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NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION 2010: Stop writing dishonest programme notes.

This work was conceived in the abstract and does not relate to human experience. It does not illustrate the composer’s state of mind, he having suddenly found himself awake in the middle of the night, unable to control his thoughts. While the experience of insomnia, especially when suffered over consecutive nights, can be physically and emotionally crippling, at times the abundance and insistence of multiple streams of unwanted thought (unruly Beta waves) can be, if not pleasurable, then certainly fascinating. This piece does not seek to illustrate this through music, nor does it sonically pose this question: why does the brain seize control of the consciousness and produce such a plethora of unwanted activity that sleep is made impossible and the host becomes miserable?

At times, certain thoughts seem to somehow rise above the melee of insomniac thought and become quite focused and of seeming import, however inane these might seem in the cold light of day. This is not portrayed in the music by infrequent parings-down of texture and emergence of single, insistent motivic ideas. The music doesn’t describe how such thoughts soon get swallowed up as the jumble of thoughts returns and the victim adjusts position once again, glancing desperately at his or her clock radio and resolving hopelessly to try to make yet another attempt at deep breathing and sheep counting work.

The composer could claim that the work is about these things, but that would be a lie; he no longer wishes to construct programme notes after the act of composition that conform to some conceivable extra-musical agenda.

This version of this work is the first of a number of versions, with another swapping cello for viola and another as a solo guitar piece currently projected.

The work was requested by Dylan Lardelli and is dedicated to this increasingly mythic musician.

• Watson, C.: about nothing...really; computer-set 

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• Watson, C.: about nothing...really; computer-set 

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• Chris Watson: about nothing...really; video 

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• Chris Watson: about nothing... really 

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2*2*2*2*;4331;Timp 2p;Hp;Str (min:6.5.4.3.2)

Antonyms of Trust is a poem about water; about how our water is being stolen and degraded, about the many New Zealand rivers with signs saying “do not swim – may cause illness” or the dry riverbeds surrounded by farmland with constantly pumping pivot irrigators. “Once upon a better time, the poor man’s wine flowed beneath our feet and bubbled up between the streets…”

• Adams, C.: Antonyms of Trust; computer-set 

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• The APO Composers' Workshop 2010 

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9 Miniatures based on Art Works in the Wallace Art Collection and on display at the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre at Pah Homestead in August 2010.

• Chris Adams: Art Miniatures - downloadable PDF 

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• Chris Adams: Art Miniatures - hardcopy score & part 

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• Chris Adams: Art Miniatures; video 

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• Luca Manghi: Quays  Year: 2012 

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2022; 4331; timp; 2 perc; strings

On May 25 2010, the New Zealand Parliament passed the Sentencing and Parole Reform Bill, also known as “Three Strikes” legislation, sponsored by David Garrett, the ACT Party, and the Sensible Sentencing Trust, and supported by the National Party, under Prime Minister John Key. The law imposes mandatory maximum sentences on offenders who commit three “Strike” offences, removing judicial discretion. An almost identical bill was passed in California in 1994. California’s crime rate remains 11% above the national average, its prison population has increased to nearly 200,000, and its recidivism rate is the highest in the United States.

• Taylor: Attention:; computer-set 

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• Taylor: Attention:; computer-set 

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• The APO Composers' Workshop 2010 

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for saxophone/bass clarinet, percussion, piano, electric guitar, violin and cello

Bout is inspired by the sport of women’s boxing. In an interview with Canadian boxing pioneer Savoy “Kapow” Howe, I was struck by her detailed demonstration of the inner monologue of a fighter. Melodic and rhythmic material from her words insinuate themselves into the piece, along with referee’s whistles, counts and bells, training routines and the dogged persistence of the fighter.

Bout: A round at fighting; a contest, match, trial of strength, physical or intellectual.

• Palmer: Bout; computer set 

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• Palmer: Bout; computer set  

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• Juliet Palmer: Bout 

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for two sopranos, two altos, tenor and base

When American poet Walt Whitman first published his collection Leaves of Grass in 1855, it was notable for its sensual imagery in an era when such carnal expression was considered immoral. On the eve of his 191st birthday, Whitman’s evocative prose was sung in the language of passion.

