strings; computer-set 

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• Keay: Serenade for Strings; computer 

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• Nigel Keay: Serenade for Strings - First Movement; audio 

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• Nigel Keay: Serenade for Strings - Third Movement; audio 

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• Nigel Keay: Serenade for Strings and Other Works 

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• Keay: Serenade for Strings 

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• Music by Nigel Keay 

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At age 15, during school holidays, I hitch-hiked the length of New Zealand from Dunedin to Auckland with various side trips in between. The sheer beauty and panorama of rolling hills, lofty mountains and shimmering sea entered my soul and stayed there. Sleeping rough in the great openness somehow connected me to the natural wonders that were all around me and this connection became ingrained and part of my being.
The composing of my first symphony allowed me to relive that life changing experience and the work recalls impressions and emotions that I felt at the time, but not specific places.
-Denis Betro

• Betro: Symphony No.1; computer set 

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• Denis Betro: Symphony No.1; audio 

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• Betro: Symphony No.1 

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