Search Music:

It is impossible not to feel inspired when playing some of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Debussy’s two books of preludes, or Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. As a composer I wanted to make a small mark of respect to these greats with some dedications. I have also taken a cue from Bach and Shostakovich and included contrapuntal forms within these preludes. While not wanting to restrict myself to the form of a fugue, there are several preludes which are close in spirit to fugues: Nos.17 and 19 for instance, are what I would call my ‘prelugues’. There is also a passacaglia (No.16) which owes a debt to Shostakovich. I have conceived these pieces as a unified whole. Within them I have attempted to cover a whole variety of characters and moods, from the improvisational and experimental to the lyrical and gentle, from the wild and gestural to the calm and peaceful, from the quirky and ‘black’ to the light and sunny, from the depressive to the resolved. The extensive technical planning and preparation behind these pieces has been fun for me as the composer, but in the end it is the sound and musical expression that matters. I would like to think this voyage of discovery has led to something new and interesting to listen to.

• Ritchie A.: 24 Preludes; Computer Set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $35.50
  • • Quantity:

• Ritchie A: Twenty-four Preludes; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $42.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Anthony Ritchie: Piano Preludes  Year: 2004 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

This album was inspired by the poem “To L.H.B.” by Katherine Mansfield that was the first poem set.

• Bell: A NZ Journal: Songs for Solo Voices; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $30.50
  • • Quantity:

• Bell: A NZ Journal: Songs for Solo Voices; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $36.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Michael Bell: To L.H.B.; audio 

  Digital sound file - MP3
  

In 1909 Alice Adcock, a lively and adventurous young woman from Manchester, was on her way to New Zealand. She was 23, and had recently developed TB, for which there was then no cure. Somehow she persuaded her widowed father to let her travel alone to the other side of the world in case a healthy climate would save her life. (It worked – she lived for another 50 years). The family kept her entertaining letter describing shipboard life, and a few postcards from her have also survived, but most of what we know about her time in New Zealand comes from her father’s letters to her, of which he kept copies, or from family tradition. On her arrival in New Zealand, Alice went into service, travelling widely, much to the consternation of her father. As housekeeper (and the only woman) on a farm in Makarora (a remote settlement on Lake Wanaka) she became pregnant to an unknown man, but was ‘rescued’ by marriage to a local farmer, Charles Pipson, shortly before the birth of her daughter. In 1911, her beloved father died; in 1912, Alice and Charles had a son and the following year, pregnant again, Alice took her children back to England to visit her family. Tragically, while she was away, her husband died suddenly of typhoid fever. Alice hurried back to Makarora to claim her inheritance, but left the two babies with her brother Sam and his wife (who were shortly to emigrate to New Zealand) and took only her eldest child, the illegitimate one, with her. This outraged her sisters-in-law, who saw it as an insult to their dead brother; they sent her away from the farm empty-handed. Once again she had to take a housekeeping job, this time in the North Island. In 1914, Alice and her brother’s family met up again, and Alice began a new life. (Fleur Adcock – abridged) The music of Alice is text-driven, ranging between a language at times extremely simple, as was the basic musical language of the settlers, and at times quite complex, evoking a storm at sea, or the unease of the settlers in a new environment, or Alice’s reaction to the problems which beset her. The piece is held together by various referential motifs. The initial idea, which perhaps suggests the instability of the sea, is also present in the bell-like sounds marking Charles’ death, music associated with a storm at sea is later associated with mental stress, while music suggestive of the movement of shipboard lice later underlies Alice’s traumatic encounter with her sisters-in-law.

There are eight sections, which often merge into one another: 1. in a letter to her father, Alice describes shipboard life; 2. in New Zealand, she compares her past life and hopes for the future; 3. a dialogue between father and daughter, expressed through their letters; 4. in Makarora, Alice discovers she is pregnant; 5. Alice hears of her father’s death; 6. in England, she learns of her husband’s death; 7. back in Makarora, Alice is turned away by her sisters-in-law; 8. turning her back on the South Island, Alice looks forward to her new life with her brother’s family in the north.

While writing this piece, I was drawn again and again into the thought that, although this is a true story, set in a particular place at a certain time, it has the resonances of a universal myth, known to all of us who live here. Our forebears, or we ourselves, have crossed the seas to begin a new life, with unforeseen and unimaginable difficulties and felicities, whether ten years, a century or a millennium or so ago.

