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Philip Norman  

Concerto for violin, piano and orchestra

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1995

  • Instrumentation
    2222; 4331; timp; 2 perc.; strings
  • Programme Note

    In 3 movements, this work was reviewed as follows, “There are proper tunes, there are pattems that can be traced, brass and percussion in abundance, and rhythms that dance light off the stage at you.” Christchurch Press 11-95. This work was commissioned and premiered by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

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Anthony Ritchie  

Double Concerto for bass clarinet and cello

Duration: 19' 00" Year: 1999

  • Instrumentation
    2222; 2200; 2 perc (bass drum, side drum, glock, xylophone, sus. cymbal, strings (87652 approx)
  • Programme Note

    The Double Concerto was designed to explore the unusal combination of solo instruments, extend the soloists and, at the same time, be performable by regional orchestras.

    The opening movement has a lilting quality and is based on the Brahms’ lullaby, which only appears (abridged) at the end, played on glockenspiel. The three themes that appear in this movement are related, in some way, to this lullaby. The movement is dedicated to my daughter Annabelle, who was born some months before the composition of this work. A short melody based on letters from her name (A-A-B-E-E) is played by the soloists in the coda.

    By contrast, the second movement is fast and jagged, with a somewhat playful second theme shared between the soloists and woodwinds. The main theme has a toccata-like quality, and builds up to a strong conclusion.

    Whereas birth was the theme behind the first movement, it is death that concerns the third, and in particular the sudden death of a close friend and musician, Angela Campbell, at the time of writing this concerto. It is an intimate piece for the two soloists only, and based on letters from Angela’s name (A-G-E-A) which are heard at the beginning as a recurrent bass line. The cello melody at the start is a variation on a melody from the first movement, suggesting birth and death are inextricably linked.

    The mood lightens in the finale which is a slightly bizarre waltz based on two contrasting themes. Near the end, the soloists have a cadenza which flows into the coda uninterrupted.

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Patrick Shepherd  

Flute Concerto

 Year: 1999, r. 2002
for solo flute and orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    1121; 1000; timp, perc: claves, triangle, snare drum, whip, bongoes, xylophone, vibraphone and marimba; strings
  • Programme Note

    A sense of optimism pervades this work – remarkable considering that during the writing of it some of my worst fears were realised. I lost my father and find it hard to reconcile myself to his passing, yet he lives on in me and for that I am grateful.

    To Steve and to Edwin I say farewell, too – Steve was a friend, colleague and the bass player in my band, dying tragically young in a road accident the week before my father died. Edwin Raymond was a significant influence in my teenage years and I am only sorry that I did not write this sooner so he could have conducted it.

    The piece is not, however, about death. It is not gloomy. The middle movements are reflective and peaceful and the outer movements are lively and rhythmic. If there is an optimistic side of death it is that life becomes more intense and more meaningful. The spirit of the finale is testament to this, ending the work vigorously and on an optimistic note.

    The concerto was premiered on 7 November 1999 with Carol Hohauser as soloist, accompanied by the Da Capo Chamber Orchestra under conductor Mark Hodgkinson. The concerto was revised significantly in 2002 for the Russian premiere in May 2002 with the Kuzbass Symphony Orchestra. The work was written for Carol and I thank her for her enthusiasm, musicianship and for believing in my work.

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Anthony Ritchie  

Flute Concerto

Duration: 17' 00" Year: 1993
for flute and orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    221 bass cl 1; 1210; 1perc; strs
  • Programme Note

    The Flute Concerto was composed for flautist Alexa Still in 1993 while Ritchie was Composer-in-Residence with the Southern Sinfonia. Unlike the Symphony “Boum”, written in the same year, this Concerto is a generally happy and open-sounding work, and reflects aspects of Alexa Still’s personality as well as her playing. She first performed the concerto on September 4th, 1993 in The Glenroy Auditorium, and subsequently recorded it with The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

    The first movement is energetic in style, with a bubbling first theme. This is contrasted by a darker and slower second theme, exploring the lower register of the flute. The music accelerates back to the main theme before heading into a percussive middle section. The flute then presents a lyrical idea that is related to earlier themes, and this leads to a cadenza. A brief recapitulation drives the music to a forceful ending.

    The slow second movement is lyrical and improvisational in style, and begins with a solo for bass clarinet. A warm and gentle theme appears, followed by a short cadenza for flute. The orchestra returns with a fuller version of the theme, but it soon fades into anxious repeated chords on the oboes and bassoon while the flute plays nervous, flickering gestures. As the tension dissolves the clarinet introduces a laconic theme, interspersed with little cadenzas on the flute. The music builds to a climax where the main theme returns in a contrapuntal version, again fading into the anxious chords. A brief and mysterious coda contains references back to the opening cadenza, and the movement ends unresolved.

    The third movement is like a sequence of dances with different characters, bound together by a buffeting crotchet rhythm. After a flourish from the orchestra, the flute introduces a sprightly theme, followed by a quirky, subsidiary idea. The buffeting rhythm from the start is transformed into a pop-styled ostinato pattern, and the flute plays a lyrical melody above it. This theme was inspired by the composer attending a performance by The Muttonbirds, a well-known NZ rock group. The quirky theme returns in a more subdued setting, the music slows, and unexpectedly becomes a dreamy and child-like waltz. This distraction is swept away by a loud chord, and the main theme returns with renewed purpose, leading to an exciting conclusion in which all the elements of the movement are combined.

    The Flute Concerto was recorded by Alexa Still and the NZSO in 1996, on the Koch CD 3-7345-2-H1, entitled ‘Kiwi Flute’. The second movement of the concerto was published in a special version for piano and flute by the Centre for NZ Music, in their 1998 publication Little Dancings: A Selection of flute music by New Zealand Composers.

