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Arapatiki was commissioned by Stephen De Pledge as one of a series of Landscape preludes, and received its first performance in the Wigmore Hall, London, in January, 2004. Arapatiki translates (from the Maori language) as ‘the way of the flounder’, and is the ancient name of the sand flats in front of my house at Harwood, near Dunedin. The piece has something to do with the advance and retreat of the tide across the flats, where many species of sea and water birds spend much of the day – an ever-varying water-scape. The opening idea is based on the song of the korimako or bellbird.

• Whitehead: Arapatiki; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Arapatiki; computer-set 

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• Landscape Preludes  Year: 2011 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Arapatiki; video 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Various Works 

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• Stephen de Pledge - Landscape Preludes  

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• Stephen de Pledge plays Arapatiki by Gillian Whitehead 

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• Tuhonohono: Music by Gillian Whitehead 

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• An Interview with Gillian Whitehead 

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• Stephen de Pledge: Three Landscape Preludes  Year: 2004 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Arapātiki CD  Year: 2012 

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In the book Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett convincingly argues that there is nothing about human consciousness, emotion or experience that cannot be encompassed by a purely physical, biological and mechanical explanation. We do not need to refer to some ‘soul’ or ’mind’s eye’ to describe our experiences. We are, in short, machines – just very clever machines.

These three short miniatures push the performer to the limits, yet, paradoxically, a ‘human’ reading of the score still brings to the surface a more energetic, compelling and arguably musical performance than a merely mechanical rendition.

• Norris: Machine Noise; computer set 

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• Norris: Machine Noise; computer set 

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• Landscape Preludes  Year: 2011 

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• Michael Norris: Machine Noise; video 

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• Stephen de Pledge - Landscape Preludes  

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• Stephen de Pledge plays Machine Noise by Michael Norris 

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In September 2007 at the University of Auckland, I attended the launch of Spectrum 4, a book of short stories. These stories were the end-product of 24 writers’ work in a third-year English course, ‘Writing the Short Story’, convened and tutored by Witi Ihimaera the previous year. The first story in the book was Leila Austin’s Shadow People.

Leila’s writing – particularly the evocations and contrasts of shadow vs light; the harshly real vs the safely imaginary; and a flighty imaginary companion called Maeve – inspired me to set this piece for solo piano. The solitary nature of the piano and its evocative qualities of shade and shadow suits it, in my mind, to accompanying past recollections.

To accompany the piano part, Leila and I pared down and paraphrased her original story to a small number of lines, which I recorded her speaking. The words on tape come from a disembodied storyteller in the present remembering her past. The piano part accompanies and complements the speaker’s thoughts and memories.

At the root of this piece is the interval of the second, which is found in two guises – major and minor. The major second opens and closes the piece. While it often has dissonant qualities, here it is not strongly dissonant and is used in a very still and suspended state. This interval represents the idea of shadow and the comfort the storyteller found (and finds) in it.

The interval’s other guise is the minor second, a much more jarring harmony. This evokes light, the opposite of shadow, and in particular the sharp fluorescent light of Bars 59-66. Towards the end of the piece there is interplay between the minor and major seconds, and there are even places where the minor second is a consonant interval (e.g. Bars 77-80).

• Ellis: Maeve; computer-set 

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• Ellis: Maeve; computer-set 

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• Ellis: Maeve; tape part 

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• Robbie Ellis: Maeve; audio 

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• Robbie Ellis: Maeve 

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• Robbie Ellis: Maeve 

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Modern Tango is one of five tangos, Tango Cinco, for solo piano. Sydney dance teacher Ian Murphy tells how the Argentinean tango began in the ghettos of Buenos Aires, with dance steps grouped in 5s and 7s which worked across the music’s phrasing. However, when taken to Europe, extra dance steps were invented to fit into groups of 8s. I heard a modern tango, with its faster tempo, performed at Darling Harbour in Sydney one Sunday afternoon, and this Modern Tango explores the grouping of 5 within this faster tempo. The piece employs voice leading, shifting harmonies and a long melody. The first performance was given at Sydney and Nimbin (November 2006) in which two composers, Michael Hannan and I, played our own piano works.

• Blom: Modern Tango; computer-set 

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• Blom: Modern Tango; computer-set 

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• Blom: The Whale's Song and Modern Tango 

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These three pieces were composed as homage to the great music of the baroque era. They represent conservatively modern interpretations of venerable old musical forms.

• Twomey: Music for Harpsichord (Opus16b); computer-set 

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• Twomey: Music for Harpsichord; computer-set 

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• Reflections - Music Composed by Ray Twomey 

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• Ray Twomey: A Child is Born  Year: 1999 

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• A New Dawning  Year: 1999 

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These three pieces were composed as homage to the great music of the baroque era. They represent conservatively modern interpretations of venerable old musical forms.

• Twomey: Music for Organ (Opus 16a); computer-set 

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• Twomey: Music for Organ (Opus 16a); computer-set 

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• Reflections - Music Composed by Ray Twomey 

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• Ray Twomey: Gloria in Excelsis Deo 

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• A New Dawning  Year: 1999 

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• Goss: Preludes for a rainy day...; computer-set 

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• Goss: Preludes for a rainy day...; computer-set 

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• Thomas Goss: Preludes for a rainy days... 

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‘small blue’ was written memory of Sir Michael Tippett who died in 1998. A simple tolling bell ostinato provides the base for a repeated blues motif, echoed by poignant fragments of whistling and knocking on the piano. (From Atoll A9806)

• de Castro-Robinson: Small blue; facsimile 

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• de Castro-Robinson: Small blue; facsimile 

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• A Chaos of Delight: music by Eve de Castro-Robinson  Year: 1998 

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Each of the Three Inventions for piano is based on specific intervals: No. 1: on minor seconds and major sevenths; No. 2: on sixths; No. 3: on fourths. They are not inventions in the Bachian sense, but free in form and texture.

• Tremain: Three Inventions; facsimile 

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• Tremain: Three Inventions for piano; facsimile 

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• Tremain: Three Inventions; computer set  Year: 1996 

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• NZ Flora Series Volume 3  Year: 1972 

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• Flame Tree and other works  Year: 1979 

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• Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 8 - Chamber Music II  Year: 2005 

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• Adventures - NZ music for the new millennium (piano) 

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• Body: Three Old-Fashioned Songs; computer set 

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• Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 6 - Composer Portrait: Jack Body  Year: 2003 

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