• Smythe: De La Cuna que se Mece Eternamente; computer-set 

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• Mark Smythe: De La Cuna que se Mece Eternamente 

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• Baroque Voices: Brother Sun, Sister Moon  Year: 2011 

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for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon

eight pieces for wind quartet was inspired by Ligeti’s extraordinary, dramatic work Ten Pieces for Wind Quintet, and my eight pieces uses this work as a model, where movements alternate between slow-moving, cloud-like textures and jittery, virtuosic interjections. The fragments of melody are constantly reaching outwards, the tense, at times nightmarish, harmonic language constantly straining, edging towards the elusive octave. Within the twelve-tone framework I wanted to create as much diversity and flexibility as possible, always keeping a tension between motion and stasis. Each piece is a kind of elaboration of the same melodic idea, a blueprint that is constructed differently each time, like seemingly unrelated episodes in a dream. Below is a short poem that I think embodies the miniature nature of each piece and the work as a whole.

miniature

if a dream came to you
you might catch it, hold it,
sculpt from it an elaborate

memory, the husk of a rushed
feeling, the miniature
interior of a moment

- alex taylor

• Taylor: eight pieces for wind quartet; computer-set 

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• Taylor: eight pieces for wind quartet; computer-set 

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• Taylor: eight pieces for wind quartet; computer-set 

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• New Zealand Music for Woodwind 

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for 13 string players (4,4,2,2,1) or for full string orchestra

Extra chairs or stools: these need to be knocked over loudly, so they must be placed away from the musicians in such a way that they will not fall onto the musicians; 2-4 very cheap old violins and/or violas that can be smashed and destroyed (optional);

Players' voices: the instrumentalists must be of both genders, as both male and females are required to scream and yell

This work begins with two authentic folk melodies from two (European) ethnic groups that, most recently in 2008, were engaged in armed violence. The similarity of the melodies, and the fact that layman cannot tell the two melodies apart, highlights the fact that ethnic hatred requires group-internal discourses to be nourished and exacerbated.

Violence between two or more groups of people that see each other as ‘the others’, continues to shape the lives of millions of people globally.
Composer Samuel Gray has first-hand experience of ethnic violence as an independent volunteer in Kosovo. While Gray realises that is impossible to represent the suffering and terror of war and its emotional and societal aftermath in music and does not wish to belittle such experiences through this work, he believes that in order for contemporary classical music to continue play a role in modern society, it needs to not ignore the problems that modern society has to deal with.

• Gray: Ethnic Conflict for String Ensemble; computer-set 

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• Gray: Ethnic Conflict for String Ensemble; computer-set 

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• Samuel Gray: Ethnic Conflict for String Ensemble 

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for bass clarinet in Bb, alto flute
percussion — kick-drum, snare drum, low tom-tom, low woodblock, high woodblock, medium cowbell (muted), hi-hat, high ride cymbal, medium splash cymbal, thin metal sheet, cabasa, rainstick, tibetan bowl (F if possible), vibraphone, marimba;
narrator — amplified with microphone and/or paper megaphone and power megaphone;
piano (nylon fishing line rosined), violin and violoncello

“In the beginning, there was nothing. Just the water.”
“But where did all the water come from?”

Throughout Thomas King’s novel the character of the trickster Coyote reappears, hopelessly bamboozled, trying to learn what really happened when the world began. Who knows the Real Story? Coyote would like to think he does, but then there’s Coyote’s Dream – “gets loose and runs around. Makes a lot of noise”. Coyote’s Dream has his own idea about things: “I’m in charge of the world”. By the end of the piece, you’ll be wondering where all that water came from…

• Palmer: How it Happened; computer set 

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• Palmer: How it Happened; computer set 

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• Juliet Palmer: How it Happened 

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3 clarinet in B flat and bass clarinet

(He’s the lead singer of Rage Against the Machine, btw.)

(This sentence was written to conform with the New Zealand Clarinet Quartet’s request for a programme note of 10 words or fewer.)

• Ellis: If Zack de la Rocha were a twelve-tone serialist composer; computer-set 

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• Ellis: If Zack de la Rocha were a twelve-tone serialist composer; computer-set 

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• Robbie Ellis: If Zack de la Rocha were a twelve-tone serialist composer; audio 

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• Microscore Madness! - the New Zealand Clarinet Quartet 

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