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Daniel Stabler  

'faccee'

Duration: 13' 00" Year: 2002
four movement work for english horn and string quintet

  • Instrumentation
    cor anglais, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass
  • Programme Note

    ‘faccee’ is composed as a set of loosely related, programmatic movements which portray different moods through the day. ‘faccee’ is intended as a lighter work of chamber music with elements of mystery, humor, charm and satire.

    ‘Dawn’ begins the work slowly, with the darkness and solitude of morning blossoming full fruit into daylight, then relaxing into the day. Movement two, ‘Boogie’, quickens the pace and is akin to experiences while walking the streets of the city. The further one travels, the more activity one encounters until reaching the heart of the city, where a rousing canon surrounds you with people and congested traffic. Then, suddenly, you arrive at your destination and with one last exclamation are in the door.

    ‘Daydream’ is a brief visit into the realm of nostalgia and sentiment, with a pleasant, recurring melody in the english horn and violin. What better for a finale than an old-fashioned ‘galop’ ? This ‘galop’ is, rather, a musical pun on the Viennese version. The ‘Galop’ gives way to the ‘Trio Satirico’ which pokes fun at traditional trios with a duple/triple reconfiguration of 9/8; making for a gawky feel. Then on to the ‘Finale’ where themes from earlier in the day are revisited in a whirlwind finish.

  • Availability

Michael Norris  

14 Islands

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005
for flute/bass flute, percussion, and prepared harp

Anthony Ritchie  

24 Preludes

Duration: 49' 00" Year: 2002
preludes for solo piano

  • Programme Note

    It is impossible not to feel inspired when playing some of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Debussy’s two books of preludes, or Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. As a composer I wanted to make a small mark of respect to these greats with some dedications. I have also taken a cue from Bach and Shostakovich and included contrapuntal forms within these preludes. While not wanting to restrict myself to the form of a fugue, there are several preludes which are close in spirit to fugues: Nos.17 and 19 for instance, are what I would call my ‘prelugues’. There is also a passacaglia (No.16) which owes a debt to Shostakovich. I have conceived these pieces as a unified whole. Within them I have attempted to cover a whole variety of characters and moods, from the improvisational and experimental to the lyrical and gentle, from the wild and gestural to the calm and peaceful, from the quirky and ‘black’ to the light and sunny, from the depressive to the resolved. The extensive technical planning and preparation behind these pieces has been fun for me as the composer, but in the end it is the sound and musical expression that matters. I would like to think this voyage of discovery has led to something new and interesting to listen to.

  • Availability

Dorothy Ker  

[...and...11]

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2002, r. 2006
for twelve players

  • Instrumentation
    alto flute/piccolo; clarinet in A; bass clarinet/small bamboo chimes to hang on music stand; horn in F/small bamboo chimes to hang on music stand; bass trombone/small bamboo chimes tohang on music stand; percussion: 2 suspended cymbals, hihat, sizzle cymbal, 3 toms, medium bass drum, 3 woodblocks, three sets of maracas, bamboo or wood chimes; harp; violin;viola; cello and bass
  • Programme Note

    In this work, cycles of accumulation and decay move in broad wave-like gestures, recalling the sea. I am fascinated by the potency of the tiniest gesture, syllable or phoneme. Having no ‘meaning’ in itself, the syllable ‘and’ is weightless and transient, yet holds enormous power to link ideas; to create anticipation/momentum. It is like a wave bearing thought towards utterance. …and…11 was composed for, and is dedicated to, Chachi and Lontano.

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Dorothy Ker  

[...and...1]

Duration: 13' 00" Year: 2003
for clarinet in A

  • Programme Note

    This piece was composed in close collaboration with Andrew Sparling whose facility in using quarter-tone fingerings made it possible to experiment with these to produce music which exploits their timbral and colouristic qualities. It was stimulated by a return visit, following a seven-year absence, to New Zealand in 2002. Imagery of the sea is strong within its musical/poetic discourse and the piece is broadly structured over a cycle of seven ‘intensity waves’. The title is shared by an earlier work […and… 11] for 12 players (composed for Lontano in 2002). The link between these contrasting works is the morphology of the wave, encapsulated as a sonic envelope of aspirate (a) – resonant (n) – explosive (d), along with the extremes of space that are characterised in the music by extreme contrasts in dynamic, register and motion. Sparling has performed and recorded the piece in a number of different realisations. In April it was performed by Australian player Richard Haynes at the TURA International Festival in Perth and broadcast by ABC.

