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John Wells  

A New Zealand Suite (Second Suite)

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1989
for organ

Gillian Whitehead  

Bright Forms Return

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1980
for mezzo-soprano and string quartet

  • Programme Note

    Bright Forms Return written in 1980 while I was composer-in-residence for Northern Arts (UK), is one of the first pieces I wrote that is concerned with landscape (and sea-scape). I was living in Northumberland, on the moors north of Newcastle, very near the house where Kathleen Raine had spent her childhood. When I was asked to write a piece for the Cumbria Quartet and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Lamb, Raine’s poetry was an obvious choice, as its northern imagery was very familiar to me.

    Although the piece is designed as a single entity, the quartet falls into four clearly-defined sections in its setting of the four short poems. The vocal writing is relatively simple (rhythmically at least), and the writing for the quartet sometimes reflects the poetic imagery or mood, and is sometimes derived from the formal structure of the poems. The text, which comes from The Oval Mirror published by Hamish Hamilton, is used with the kind permission of the author and her publishers.

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John Elmsly  

Cello Symphony

Duration: 22' 00" Year: 1986
for solo cello and orchestra

Ross Harris  

Dreams, Yellow Lions

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1987
for baritone and chamber ensemble

  • Instrumentation
    violin, violoncello, soprano saxophone, flugelhorn and bass clarinet
  • Programme Note

    Commissioned for the opening of the new National Library building in 1987, this work was the centre piece in a concert of New Zealand music which inaugurated the Library’s auditorium. Harris chose Alistair Campbell’s poetry as he has always enjoyed its vernacular quality. Included in the ensemble are some of Harris’ favourite instruments: soprano saxophone, bass clarinet and flugelhorn. Harris views this work almost as a kind of unstaged melodrama. As with his To the Memory of I.S. Totzka (2000), Dreams Yellow Lions was written in a period between work on his operas and acts as a substitute for the larger compositional form. Short instrumental interludes link the songs through various emotional states. “It’s all about memories and I always imagine an old man thinking about his younger days, dreaming away, getting old and becoming sick”.

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John Cousins  

Edit For Pauline

Duration: 23' 00" Year: 1983
for tape

David Hamilton  

From Age to Age Endure

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1988
for solo soprano, SATB choir and chamber ensemble

  • Instrumentation
    ensemble - flute, clarinet, trumpet, double bass and piano
  • Programme Note

    Although the title comes from the hymn All People That On Earth Do Dwell, this work is more concerned with the pleasures and pitfalls of aging, than with piety. The texts are from a collection of writings (both poetry and prose) associated with each age from birth to 99 years old. The selection I made was purely of those items which appealed to me personally – some are humorous, others more serious, some cynical whereas others contain wisdom.

    From Age to Age Endure was commissioned by Auckland Youth Choir, and is affectionately dedicated to them and their conductor at the time, Brigid McLafferty. I was asked to write a work with jazz influences, and although not a great jazz fancier, I hope I have created a work which is fun to sing and enjoyable to listen to. The work is scored for solo soprano, SATB choir and small ensemble (or piano duet).

    David Hamilton

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Dorothy Buchanan  

Just Looking

Duration: 24' 00" Year: 1987
music for dance, for trio

Gillian Whitehead  

Low Tide Aramoana

Duration: 23' 00" Year: 1982
for mezzo, SATB large choir and brass

  • Instrumentation
    3 trumpets 2 trombones, timpani
  • Programme Note

    Low Tide – Aramoana is a setting of a poem by Cilla McQueen, and is used with her kind permission. The piece, written for large choir and a small brass ensemble, is an evocation of an estuary at the turn of the tide. Although the poem itself describes Aramoana at the mouth of Otago harbour (significant at the time because of the threat of the aluminium smelter that, because of the strength of local protest, was in fact not built), for the composer it was the estuary where the Ruakaka river meets the sea south of Whangarei that was significant.

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Annea Lockwood  

Night and Fog

Duration: 22' 00" Year: 1987
A song cycle for baritone, tape and ensemble

Dorothy Buchanan  

Nine Colour Sketches For Four

Duration: 21' 00" Year: 1988
for flute, soprano saxophone, violin and piano