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Michael Bell  

A NZ Journal: Songs for Solo Voices

Duration: 45' 00" Year: 2009
12 poems by NZ poets, 3 poems for each voice: S, A, T & B

David Hamilton  

Kaimanawa wild horses

 Year: 2009
for piano

David Hamilton  

Keepsake Mill

 Year: 2009
for SATB choir and piano

  • Programme Note

    Keepsake Mill is a poem from one of the first, and most famous, collections of poetry written specifically for children: A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson was born in Edinburgh, and for much of his life was dogged by ill-health. He finally moved to Samoa where he spent the last five years of his life, hoping that the warmer climate would alleviate his health issues.

    Keepsake Mill is typical of many of his poems, where the safety and security of home is contrasted with the things that might be seen while wandering the countryside. Always though, these “marvellous places” are “handy to home”.

    The predominant image in this poem is the water-wheel turning in the river at the mill: “…turning and churning that river to foam”. The music seeks to evoke this movement with almost constant triplet rhythms in the piano accompaniment.

    Keepsake Mill was written for Kentoris (Saint Kentigern College, Auckland) and conductor Ross Gerritsen.

  • Availability

Natalie Hunt  

Only to the Highest Mountain

Duration: 04' 55" Year: 2009
for full orchestra

David Hamilton  

Prayer of a Woman

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2009
for solo voices, SSAA choir, 2 horns and harp

  • Programme Note

    This setting joins several other works of mine which make use of the poetry of New Zealand poet Robin Hyde, including Paraha for choir brass and organ (1990), Meditation on ‘The Bronze Rider’ for carillon (1990), Road’s End for SSAA choir (1993) and Tryst for choir and jazz trio (1997). Robin Hyde was the pen-name of Iris Guiver Wilkinson (1906-1939). During her brief life she worked as a journalist, novelist and poet, making her living from writing – something very unusual for a woman in those days. She was constantly dogged by ill-health, and after an ill-fated visit to China in 1938 travelled on to England where depression and illness overcame her. She committed suicide the following year.

    Prayer of a Woman is a relatively late poem, dating from the last couple of years of Hyde’s life.

    This work was written for Mirinesse Women’s Choir of Seattle in the USA, and is dedicated to the choir and conductor Rebecca Rottsolk. The unusual scoring was prompted by the Brahms choral piece for the same forces being programmed.

    David Hamilton

  • Availability

Carol Shortis  

Tangi

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 2009
for SSAATTBB choir with SATB soloists

  • Programme Note

    The poem Tangi was written my Megan Simmonds, a New Zealand poet who lives in the Bay of Plenty. I wanted to explore the use of vocal overtones in this piece; they have often been connected with the spiritual or other-worldly in the various cultures where the technique is practiced. Whilst researching this subject I came across the poem Overtone by American writer W. S. Merwin:

    …the names were read of those no longer there
    that sound of what made no sound anymore
    made up the chords that in a later year
    some still believed that they could overhear

    Notes by Carol Shortis

  • Availability

Jenny McLeod  

Two Hopkins Hymns

 Year: 2009
for women's choir and organ