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Eric Biddington  

Flute Concerto No. 2

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1990
for flute and chamber orchestra

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Lyell Cresswell  

Kaea

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1997
trombone concerto

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    2222; 2210; strs
  • Programme Note

    First performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joseph Swenson with Christian Lindberg as soloist in St. Andrews 18 February 1998.

    ‘Kaea’: a wooden Maori war trumpet, somewhere between four and six feet in length with a diameter of about one inch at the blowing end widening to about eight inches at the bell. It was made of hollow sections of wood lashed together with a flax cord. Wedges of wood were glued to the bell to amplify and direct the sound. Inside the bell end it was fitted with a tongue or vibrating reed. The sound was loud and booming and was used to raise the alarm in times of danger or to terrify the enemy by shouting curses through it.

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Maria Grenfell  

Maui tikitiki a Taranga

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1998
concerto for flute and orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    solo flute; 022(bass)2; 2200; perc.; strings
  • Programme Note

    Maui Tikitiki a Taranga (“Maui formed in the topknot of Taranga”) was a demi-god found in the tribal myths of the Māori people of New Zealand.

    Maui, the fifth and youngest child, was born at the edge of the sea. His mother, Taranga, thought he was stillborn, and wrapped him in a tuft of her hair and set him adrift. He was cared for by the seaweed until a breeze blew him ashore, where he was saved and brought up by one of his great-ancestors.

    Maui was a great prankster. In one of his mischievous moods he decided to put out all the fires in the world. To bring fire back, he had to find Mahuika, the goddess of fire. He was awestruck upon meeting her, but decided to play a trick on her by taking fire from her fingernails one at a time, until she realised his game and threw fire to the ground, catching everything alight. Maui changed himself into a hawk to escape the flames, which singed his feathers. He called upon his ancestor to send rain and drench the fire, depriving Mahuika of her powers.

    Maui decided to defeat death by journeying to where the earth meets the sky, where lived his great-ancestress Hine nui te po (“Great Hine the Night”). He was accompanied by many birds, and told them his plan to enter the body of the sleeping Hine and so defeat death. The birds sat quietly trying not to laugh as Maui, in the form of a caterpillar, crawled towards Hine. Suddenly the fantail could be quiet no longer and laughed aloud, dancing about with delight. Hine awoke with a start, realised Maui’s trickery, and he was killed.

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John Wells  

Organ Concerto

Duration: 23' 00" Year: 1996
for orchestra and organ

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James Gardner  

some other plots for Babel

Duration: 17' 00" Year: 1999, r. 2000
violin concerto for ensemble

Score Sample
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  • Instrumentation
    flute (piccolo and alto flute), E flat clarinet (A clarinet, bass clarinet), bass clarinet; horn, bass trombone; percussion (1 player: friction drum/lion's roar, vibraphone, low tom-tom, bass drum, percussion cluster, piccolo snare drum); violin 1, violin 2, cello, double bass
  • Programme Note

    “The “Tower of Babel” does not figure merely the irreducible multiplicity of tongues; it exhibits an incompletion, the impossibility of finishing, of totalising, of saturating, of completing something on the order of edification, construction, system and architectonics."
    Jacques Derrida

    “Babel is the sign that every utterance or every text is riven by faults and fissures…rushing away into the vacuum formed by its own notes”
    Gary Shapiro

    The two quotes above were found after I had already started work on this piece, and decided on a title, but their relevance to the actual composition of the work gained exponentially as the première approached. The piece as it now exists is incomplete as far as my original plans are concerned, but I hope it isn’t entirely incoherent. In any case as I’m the only one to know what those original plans were, who’s to know? And isn’t this the case with virtually any work? So perhaps I should have kept quiet instead of fessing up…

    Back to the music. In keeping with Breughel’s two paintings of the Tower of Babel, in which builders are shown “hewing architectural rationality from the ancient rock” the piece opens deliberately with what one critic pejoratively referred to as the “frantic agglomeration” of some of the music played at a 175 East concert in 2000. The texture does clear however, and the piece proceeds through a number of phases of ensemble independence and unity. And if you really think I’m going to give away the plot…

    some other plots for Babel was commissioned by Mark Menzies with funding from Creative New Zealand, and is dedicated to the extraordinary performers at the premiere and to Glenda Keam, all of whom, through their enthusiasm, commitment and encouragement, brought the piece to life.

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Gareth Farr  

Tabuh Pacific (Pacific Percussion)

Duration: 17' 00" Year: 1995
a concerto-style work for Gamelan and orchestra

Audio Sample
  • Instrumentation
    2 pic.,1fl.,3ob.,3cl.,2bsn,1c.bsn.; 4,2,3,1; timp.,3 perc., cel., hp, pno; strings; Gamelan Orchestra.
  • Programme Note

    Tabuh Pacific was composed as a lively dialogue between two diverse instrumental ensembles, the symphony orchstra and the Balinese gamelan. Like the orchestra, the gamelan is a large ensemble of multiple timbres, primarily percussion.

    The pitched elements of the gamelan gong kebyar are tuned to a five-note scale covering several octaves, and each member of the ensemble plays a limited number of single pitches. Consequently, the music of one individual in the group is meaningless until it weaves and blends with the other players to create a multitude of intricate, delicate patterns. These patters (kotekan) shift and interlock in subtle, graceful combinations which are occasionally articulated by the booming resonance of the largest gongs, and the drums which signal time and sectional changes.

    Tabuh Pacific is sort of concerto for two orchestras which take turns in displaying the types of sounds with which they are traditionally associated – the gamelan, bright and energetic or smooth and flowing; the orchestra, heavy and romantic or transparent and static. The groups alternate for a while and then come together in a crazed romp at the end of the piece.

    Gareth Farr

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