• Whitehead: Alice; computer-set 

  Vocal score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $29.00
  • • Quantity:

• Whitehead: Alice; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $47.00
  • • Quantity:

• Whitehead: Alice; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $57.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Gillian Whitehead: Alice; audio 

  Media on Demand | Embedded
  

• Whitehead: Quintet and Alice  

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• Gillian Whitehead: Alice 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is untitled but the music is hardly “absolute”. On the contrary, it is often extroverted, evocative, and full of passionate expression. The piece is both a concerto, in terms of the amount of writing for the piano (including three extended cadenzas), and also a symphony since it has an equally demanding role for the orchestra. The relationship between the two forces alternates between independence and embracement.


The first movement, in moderate tempo, is lyrical in nature and evolves around singing lines. The melodic style shares similarities with the music of some of the nationalities of Southern China, for example, of the Miao people.


The second movement has a long slow introduction which unfolds from a series of mysterious chords. They form the basis for the rest of the movement that becomes fast and virtuosic, combining dancing rhythms and long melodic lines. The whole work evokes an atmosphere of songs and dances of ancient times.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was commissioned by Professor Jack Richards who is an ardent supporter of New Zealand music. I played the 1st performance with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Keneth Young in the Wellington Town Hall in May 2008.

Gao Ping, August 2008

• Gao: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $60.00
  • • Quantity:

• Gao: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $60.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Gao Ping: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra 

  Digital sound file - MP3
  

• Jonathan Besser: Danceabout 

  CD
  
  $40.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• decadence - celebrating 10 years of Besser and Bravura 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• New Zealand Composers On Screen 

  DVD
  
  • Borrow

Markheim is a man at the end of his tether. What started as a robbery gone wrong has ended in a murder – a murder that seems certain to force him to kill once more. And then kill again. Trapped, he is made to confront circumstances that have brought him to this terrible crisis. Just at the moment a mysterious stranger appears – but it soon becomes clear that this saviour is not all he seems. Is he the devil driving to further temptation and inevitable damnation? Or an angel come to save him from himself?

Loosely based on R. L. Stevenson’s macabre story, Markheim, a haunting story of guilt and redemption, Good Angel, Bad Angel is a chamber opera for three voices and four instrumentalists.

SYNOPSIS: The opera opens in an old curio-shop where the owner and his daughter are having a row. She feels unappreciated by her miserly father and says she’d prefer to spend Christmas Day with someone who cares for her – her boyfriend. She storms out leaving the old man to his gold and silver. A knock at the shop door. The shopkeeper is reluctant to open, but realising it could be a potential customer, lets in the caller. It is Markheim, a small time thief. He claims he wants to buy a Christmas present for his girlfriend. The old man shows him his stock. When the old man’s back is turned Markheim kills him. Believing that there is a hoard of gold hidden somewhere in the shop, Markheim is now free to look for it. Another knock at the door. Two drunks are wanting to visit the old man. Markheim doesn’t answer and tries not to panic. Finally the drunks wander off. Quite unexpectedly, a complete stranger – the visitant – enters from the back of the shop. He offers to tell Markheim where the gold is hidden. Fearing the unknown, Markheim refuses to answer. The visitant tells him the old man’s daughter is coming back to the shop to apologise for her outburst. If Markheim is still here when she arrives, he will have to kill the daughter as well to cover his crime. A dialogue follows with Markheim realising more and more the hopelessness of his position. The visitant keeps reminding him that the daughter will be arriving very soon. Markheim insists the money will allow him to start a new life and in a high dramatic solo passage declares that freedom is within his grasp. The murder is one-off, he claims, and from now on his life will be on the straight and narrow. A knock at the door. It is the daughter. The visitant says Markheim will have to let her in. Then he will have to kill her. Markheim opens the door and tells her that her father is dead. At first she thinks the old man collapsed and that the doctor has been called. Then Markheim shows her the knife. Realising what has happened she sings a moving lament for her father and begs for her life. The powerful trio that follows is interrupted by a knock at the door. It will be her boyfriend. The girl starts to scream for help. For Markheim this is the end. Or perhaps a new beginning.

• Cresswell: Good Angel, Bad Angel; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

• Cresswell: Good Angel, Bad Angel 

  DVD
  
  • Borrow

• Drummond: Impersonating Maurice and Marriage a la Mode  Year: 2004 

  CD
  
  $35.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

Using animal imagery to take us into the heart of the human condition, Inland charts the fragile equilibrium between shepherd, flock, dog and hawk. Inland is a dance-theatre work conceived and choreographed by Douglas Wright. The work was commissioned by the 2002 New Zealand Festival with funding from Creative New Zealand.

• Palmer: Inland 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• Palmer: Inland  Year: 2002 

  DVD
  
  • Borrow

• Buchanan: It Began With a Pony; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

• Dorothy Buchanan: It Began with a Pony  Year: 1998 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• Dorothy Buchanan: Two Salon Operas  Year: 2003 

  CD
  
  $35.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow