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Jeni Little  

Full Fathom Five

Duration: 02' 20" Year: 2001, r. 2007
for SSA choir and string quartet

  • Programme Note

    Two versions exist of this work. Much of the vocal material is exactly the same – but the later version has developed and extended the final section.

    In the original version Full Fathom Five (2001) is a work for three vocal parts with a digital soundscape. The generated sounds capture a watery submerged feeling as suggested in the text. The backing soundscape was created using an early version of the programme “Absynth” – much of the connection between the vocal lines and the backing was much a happy accident – the soaring sax-like solo is an example of this.

    The later version (2007) retains and expands the vocal parts and has been scored for string quartet, replacing the digital soundscape. The string quartet carries through the hazy underwater atmosphere described in Shakespeare’s famous words from his play The Tempest.

    The new version was revised and first performed to celebrate the 90th Birthday of Epsom Girls’ Grammar School, where the composer currently teaches music. She continues a long and proud tradition of composers who have taught in the Epsom Girls’ Music Department – Dorothea Franchi, Martyn Heath, and David Hamilton.


    Jeni Little

  • Availability

Christopher Marshall  

Minoi, Minoi

Duration: 02' 00" Year: 1992
arrangement of Samoan dancing song for SATB choir

Clare Maclean  

Rain

Duration: 02' 00" Year: 1994
for female or children's voices

Chris Adams  

Sanctus

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 2002
for soprano solo and SSAA choir

Jeni Little  

Shanti

Duration: 04' 09" Year: 1999
for 4-part vocal group with digital soundscape

  • Programme Note

    Shanti is an electroacoustic work and an elegy. It is dedicated to four people – my close friend David who died from skin cancer in 1991; Georgia who died in 1997, a past student who was killed in a motorbike accident; my Nana who died in 1997; and Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn who also died in 1997, the world’s finest Qawaali singer from Pakistan.


    All of these deaths had a strong impact on me and inspired the composition of this work. Each of the dedicatees has a section (or verse) which refers directly to them. The piece ends with a life-affirming coda – the simple act of having the sun on our back always makes us feel better. The backing track is a digital soundscape with manipulated vocals layered throughout.

    Jeni Little

  • Availability

Jeni Little  

Take this Hammer

Duration: 02' 00" Year: 2001
for SATB choir

  • Programme Note

    These are the thoughts of a slave on the verge of freedom. His defiant stance as he sends away his work tools to the captain, is expressed forcefully in the “huh! huh! huh!”.

    The song is made up of three sections with a euphoric coda. Each section is more defiant than the last. In the first he sends his tools to the captain. He then runs away flying. Finally he offers (rather sarcastically) that he was crying as he left. It could have an audible stomp throughout.

    The poem is called Take This Hammer and is a traditional freedom song. It is found in the book In Search of Colour Everywhere – A Collection of African-American Poetry, edited by E. Ethelbert Millerand and published by Stewart, Tabori and Chang, New York, 1994.


    It is dedicated to my friend Joy, and was first performed at the NZ Choral Festival 2001 by the Selwyn College Vocal Group.

    Jeni Little

  • Availability

Alex van den Broek  

The Trip

Duration: 03' 30" Year: 2009
for SSA choir and piano

Douglas Mews  

Two New Zealand Folksongs of the Sea

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 1987
arranged for unaccompanied SATB choir

Mark Smythe  

Umbra Animae

Duration: 04' 06" Year: 2008
for SSATB vocal ensemble or choir

David N. Childs  

Weep No More

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 2003
for TTBB and piano