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The players must blend their individual sounds to form one constantly evolving timbre. From the opening timbral cell, longer and longer chains of sound are unravelled, always passing through the initial material then spinning off in a new direction. After the longest central chain of sound the chains get progressively shorter, until we return to the original cell. This growth and decay of material give the piece its overall arch shape.

• Hall: From a Single Point; facsimile 

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The subtitle of this work is “Variations on a theme of Jenny McLeod”. In late 2012 I had conducted several movements from Jenny McLeod’s “Sun Festival Carols” and was constantly haunted by the music of the seventh movement “Jade”. Something about the vitality of the music and its melodic and harmonic language got stuck in my head (what is often called an “ear-worm”!).

When I was asked if I had anything for a school chamber music group of 3 violins and cello, I thought writing a work based on Jenny’s music might finally exorcise the piece from my brain. To this group I asked if I could add a wind instrument to allow a five-part texture, hence the flute.

The work is a set of variations on the opening section of the “Jade” movement of “Sun Festival Carols”. It’s not a set of traditional variations, in that the harmonic skeleton is not retained through each variation. Rather, it is a set of pieces based on elements of the original music – melodic, rhythmic and harmonic.

The work opens with a fairly straight-forward instrumentation of the original music from bars 1 to 42. The first variation picks up on the opening soprano melody idea, and this is further examined in the 2nd variation. The third variation is a slow and solemn piece using a five beats-in-a-bar time signature, based on a tiny fragment of melody which is initially buried in the 3rd violin part. The lively 4th variation is for just the flute and 1st violin, and draws on melodic elements from the coda of the original piece. The 5th variation is an energetic re-working of harmonic elements using irregular time signatures. The 6th variation is fugal, again based on the opening soprano melody. The theme is treated in a variety of ways eventually being augmented to double its original duration and then to notes four times their original values. This variation leads without pause into the finale which is an instrumentation of the chorus section of the original work, concluding with a glance back at the opening music, A few bold unexpected chords round off the work.

“Jade Variations” was written at the suggestion of Jocelyn Beath for a group of students in New Plymouth.

• David Hamilton: Jade Variations - hardcopy score 

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Milly Mae-Moet is dressed up like a picture, anticipating the carnival today, with carousels and horses, hot air balloons. Ribbons in her hair and petticoat of crinoline, dance in the wind. Mother Mae-Moet buys candy-floss and toffee, pretty balloons for her, darling Milly Mae grows stubborn and persistent, wants more balloons. She has dreams of flying, never gives up trying for one more balloon. Milly Mae-Moet is willful and unyielding she gets her way, one more balloon, to take her away. Happily flying away too high to save…

This piece tells the story of Milly Mae-Moet, the stubborn yet admirably driven girl who convinces her mother to buy her all the balloons at the carnival so she my fulfill her dream of flying. She happily ascends (much to her mothers distress) through the insect layer into the bird layer and eventually into infinity.

The piece is a combination of scored sections and work-shopped improvisations that were developed with the ensemble in December 2007.

• Rosie Langabeer: Milly Mae-Moet 

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• Zirkus! – Sirius Music 

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A doorstep is the highest mountain.

• Hextall: Portal; computer-set 

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• Hextall: Portal; computer-set 

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This work is very much a companion piece to my Hurdy Gurdy of 1989. Both works are based on pieces of early vocal music. Whereas Hurdy Gurdy drew on the 13th century Spanish melody “Como poden per sas culpas”, this piece goes back a century to a 12th century sacred song. The original song “Promat chorus hodie” is found in the library of the cloister of St. Martial in Limoges.

The music shows strong folk-music influences, giving it a vigorous and rhythmic feel. The harmonic support is a simple drone on an open fifth. The opening of the work presents a free transcription of a recording of the piece, although I have taken some liberties with the music I have allocated to the piano. Following this slower introduction the main melody begins played by both flute and cello, initially in octaves and then in fifths. This presentation of the melody in parallel fifths is the source of most of the harmonic support in the piano. Eventually the music becomes quieter and gives way to a repetitive piano background against which fragments of the main melody are heard. A slightly slower section brings the two melody instruments to the fore, giving the pianist a break from the almost constant quaver movement which is a feature of the first two-thirds of the work. The main melody returns at a faster speed in a brief recapitulation, and the whole work ends energetically. The text of the original begins as follows: Verse:
Promat chorus hodie
o contio
canticum letitie
o contio
Refrain:
Psallite o contio
psallat cum tripudio
(O people, let us all sing out happily today;
Make music together, with instruments and dance.)

• Hamilton: Promat Chorus Hodie; computer-set 

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• Hamilton: Promat Chorus Hodie; computer-set 

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• Twomey: Soundscapes; computer-set 

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• Reflections - Music Composed by Ray Twomey 

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• Ray Twomey: Soundscapes  Year: 2001 

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After writing the first seven bars of this work, a quite singular image came to mind: an extreme close-up view of a sparkly, delicately minuscule glasslike crystal – probably much like sugar. Beyond that point (after the first ten chords), what I wrote became less and less crystalline, and less saccharine too. Perhaps calling the piece “Sugar Crystal” wasn’t suitable for the work as a whole, but giving a title is a result of the organic nature of writing music – it still seems right to me.

Sugar Crystal is the fourth major work I have written for Anna McGregor – one per year since 2007. This piece was composed at her request, and is dedicated to her and the yet unknown string quartet who will give its first public performance. I would also like to thank Gretchen La Roche (clarinet), John Thomson and Juliet Ayre (violins), Peter Barber (viola), Robert Ibell (cello), Justus Rozemond (conductor), Gao Ping (tutor) and all participants at the 2010 Nelson Composers Workshop for contributing to the work’s development.

Robbie Ellis

• Ellis: Sugar Crystal; computer-set 

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• Ellis: Sugar Crystal; computer-set 

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• Ellis: Sugar Crystal; computer-set 

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• Nelson Composers Workshop 2010: Sugar Chrystal  

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• Charles: Trio for flute, clarinet and piano; computer-set 

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• Charles: Trio for Flute, Clarinet and piano; computer-set 

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• Biddington: Trio for Trumpet in D, Violin and Piano; facsimile 

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• Biddington: Trio for Trumpet in D, Violin and Piano; facsimile 

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• Eric Biddington: Southern Melodies  Year: 1998 

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