  • Availability

Maria Grenfell  

A Feather of Blue

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 2000
for piano trio

  • Programme Note

    Commissioned in 2000 by the NZTrio, A Feather of Blue takes its title from a phrase in a poem called A View From A Window by New Zealand writer Kevin Ireland. I have always admired the wry humour and brightness of Kevin Ireland’s writing and many years ago set three of his poems for soprano and mixed ensemble. As a kind gesture Mr Ireland sent me a copy of his book of poems Skinning A Fish, and I was particularly struck by the imagery of colours, flowers, feathers and birds in this poem, which illustrates rain pouring down a window pane and giving way to a burst of sunshine after a storm.

    Maria Grenfell

  • Availability

James Gardner  

a study for voicing doubts

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 2001
for clarinet and ensemble

  • Instrumentation
    clarinet in A (doubling E flat, C or B flat), bass clarinet, horn, bass trombone, cello, double bass
  • Programme Note

    Many painters — most notably Francis Bacon — have produced series of satellite “studies” around one subject. While these works are complete and interesting in their own right, they also function as commentaries and footnotes on each other, and on the cluster of preoccupations they share, as much as on the “main” paintings for which they are nominally studies. Composers do this sort of thing less often, but it was with this idea of a study in mind that I set out to write a miniature “clarinet concerto” for Gretchen Dunsmore and 175 East some eight years ago.

    The piece makes use of the contrasts between the generally light and lithe clarinet writing and the weightier interjections of the ensemble, and the repeated attempts of the soloist to escape the “gravitational pull” of the ensemble could be seen as one narrative strand in the work.

    While a study for voicing doubts is a complete composition it was also a testing ground for ideas which have been incorporated into Rank and File Movements, a much larger clarinet concerto for Gretchen, which will be finished in early 2010.

    James Gardner

  • Availability

John Rimmer  

Adieu KS

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 2008
for solo violin

  • Programme Note

    Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez have long been in my group of compositional heroes. Not that I have always understood or accepted what they were doing but rather because they opened new vistas of compositional processes.

    Stockhausen in particular offered composers new ideas about the way music is structured. His ‘moment’ forms made a deep impression and his early electronic music pieces Gesang der Jünglinge and Kontakte blazed new pathways. They are classics in the music of the twentieth century.

    Adieu KS for solo vioklin is my musical way of offering a deep sense of gratitude to Karlheinz Stockhausen. This short hommage nods in the directly of Stockhausen’s early Sonatina for violin and piano and utilises a sequence of pitches from this work. Fragments contrast with continuity, melody with violinistic sounds and movement with stasis.

  • Availability

Bruce Crossman  

After Resonance Blues

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 2005
for piano

  • Programme Note

    After Resonance Blues explores the Korean idea of aftertone via interval-colour resonances and string after tones (partial un-dampening, prepared bass strings) as well as a Japanese intensification structure. Both of these relate to the idea of timbre grittiness and chordal intensification structure of the twelve-bar structure/grittiness in the blues. A spacious fourth resonance, very slow, at the very opening eventually opens out into a frenetic paced fifths sequence using blues riff patterns but intermingled with an interval-colour richness at the end-time climax. An after resonance string stimulation returns at the end to mirror the beginning prepared notes. The work contains transformed elements of Korean Ritual music; the mood is tinged with lyric sadness (“blue”) in that it reflects an inner emotion over the death of a Korean friend’s father prior to embarking on the work.

  • Availability

Chris Gendall  

Agitato

 Year: 2007
for chamber orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    1111; 1110; perc; piano; single strings
  • Programme Note

    ‘Agitato’ is a conventional musical indication for a restless or agitated mode of performance. This is often interpreted as forward-momentum without any conscious acceleration, affecting an uneasy connection with the beat. In this piece the Agitato aspect is composed into the musical fabric as constant gestural and rhythmic variation.

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