Search Music:

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.

• Rimmer: De Aestibus Rerum; facsimile 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - facsimile
  

• Rimmer: De Aestibus Rerum; facsimile 

  Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  $9.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 10 - John Rimmer: Chamber Music  Year: 2008 

  CD
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Buchanan: Music for Treasures Nga Taonga; facsimile 

  Full score | Pdf - facsimile
  

• Buchanan: Music for Treasures - Nga Taonga; facsimile 

  Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  • Borrow

“Of all the discoveries made by Mariner 9, one of the most impressive was an enormous volcano, twice as high as Everest and five hundred kilometres across the base. It was located at a spot which the old map-makers, peering at the tiny telescopic image of Mars, had noted as being of unusual brilliance, and had given the astonishingly prescient name ‘Nix Olympica’, the Snows of Olympus.�” (Arthur C. Clarke)

While the title provided the impetus for this work, it is not intended to be strictly programmatic; rather, I have sought to establish a mood (or perhaps a ‘landscape’) which each title suggested to me. Nix Olympica was written at a time when I was becoming very interested in minimalism in musical composition, and much of the material reflects this. Minimalist works are usually built from a small amount of melodic or rhythmic material repeated many times, often with only slow subtle changes. Although the work is quite active rhythmically (especially the middle section) it is harmonically quite static. The first of the three sections (which follow each other without a break) establishes B flat as its tonal centre, and presents fragments of material which occur later in the work. The second section uses G as its rallying point with a secondary focus on B flat (a minor 3rd above G). The music consists of a series of ideas which gradually lengthen, framed by a structure of major subdivisions which come closer and closer together. The third section moves to an E minor tonality (a minor 3rd below G) and consists of a long languid melody played throughout by the clarinet.

This music is derived from an independent work for flute, percussion and organ written at the 1985 Cambridge Music School. Throughout the work there is a preference for middle and upper-range timbres from all the instruments, but with few ‘extended playing techniques’.

Nix Olympica was commissioned by the Music Federation of New Zealand (now Chamber Music New Zealand) for the Auckland Wind Quartet and pianist David Guerin. It was premiered by these performers in 1986.

• Hamilton: Nix Olympica; facsimile 

  Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  $9.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Hamilton/Harris/Blake/Pruden: Nix Olympica and other works  Year: 1989 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Hamilton/Harris/Blake/Pruden  Year: 1989 

  CD
  
  • Borrow