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Kathryn Lauder  

Fruit of our Folly

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 2002
For SSA, two violins, 'cello and handbells

Pepe Becker  

Hoquetus Sanctus

Duration: 04' 20" Year: 2008
for vocal octet

  • Instrumentation
    SSAATTBB with clapping and/or hand percussion (stones or wooden clap-sticks)
  • Programme Note

    This work was written as a commission for Baroque Voices, with funding from Creative NZ, to be premiered at the Baroque Voices “Alleluia: a newe work!” concert in May 2008. The concept of the performance is to juxtapose Contemporary New Zealand works with Medieval European ones – and in this case, Hoquetus Sanctus pairs well with Hoquetus David (written by Guillaume de Machaut in the 14th Century), as it explores the idea of hocket, where vocal lines are ‘shared’ between different voices, sometimes jumping from one to another and overlapping each other – however, it can equally well be performed in any choral concert.

    Hoquetus Sanctus is a setting of the Latin Sanctus text for a capella chamber choir or small vocal ensemble.

  • Availability

Pepe Becker  

O Ecclesia

Duration: 04' 30" Year: 2010
for high-voice ensemble, treble recorder and hurdy-gurdy or organ

Ross Harris  

Sleep O Beloved

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 2001
for 4 female voices and percussion

Helen Fisher  

Taku Wana - The Enduring Spirit

Duration: 37' 00" Year: 2002
for two mezzo sopranos, Kai-karanga, taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments), flute/piccolo, bodhran, string quartet

  • Instrumentation
    one of the mezzo sopranos needs to be familiar with performing Maori waiata.
  • Programme Note

    This chamber work, composed in 2002, is based on the music drama of the same title, with music by Helen Fisher, Maori composition by Wi Kuki Kaa and lyrics by Lauris Edmond. This shorter work for two sopranos, kai-karanga, string quartet, flute, bodhran and Maori instruments was produced for a CD on the Atoll label (ACD 203). This work focuses on some Maori and Pakeha women’s stories surrounding the events of the 1843 Wairau tragedy. These are stories of compassion, which have a resonance for New Zealand today, showing a way forward for reconciliation and racial harmony.

  • Availability

Carol Shortis  

Tesknota

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 2009
for eight-voice vocal ensemble, string quintet, piano, soprano solo and countertenor solo

  • Programme Note

    This piece was written for the 65th anniversary of the arrival in New Zealand of Polish refugee children in 1944. Most of them were children who had been separated from, or who had lost their parents and other family members. As part of my research for the piece, I transcribed an interview that my colleague Anton Killin had recorded with one of these refugees. His story is one of loss, struggle, enforced migration and international betrayal of the Polish community, yet his perseverance, faith common sense and strength eventually won through and he continues to live in New Zealand whilst being proud of his Polish heritage. Tesknota is my reflection and response to his moving story and quotes from the traditional Polish fold song Polskie Kwiaty and 13th-century hymn Bogurodzica representing “old Poland” before the Russian and German invasions of 1939.

  • Availability

Gillian Whitehead  

The Virgin and the Nightingale

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1986
five songs for voices

  • Instrumentation
    sop, m-sop,A,T,Bari,B choir or sextet. Optional melody instrument - flute. If one soprano has a virtuoso high light voice that could undertake the flute line, the upper voices in 1 and 5 can be rearranged between soprano 2 and alto.
  • Programme Note

    The Virgin and the Nightingale was commissioned by Jones and Co with funding from the Music Board of the Australia Council, and first performed by The Song Company in 1992. The poems are taken from Fleur Adcock’s collection of translations of mediaeval poems published by Bloodaxe Books as The Virgin and the nightingale, with kind permission of author and publisher. The five songs all focus on birds; the flute part in Love’s Agent is a (transposed) transcription of a nightingale song. The settings are for SSATTB choir. The songs can be performed as a set or separately; some of them are suitable for choir.

  • Availability