Search Music:

Starting in a field close to Melbourne’s Western Ring Road, a llama lives a placid and slightly bored existence. Absent-mindedly picking at a chain-link fence, a gap appears: the animal can fit itself through and escape its confines. After a few cautious steps, it lurches forward and runs in sudden jerks. Making its way down a grassy hillside, it reaches the freeway crash barrier. Occupants of moving vehicles begin to notice the animal: “there’s a llama!” After a few tries, it successfully vaults the crash barrier and makes it onto the road itself. Vehicles whizz by and drivers honk their horns, but the llama is enjoying its freedom too much to be affected by them. Reports begin to reach news services: we hear a radio news theme and the growing noise of the Twitterverse.

The din of chatter around Melbourne becomes overwhelming and little more than indistinguishable noise, so the llama retreats into its head and to its elated thoughts: “I’m free! I’m my own animal! This is my dream, I’m no longer bound by a chain-link fence! It’s a whole new world! There’s a smile on my face for the whole…”

SQUEAL!! Its reverie is interrupted by an SUV with an absent-minded yet aggressive driver: the vehicle has to brake extremely suddenly to avoid hitting the llama, and misses it only by inches. Police have arrived on the scene and have begun to divert traffic. The llama becomes outnumbered to a greater and greater degree: there’s one last chance for escape, one tricky path to freedom, one last high-stakes roll of the “OOH TASTY TASTY LLAMA TREAT ON THE GRASSY BANK!! I LIKE TASTY LL… oh damn.”

Thirty minutes later, in the same field close to the Western Ring Road, the llama is once again bored. Picking at the chain-link fence, there’s no chance of escape. The fence has been repaired, the gap closed, the llama’s life restored to its former boredom.

More details here: http://www.robbie.co.nz/2012/12/09/llamadrama/

• Robbie Ellis: #llamadrama - hardcopy score 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $23.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Robbie Ellis: #llamadrama - downloadable PDF 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $19.50
  • • Quantity:

cor anglais, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass

‘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.

• Stabler: faccee; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

• Stabler: faccee; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Stabler: 'faccee'  Year: 2002 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

Percussion: 2 bongos, 2 Congas, small tom; also requires: calligraphic paintbrush, large sheet of paper, white sand, two palm-sized black rocks

• Norris: 14 Islands; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $8.50
  • • Quantity:

• Norris: 14 Islands; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $8.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Michael Norris: 14 Islands; audio 

  Media on Demand | Embedded
  

• Two works by Michael Norris 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

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.

• Ritchie A.: 24 Preludes; Computer Set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $35.50
  • • Quantity:

• Ritchie A: Twenty-four Preludes; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $42.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Anthony Ritchie: Piano Preludes  Year: 2004 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

oboe can be replaced by flute or recorder

• Dellow: 8 Songs From The I Ching; facsimile 

  Full score | Pdf - facsimile
  

• Dellow: 8 Songs From The I Ching; facsimile 

  Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  $10.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

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

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.

• Ker: [...and...11]; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

• Ker: ...and...; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $12.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• NZ Women Composers Vol. 2 

  CD
  

• Dorothy Ker: ...and...  Year: 2002 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• diffracted terrains: Chamber Music of Dorothy Ker  Year: 2007 

  CD
  
  $35.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

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.

• Ker: [...and...1]; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $12.00
  • • Quantity:

