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Eve de Castro-Robinson  

A Resonance of Emerald

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1988, r. 1990
for mixed chamber ensemble

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Gillian Whitehead  

Ahotu (O Matenga)

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1984
for chamber ensemble

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  • Instrumentation
    flute, trumpet, cello, percussion, 2 keyboard (2 pianos, celesta, harpsichord)
  • Programme Note

    Ahotu is the sixth in a series of instrumental pieces based on the phases of the moon, and refers to the seventh day of the cycle. The entire thirty-day cycle has been used as one of the rhythmic generators of the piece, with vowels and consonants translated into durations to provide the apparently irrational rhythms, which are contrasted in a series of short ensemble or solo sections with either proportional or regular rhythms. The two longest sections are centrally placed. The first, featuring trombone and percussion, presents the language-based material in the percussion; the second, starting with the long piano solo, begins a mensural canon based on the proportional material. However, half-way through this canon, recapitulatory material begins, and subsequent appearances of the canon occur in continually shorter blocks, each transformed very differently. O Matenga, in the title of the piece, refers to the Maori custom, found also in many other civilisations, of providing sustenance for the spirit to the next world after death.

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Christopher Blake  

Clairmont Triptych

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1988
for wind quintet and piano

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  • Instrumentation
    flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano
  • Programme Note

    Clairmont Triptych was written in fulfilment of a commission by Chamber Music New Zealand for the Auckland Wind Quintet with pianist David Guerin to perform on a New Zealand tour in 1988.

    The music derives its inspiration and impetus from the work of the New Zealand painter Phillip Clairmont (1949 – 1984). He was something of an enfant terrible of the New Zealand art world, living his life and his painting with a reckless passion and energy. His work is vibrant and strong, conveying an intense and energetic power. Aspects of these elements are captured in the music, although it is not programmatic, but connects with paintings through analogy and allusion. Amongst the profusion of themes and ideas there are two prominent recurrent subjects in Clairmont’s work – the domestic interior and the self portrait. These form the thematic base of the first two of the three inter-linked movements of the work. The first movement, Interiors, mirrors the fractured vibrancy of the Clairmont interiors by use of a very fast toccata-like movement in sequences of fluctuating tempo. This creates a continuously “flexing” aural effect which reflects the unsettling quality of the images. The second movement, Self Portraits, uses a recurring three note motif C-B-Bb. These are the composer’s initials (C-H-B in German), thus the self portrait becomes ambiguous. The music seeks to realise to an extent the technique and viewpoint of the self portraits. The third movement, Jimi Rocks, refers to the influence of rock music on Clairmont’s painting, particularly during his studies and the early part of his career in Christchurch. The three movement formal structure is a musical equivalent of the triptych format Clairmont often used in his painting.

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John Rimmer  

Coils

 Year: 1989
improvised work for bass clarinet and marimba

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Leonie Holmes  

Colloquium

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 1986
for two flutes and guitar

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David Farquhar  

Concerto for Six

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1987
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano

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  • Programme Note

    The main theme of the first movement is built on a deliberately ‘square’ 4 note scale figure; this is interlaced with perfect 4th ‘wobbles’ and triplets and together they weave tonal games in a capricious journey.
    Four rich chords (all essentially triads with added semitones) which open out, bloom and close again are the flowers displayed in the tranquil second movement, and for the final a jaunty but restrained dance through various tonalities grows out of the subtle thematic combination of notes from both C and F sharp, normally the most distant keys.

    Notes taken from Ritual Auras, Atoll CD (ACD 842)

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John Rimmer  

De Aestibus Rerum

Duration: 14' 00" Year: 1983
for chamber quintet

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  • Instrumentation
    clarinet, horn, violin, cello, piano
  • Programme Note

    De Aestibus Rerum was composed for the centenary of the University of Auckland in 1983, and received its first performance in November of that year. The title means ‘on the ebb and flow of things’ and the work is based on a number of distinctive rhythmic and timbral ideas which grow and recede. One hears fluidic patterns, clear octaves with coloured resonances, shimmerings and tremolos, bird-like calls and repeated notes which move frequently at different speeds. A feature of the work is the free open sounding passages marked ‘cadenzas’ for clarinet, violin, cello and horn. In two of these passages the instruments proceed independently of each other.

    This work received first prize in the chamber music category of the International Horn Society Competition in 1984 and the work was subsequently performed at the International Horn Symposium, Detmold, Germany, in September 1986 by the Virginia Tech Ensemble.

    De Aestibus Rerum was recorded by the Karlheinz Company in October 1984.

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David Hamilton  

Hurdy Gurdy

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1989
for flute, clarinet, violin and piano

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Jack Body  

Interior

Duration: 13' 00" Year: 1987
for chamber septet and tape

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  • Instrumentation
    flute, violin, clarinet, cello, piano, synthesiser, percussion and tape
  • Programme Note

    In 1987 the composer visited China and searched out the music of some of China’s so-called minority peoples. Field records made on this visit form the core of the work: the instrumental writing is mean as an enchancing backdrop to direct our listening to the ‘interior’ of the music.
    First is heard to long-ge, a three-bladed Jews harp of the Yi nationality (Sichuan province). Next three women of the Miao nationality (Guizhou province) sing a melody of strong character with long notes and leaping intervals further enhanced by the gradual melting into a unison. The words mean “though we die, our songs like mountains, go on forever”. Finally we hear an ensemble of lusheng played by youths of the Ge nationality (Guizhou province) accompanying a dance. This six-piped bamboo mouth organ is common in the south of China and is found in various forms throughout Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and parts of Indonesia.

    Notes taken from Ritual Auras, Atoll CD (ACD 842)

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Dorothy Buchanan  

Just Looking

Duration: 24' 00" Year: 1987
music for dance, for trio

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