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Dorothy Freed  

A Nursery Tale (Goldilocks and the Five Bears)

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 1975
for brass quintet and narrator

M Louise Webster  

An Infinite Shore

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2011
Clarinet quintet in three movements

  • Instrumentation
    Bb Clarinet, string quartet
  • Programme Note

    This work for clarinet quintet in three movements was written following time spent in the north of Scotland, during which I visited the remote and desolate places that my family left behind when they emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand in the 19th Century. Although the music is not intended to be strictly descriptive, the image underpinning the work is that of an infinite shore that stretches from the line of steep cliffs at Badbea overlooking the North Sea, around the world to the rocky southern shores of Aotearoa New Zealand. The work draws on the tonal colour and extremes of pitch that are possible in the clarinet, and the extraordinary platform of sound of the string quartet.

  • Availability

Eve de Castro-Robinson  

At water's birth

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2008
for piano trio

  • Instrumentation
    violin, cello, piano (some preparation required); all performers required to speak

    Piano preparation: the strings between c’’’ and a’’’ need to have a flat metal object laid on top to achieve a bright, jangly ringing sonority (especially from mm 26-37). This/these to be removed by the pianist in the section from m 45.

    The three strings F, G, A flat, should have firm rubber wedges between them to create a dull thuddy sonority (for the section at m42), but with a still discernible pitch
  • Programme Note

    At water’s birth is a meditative, ritualistic work, whose sonic palette includes prepared piano sonorities and some vocalising from the players, including whispering, spoken words and whistling.

    The pushing out of the boundaries of the conventional instrumental sounds is something I have employed in other works such as the whistling and knocking on the piano lid in small blue for piano and the bell and tamtam playing in Ring True. The meandering sections of the music suggest a relationship with the forces of water, its depth, currents and undercurrents and there is a sense of ritual in some of the chant-like rhythms.

  • Availability

John Rimmer  

De Aestibus Rerum

Duration: 14' 00" Year: 1983
for chamber quintet

  • Instrumentation
    clarinet, horn, violin, cello, piano
  • Programme Note

    De Aestibus Rerum was composed for the centenary of the University of Auckland in 1983, and received its first performance in November of that year. The title means ‘on the ebb and flow of things’ and the work is based on a number of distinctive rhythmic and timbral ideas which grow and recede. One hears fluidic patterns, clear octaves with coloured resonances, shimmerings and tremolos, bird-like calls and repeated notes which move frequently at different speeds. A feature of the work is the free open sounding passages marked ‘cadenzas’ for clarinet, violin, cello and horn. In two of these passages the instruments proceed independently of each other.

    This work received first prize in the chamber music category of the International Horn Society Competition in 1984 and the work was subsequently performed at the International Horn Symposium, Detmold, Germany, in September 1986 by the Virginia Tech Ensemble.

    De Aestibus Rerum was recorded by the Karlheinz Company in October 1984.

  • Availability

John Rimmer  

Fragile Earth

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2004
for oboe and string trio

  • Instrumentation
    oboe, violin, viola, cello
  • Programme Note

    Fragile Earth

    Fragile Earth is a conservationist’s lament and was inspired by the anti-nuclear poem “No Ordinary Sun” written in the early 1970’s by the celebrated poet Hone Tuwhare.

    The piece presents a brooding chant which undergoes variation by means of rhythmic and textural contrasts, organic growth and fragmentation.

    Fragile Earth was commissioned by Tom and Anne Morris for the Ensemble Philharmonia and first performed on 20 November 2004 at the Auckland Public Library auditorium.

    Fragile Earth

    Fragile Earth is a conservationist’s lament and was inspired by the anti-nuclear poem “No Ordinary Sun” written in the early 1970’s by the celebrated poet Hone Tuwhare.

    The piece presents a brooding chant which undergoes variation by means of rhythmic and textural contrasts, organic growth and fragmentation.

    Fragile Earth was commissioned by Tom and Anne Morris for the Ensemble Philharmonia and first performed on 20 November 2004 at the Auckland Public Library auditorium.

  • Availability

Gareth Farr   Richard Nunns  

He Poroporoaki (Saying Goodbye)

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 2008
for string quartet and taonga puoro

Gillian Whitehead  

Hineputehue

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2002
for string quartet and taonga puoro (Maori instruments)

  • Instrumentation
    Taonga puoro (improvised): poi awhioahio, hue puruhau, koauau ponga ihu, nguru, ororuarangi, ku, putatara, pu kaea, pumotomoto, pupu harakekek, tumutumu
  • Programme Note

    Hineputehue translates literally as the woman of the sound of the gourd, and she is the Maori goddess of peace. The work was written in 2001, at the time of President Bush’s State of the Union address shortly before the invasion of Afghanistan, and suggests the fragility rather than the celebration of peace, particularly in a pre-European environment.

    A number of instruments used in Hineputehue are made of gourds – the gourd, which carried food and water, is a symbol of peace. These include the poi awiowhio, a very quiet bird lure which is swung around the head, the tiny koauau ponga ihu or noseflute which ends the piece, the hue puru hau, a large gourd which is blown across its top opening and the gourd rattles played by the quartet. Two other wind instruments frequently made from gourds, the nguru and the ororuarangi, are also used. Other instruments are the putatara or conch shell trumpet, traditionally used for signalling, the pu kaea or war trumpet, a nguru niho paraoa or flute made from a whale’s tooth, the pumotomoto, associated with birth, and tumutumu (tapped percussion).

    There is a similarity between the stringed instruments of the quartet and the gourds, in that they are made from plant material, with sound emitted through sound holes. Another link is the ku, the only stringed instrument known to Maori, which is a small musical bow played like a jaws harp (jews harp) using the mouth as a resonating chamber. The idea of ororuarangi, which can be translated as spirit voice (or double stopping in a different context) has had some influence on this piece as in the parallel movement of the strings.

  • Availability

Gillian Whitehead  

Ipu

Duration: 42' 00" Year: 1997
for narrator, taonga puoro (Maori instruments), jazz piano and cello

Gillian Whitehead  

Manutaki

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1985
for chamber sextet

Rosie Langabeer  

March of the Crocodiles

Duration: 05' 37" Year: 2007
a march mash for 15 players

  • Instrumentation
    2 alto voices/kazoos, clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor sax, baritone sax, trumpet, cornet, sousaphone, trombone, electric guitar, banjo, piano accordion, double bass, drum kit
  • Programme Note

    The march of the crocodiles refers to the ongoing silliness caused by bureaucratic systems and how we all play our part in them.

    We play a little tune, (this might be in the form of a phone call or a letter, a question, a request) the receiver does a little dance, a message gets passed along, someone else plays a tune, the next person does a little dance etc….until eventually a little tune comes back for us to do a little dance to.

    I am fascinated by the amount of paperwork, human resources and time that can be involved in even the smallest and simplest of enquiries, not to mention the tedium. This silly game is so dreary it’s almost amusing!

    The piece is played tutti then the ensemble divides into three groups and uses material from the composition to improvise. Eventually the ensemble becomes a choir.

  • Availability