• diffracted terrains: Chamber Music of Dorothy Ker  Year: 2007 

  CD
  
  $35.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

The title itself is a play on the words “fatality” and “tonality”, the two words and concepts colliding to form “[f]at[on]ality”. Similarly, the music presents two contrasting musical languages that intersect and compete violently for dominance. The first of these is a tonal language, represented by various types of (major/minor etc.) chords derived from four constituent triads of a twelve-tone row. The first phrase presents this language in conflict with itself, collapsing two triads into a hexachord at the punctuation points of the phrase. These chords then begin to extricate and extrapolate themselves, – beginning in the right hand at the start of the second phrase – under which the twelve-tone row (presented in the accelerating and decelerating lines of the first phrase) is fragmented and rhythmically manipulated. This twelve-tone row represents the second musical language, that is, a quasi-serial atonal language that is subjected to transformation by inversion, retrograde, multiplication etc. While on one level the music is concerned with the intersection and interdependence of these languages, it is also concerned with the dramatic consequences of that collision. The dynamic and rhythmic frameworks are somewhat extreme, providing a constantly surging, climactic structure that, in the end, resolves ambivalently. The inspiration for the piece came from a poetic doodle, reprinted below:

con.vent.shun

wanting to dis / dys
place / figure / function

this fatal tonality
tonal fatality
total finality
final totality

this [f]at[on]al entity

cacophonic / catatonic
coughed up and codified

maybe some kind of
superficial facticity / deep fiction
palimpsestic / incestuous

stasis / stagnation
repetitious f[l/r]agellation
sheer f[l/r]agrance

and you can’t get out

or in

• Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $9.00
  • • Quantity:

• Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $9.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Alex Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; video 

  Media on Demand | External - video
  

fl. (3-3rd dbl picc.), ob. (3-3rd dbl CA), cl. in A (3-3rd dbl bass cl.), bsn (3-3rd dbl contra.), alto sax.; 4,3 (trumpets in C), 3,1; timp., perc. (5), hp, cel., pno; strings. Percussion includes tri., tambourine, sus. cymbal, clash cymbal, gong, xylophone, glock., bells, woodblk, claves, rattle, whip, side drum, bass drum.

• Lilburn: A Birthday Offering; computer-set  

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $19.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Lilburn: A Birthday Offering; facsimile  Year: 1991 

  Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  $19.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Douglas Lilburn: A Song of Islands  Year: 1987 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Lilburn: Prodigal Country  Year: 1987 

  Vinyl (LP or EP)
  
  • Borrow

• Lilburn: Prodigal Country  Year: 1987 

  Cassette
  
  • Borrow

• Douglas Lilburn: Orchestral Music  Year: 1995 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Douglas Lilburn: Orchestral Works   Year: 2004 

  CD
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

pc2233cb; 2331; timp.; 3 perc (triangle, tomtoms, bass drum, suspended cymbal, xylophone, tam tam, log drum); strs

In 1995 I was approached by the NZSO to write an overture to commemorate the recent death of New Zealand’s most famous war hero, Sir Charles Upham. Upham was famous for having won the Victoria Cross twice for bravery during World War II. He was, however, extremely modest when it came to discussing his achievements. Some years before his death it was suggested to Upham that he have a state funeral; he simply replied, “A bugle will do”. This comment seemed like a good starting point for my piece.

There are no bugles in the orchestra, but the opening section depicting the horrors of battle contains plenty of brass. Sub-titled Maleme and Ruweisat Ridge, the music is fast and furious, built from several motifs, and includes the opening rhythm for the most well known Maori haka (war dance), Kamate, kamate. The music builds to a climax, and the scene changes to a bleak Colditz Castle, where Upham was imprisoned during the war. While in prison he dreams of rural NZ, and the farm near Kaikoura called ‘Landsdowne’, where he eventually settled after the war. This brief pastoral section links into a coda celebrating the outbreak of peace. Motifs from earlier in the piece return but changed into brighter modes. ’

A Bugle Will Do was first performed by the NZSO in 1996 under Andrew Sewell, and was subsequently performed in the USA.

• Ritchie, A.: A Bugle will Do; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

• Ritchie A.: A Bugle will do; facsimile 

  Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  $25.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Anthony Ritchie: A Bugle will Do; video 

  Media on Demand | Embedded
  

• Music by Anthony Ritchie 

  Cassette
  
  • Borrow

• Anthony Ritchie: A Bugle Will Do 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow