Sub Navigation

Search Music:

Search for music by typing a word or phrase in the box below or by selecting one or more categories from the list on the side.

Or search for products by selecting an option below, and typing a word or phrase in the box above

  • Scores
  • CDs and DVDs
  • Downloads
  • Education Resources

Brent Parker  

Achill Suite

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2002
for piano

Nigel Keay  

Adagietto Antique

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2009
Trio for clarinet, viola & piano

Gareth Farr  

Ahi

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2003
for piano trio

  • Instrumentation
    for violin, cello and piano
  • Programme Note

    In January 1998 Gareth Farr was commissioned by the James Wallace Chariable Trust to write this Piano Trio for the Ogen Trio, a leading NZ ensemble. Taking its subtitle Ahi from the Maori word for “fire”, it received its debut performance in Auckland, NZ in March 1998 in the presence of the composer. The style of the work varies in each of the four movements: the flavour of a French lullaby predominates in the first; an intense and unrelenting second movement harbours overtones of a Russian military factory; whilst a Balinese pop-inspired fourth movement contains numerous gamelan-like effects. The brief third movement is merely a quiet interlude, with a melodic reference to the first movement. The composition stands in stark contrast to Farr’s previous works. He has experimented with stripping away the density characteristic of past compositions in favour of clearer textures, exploring classical form, and allowing a simplicity of line to come through and speak for itself.

  • Availability

John Rimmer  

Ancestral Voices

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 2000
electroacoustic work

Philip Brownlee  

As if to catch the fleeting tail of time

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2009
for guitar and ensemble

Ross Harris  

As though there were no God

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 2003
for orchestra

Christopher Blake  

Christ at Whangape

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 2007
for string orchestra

  • Programme Note

    A heartrending, exquisite sculpture of Christ on the Cross stands on a headstone in the graveyard of St. Gabriel’s Church at Pawarenga in Northland, New Zealand. Its intimations of eternity are caught in the Robbin Morrison photograph Christ at Whangape Harbour which appears in his 1994 photographic essay A Journey. It is an image of Christ in the wilderness. He is held in a primeval landscape of bare, low, dark hills, silhouetted against a grey sky and luminous sea and mudflats in the harbour.

    How did Christ come to be in this place? The music presents the revelation of His spirit that starts with the French Pikopo or Bishop sailing into the great harbour Te Hokianga-nui-a-Kupe. It is an event of immense significance. The bearers of God and his Son literally follow the path of Kupe, the traditional discoverer of New Zealand, and arrive in a schooner named after his homeland.

    The Word of God is spread by His servants. The Mill Hill Missioners build churches and make converts. The Spirit of God suffuses the harbours, valleys and hills of the north. The souls of the priests and worshipers of past generations permeate the churchyard. A silver of early morning sunlight suddenly lights up, in perfect relief, the epitaph beneath Christ on the Cross. It is a miracle, a hidden text revealed by the hand of Christ above.

    This is the final piece of Northland Panels, a series of four works for string orchestra based on photographs from A Journey. The others in the series are Angel at Ahipara, Night Journey to Pawarenga and Anthem of the Kaipara.

    Christopher Blake
    December 2007

  • Availability

Anthony Ritchie  

Clarinet Quintet

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 2006
for clarinet in A and string quartet

  • Programme Note

    Clarinet Quintet was commissioned by Christopher Marshall for his chamber music series “Christopher’s Classics” in 2006. It was written for Gretchen Dunsmore, clarinet, and The New Zealand String Quartet, for a premiere performance on September 13, 2006. The composition was also written as part of the composer’s work at The University of Otago. The point of departure in this work is Mozart, in the year of his 250th anniversary. Motivic ideas are derived from the opening melody of his Clarinet Quintet, using a magic square to transform the pitches. No direct reference is made to the Mozart theme until the third movement, which is more diatonic in character.



    The first movement begins mysteriously, with a clarinet solo interspersed with rustlings from the strings. This solo contains the seeds for the entire movement, which is fast, lively and angular, following the slow introduction. A more moody and edgy middle section gradually builds up to a climax near the end of this movement. Contrasting with this is a slow middle movement that opens with a simple and bold statement on the strings. Over the top of this the clarinet plays a lamenting melody. The first four notes are a quotation from the composer’s opera The God Boy (Mrs Sullivan’s motif) signifying anxiety and guilt. A slightly calmer middle section is free in tonality, and builds up strongly in intensity, followed by an abridged return to the opening. The finale is a ‘moto perpetuo’ movement in which the diatonic opening idea is undermined by subtle tensions in the music. Although it is fast-paced and lively, it is also weary and uneasy in tone. A rousing final section leads to a quiet, fading coda, as the life in the music is gradually exhausted.

  • Availability

Yvette Audain  

Compendium Improvisation

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2006
improvisation for solo clarinet

Eric Biddington  

Concerto for Oboe and String Orchestra

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2007
for oboe and string orchestra