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David Hamilton  

A Blessing for Saint Kentigern

 Year: 2008
for 2-part treble-voice choir, SAB choir and piano

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  • Programme Note

    This work was commissioned by choral director Stuart Weightman for performance at Saint Kentigern School in Auckland. The brief was to write a work that could be performed by the school’s choir, but which also included a section for the parent’s choral group attached to the school. Also, ideally the work would include something for both groups to sing together. Finally, it should be possible for either of the separate choir sections to stand alone as independent pieces.

    The suggested texts were a blessing from a bookmark given to all the boys at the school, and a blessing often used in chapel services. To the first text I added a couple of lines which closely matched the final section of the second text.

    The work begins with a blessing in unison and then 2 parts for treble voices. This is followed by a blessing for SAB choir, and then finally the two earlier sections are performed simultaneously.

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David Hamilton  

A Child Lay in a Little Crib

Duration: 02' 05" Year: 2012
for solo soprano, SSA choir and piano

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    This piece was originally the fifth movement of a short Christmas cycle (“Angels and Shepherds and Wise Men All”) was written in 2012 for the end of year concert by South Auckland Choral Society to be conducted by the composer. The concert included my school choir, St Mary’s Schola, and I was keen to write something that the combined forces (including the soloists) in the concert could sing together.

    The cycle doesn’t try to encapsulate the entire Christmas story, but focusses on those characters on the edge of the story – the angels, the shepherds and the wise man. In this piece, the characters who gathered around the infant Jesus are focussed on: the animals, the angels and the shepherds.

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David Hamilton  

A peace prayer

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 2002
for SSA choir, cello and piano

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David Hamilton  

A Song of Ruth

 Year: 1991
for SSA choir and organ

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David Hamilton  

Ave Maris Stella

Duration: 04' 40" Year: 2012
for SSA choir with singing bowl

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    Ave Maris Stella (“Hail, star of the sea”) is a plainsong Vespers hymn to Mary. It was especially popular in the Middle Ages. The creation of the original hymn has been attributed to several people, including Bernard of Clairvaux (12th century), Saint Venantius Fortunatus (6th century) and Hermannus Contractus (11th century). The text is found in a 9th century manuscript in the Abbey of Saint Gall (St. Gallen in present-day Switzerland).

    The piece uses little material other than the original chant melody. It is presented against a single sustained pitch from the singing bowl which sounds throughout. The work uses a mix of fully notated and semi-improvised music to create an atmospheric response to the text. Only the first and last verses of the text are used, with the choir only ever singing the first verse, and two solo voices singing the final verse.

    “Ave Maris Stella” was written for St Mary’s Schola (St Mary’s College, Auckland).

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Anthony Young  

Be Still

Duration: 03' 30" Year: 2009
for SATB choir

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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

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David Hamilton  

Count Me the Stars

Duration: 03' 10" Year: 2008
for SSAA choir and guitar

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  • Programme Note

    This short work for treble-voice choir and guitar sets a poem by Australian poet Kylie Johnson. Kylie is a visual artist as well as a published poet. Her website www.paperboatpress.com says:
    During her study of Visual Arts and Film at QUT in Brisbane (1990-1993) Kylie met a group of artists and potters and became part of the group known as Amfora. Amfora held many group shows throughout its 12-year run, of which Kylie was a part of all.

    It was through these years that Kylie also published three books of her poetry: Distant Shoes (1992), forty-eight minus one (1997) and the ivory birds (2000), the poetry book launches also coincided with solo exhibitions of her painting and collage work. In 1996 Kylie set up her business paper boat press, in its early stages creating a boutique greeting card range featuring her own whimsical one or two line poems. This has now grown to include ceramic ornaments, ceramic jewelry, original illustrations and functional ceramic vessels.

    In recent years Kylie has joined forces with a group of Brisbane artists to form the Umbrella Collective. The six women work together towards group shows and sales of their work as well as creating a dialogue and support network for all aspects of their work and creative business.

    Count Me the Stars sets a text taken from her most recent poetry collection of the same name. The poem is untitled, so I used the first line as a title for my setting.

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David Hamilton  

De Angel Roll De Stone Away

Duration: 02' 45" Year: 2007, r. 2008
for SSA choir and piano

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David Hamilton  

Full Moon Rhyme

Duration: 03' 20" Year: 2008
for SSA choir and piano

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David Hamilton  

Prayer of a Woman

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2009
for solo voices, SSAA choir, 2 horns and harp

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    This setting joins several other works of mine which make use of the poetry of New Zealand poet Robin Hyde, including Paraha for choir brass and organ (1990), Meditation on ‘The Bronze Rider’ for carillon (1990), Road’s End for SSAA choir (1993) and Tryst for choir and jazz trio (1997). Robin Hyde was the pen-name of Iris Guiver Wilkinson (1906-1939). During her brief life she worked as a journalist, novelist and poet, making her living from writing – something very unusual for a woman in those days. She was constantly dogged by ill-health, and after an ill-fated visit to China in 1938 travelled on to England where depression and illness overcame her. She committed suicide the following year.

    Prayer of a Woman is a relatively late poem, dating from the last couple of years of Hyde’s life.

    This work was written for Mirinesse Women’s Choir of Seattle in the USA, and is dedicated to the choir and conductor Rebecca Rottsolk. The unusual scoring was prompted by the Brahms choral piece for the same forces being programmed.

    David Hamilton

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