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Ancient Rhythms was written during my year as Composer in Residence with the Manukau City Symphony Orchestra. It was inspired by the poem The Journey by Tessa Stephens, and contains the following instructions within the score – “Misterioso, agitato, misterioso, suddenly confident, suddenly whimsical, molto delicato/misterioso, capriciously, more thoughtful, misterioso, uneasily, capricious again, a manic race to the end”.

Time passes. Sun slides west.
The tide fills in many footprints as
The voyaging canoes of a new age come and go.
Ebb and flow still lures Poaka the stilt over the isthmus.
Nightly his cry sounds from Tamaki to Manukau,
Though softer now,
Muffled by the roar of new imperatives.

Dusk comes. Light dims.

A criss-cross of black seal and concrete blocks
Grips the land.
Weary workers inch home,
Coloured beads on a black-tarred chain, fragmented,
Captives in their glass privacy,
Jarred by stop-go of brake-light
And sense of loss.

For beneath the wheels of commerce
And the grind of gears,
Beneath the tinsel talk and varied hues,
The mixing and matching, toing and froing,
Scream of siren and choking exhaust,
Beneath all this,
Ancient rhythms still vibrate in the memory.

Extract from The Journey by Tessa Stephens

• Holmes: Ancient Rhythms; computer-set 

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Since 1994 I have had an on-going association with the city of Galway in Ireland. Initially this was through the Cois Cladaigh Chamber Choir which presented a concert of works of mine in that year, and has subsequently performed and recorded other pieces. Another choir in the city that has included my music in their repertoire was the NUIG Choral Society under the direction of Peter Mannion. This university choir had sung my Nunc Dimittis at a competition in 2005 and the conductor was keen to have something new for their next year’s repertoire. He asked if I might consider a new setting of the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father who art in heaven…), but setting the text in Irish.

The opening section, marked ‘serenely, with great spaciousness’, establishes the tonic key of D major securely. The music unfolds from an initial unison D, through simple tonal chords set against an on-going D in the 1st altos. The remainder of the work is largely chordal, using relatively simple tonal chords centred on the key of D major. The scoring is for unaccompanied SSAATB voices.

• Hamilton: Ar nAthair; computer-set 

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Bele Doette (‘Lovely Doette’) is based on an anonymous 12th century Chanson de Toile. The vocal line follows the original song-line closely for two of the eight stanzas and refrains.

Doette is at a window, reading, when she receives the news that her friend Doon has been killed in a jousting contest. The refrain reads “See now what grief I have”, and at the end she vows to become a nun in the church of St Paul. The original transcription of the song is published in the Anthology of Medieval Music, edited by Richard Hoppin (1978). Pitches are notated in the transcription but no rhythm. Therefore, rhythm is freely interpreted while the original melismas and word setting are maintained. The refrain is expanded beyond the original. The oboe has a dual role. First, it freely develops motifs based on the song-lines by a process using magic squares. These motifs are used in the introduction and interludes between stanzas and refrains. Second, the oboe has a dialogue with the soprano that involves imitation and decoration, particularly in the refrains.

Bele Doette was commissioned by Pepe Becker, and written for her and oboist, Robert Orr. It has been composed as part of Ritchie’s research at the University of Otago.

• Ritchie, A.: Bele Doette; computer set 

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• Ritchie, A.: Bele Doette; computer-set 

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• Anthony Ritchie: Bele Doette; audio 

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• Becker; From the far point of the rising of the sun (Part I)  Year: 2005 

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• Hamilton: Black Watch Overture; computer set 

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• Biddington: Cantilena; computer-set 

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• Eric Biddington - Cantilena for Solo Flute 

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• Biddington: Cantilena  Year: 2005 

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This piece is affectionately known as ‘Bugs’ or ‘the Bug piece’ to me, and that is what it is about: the wonderful creepy crawlies native to New Zealand. Motivation for writing this piece came from two sources. As part of my residency with the Auckland Philharmonia in 2004, I was required to write a piece for a concert specifically at children and families. Naturally, it needed simple structures, lots of energy and a bit of fun.

The second motivation with regard to a specific programme was a love for all native New Zealand fauna, and not just beautiful birds. So much music has been written with bird song or in celebration of New Zealand’s landscape. But nothing to my knowledge had been written about the humble creatures which often inspire revulsion rather than awe. Despite their not so cuddly appearance, native insects and invertebrates are just as fascinating and unique to these islands of ours as any other endemic wildlife.

The first movement is Giant Weta. Often the most notorious for exciting disgust, these magnificent insects are quite amazing, but all to often fall prey to introduced mammals.

The second movement is titled Giant Snails. Native giant snails are enormous, and often live in kauri trees, or feed on giant earthworms on the forest floor.

The Nelson Cave Spider is a extremely unique creature. Like so many other creatures and plant life of New Zealand, it is a relic of ancient times and preserved by New Zealand’s isolation.

Finally, perhaps the most unusual of all is the Peripatus, sometimes known as the velvet worm, a blue centipede-like creature that crawls through undergrowth in search of prey.

• Anthony Young: Concertino for Orchestra - hire set 

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• Two works by Anthony Young 

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This suite of short dances were written for the composer’s visit to Dunedin and it was recorded in a short session on the last day of visit.

• Chris Prosser - Dance Suite 

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This short work was written for Jennifer Murray who, with her church-based youth choirs in Christchurch, had been a long-time supporter of my choral music. The text is a short traditional Afro-American spiritual text about the Old Testament character Daniel. The music is lively and harmonically quite simple.

• Hamilton: Daniel Saw the Stone; computer-set 

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This setting completes a quartet of pieces written in early 2005 which set traditional Afro-American spiritual texts. Each is for a different combination of voices, here SSATB choir is accompanied by a player on congas. The music uses typical melodic and rhythmic ideas from the Afro-American gospel/spiritual tradition. The text is an extended plea to God to not be forgotten, when in trouble, or when dying, or when the world is consumed by fire.

• Hamilton: Do, Lord, Remember Me; computer-set 

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Don Sergio’s Dream was inspired by an improbable but true story about Don Sergio, who built a car from junk found in his small Brazilian village and drove it to the ocean, a journey of around a thousand miles.


- Mike Nock

• Nock: Don Sergio's Dream; computer-set 

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• Firestarters 3 - The Mike Nock Piano Collection  Year: 2007 

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• In the time of sakura: the piano music of Mike Nock  Year: 2007 

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