Sub Navigation

Search Music:

Search for music by typing a word or phrase in the box below or by selecting one or more categories from the list on the side.

Or search for products by selecting an option below, and typing a word or phrase in the box above

  • Scores
  • CDs and DVDs
  • Downloads
  • Education Resources

Dorothy Buchanan  

A Matter of Timing

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 1996
for SATB choir with string quartet, female narrator and mezzo-soprano

David Farquhar  

Bells in their Seasons

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1974
for double choir and orchestra

Yvette Audain  

Eulogy

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2010
for full symphony orchestra and narrator

  • Instrumentation
    piccolo, flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon 1 and 2, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, 2 percussionists (crash cymbals, suspended cymbals, roto-toms, claves, rain stick, vibraphone), harp, strings and narrator
  • Programme Note

    I enjoyed performing and recording Eulogy very much. Such a warmth of texture and harmonies which created a sympathetic palette for Olivia Macassey’s word painting” – Kenneth Young

    My decision to set this text for orchestra initially arose, not only from reading the poem and appreciating it for what it is, but also from the recent passing of a dear musician colleague with whom I had collaborated on many early jazz projects.

    However, at time of writing, I have become most un-nerved by the senseless loss of young life that has been occurring with alarming regularity at a couple of schools I have recently taught at. It was with these tremendously sad, sudden passings in mind that I completed my work on the piano short score of Eulogy, before commencing work on its orchestration.

    Yvette Audain

  • Availability

Dorothy Buchanan  

Miss Brill

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1998
an opera in one act

Gillian Whitehead  

Outrageous Fortune

Duration: 1h 58' 00" Year: 1998
a chamber opera in two acts

John Ritchie  

Papanui Road

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1987
concert overture for orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    (1)2122; 4331; timp., 3 perc (timp, sd-dr, cym, tri, xylo, tram bell, bus horn), hp; strs (10,10,8,6,4)
  • Programme Note

    A concert overture for full symphony orchestra – this work captures “the bustle, the vitality and the peace” of one of Christchurch’s busiest arteries.

    The composer’s son, Anthony Ritchie wrote:
    “Dad composed this when I was at Varsity in Christchurch. Some years earlier we had moved to a new house next to Papanui Road – he still lives there – so I remember Dad wanting to write a piece that summed up experiences of that street – going back over a long past. There is a motif that represents our old cat, Shosti, sneaking through to the butcher’s on Papanui Road (no longer there, of course!). There is also a sad passage that is a short memorial to Reverend Botting, an old friend of Dad’s, who was killed on his bike, on Papanui Rd – I remember when that happened. The piece is quite personal and yet is likeable just as music.”

  • Availability

Philip Brownlee  

Phyllis Remembers

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1996
chamber opera

Anthony Ritchie  

Remember Parihaka

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 1993
for orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    2222; 0200; 1 perc; strings
  • Programme Note

    The starting point for this piece was a curiosity in the metal doors that covered the entrances to cells imbedded in the cliffs near Andersons Bay inlet, in Dunedin. A friend informed me that during the 19th century Maori prisoners were kept there at night, and worked on the Dunedin Harbour land reclamation during the day. Some of these prisoners were brought down to Dunedin from Taranaki in the North Island, as a result of the conflict in 1881 at Parihaka.

    Upon reading Dick Smith’s book Ask that Mountain – The story of Parihaka I learned of one of the most shocking incidents in our country’s history. The land wars of the 1860s provoked a new approach from Maori to the protection of their lands. Te Whiti, Tohu and their followers at Parihaka combated the Pakeha land grab by organising passive resistance through a variety of means. In response to unauthorised land confiscation Te Whiti ordered the ploughing of fields, building of fences and planting, all of which impeded the surveyors who wished to carve up the land for settlers. Many were arrested, offering no struggle, and soon prisons around the country were full. Despite the many injustices Te Whiti maintained his policy of passive resistance to the end. In November 1881, government troops entered Parihaka with guns and artillery. They were greeted by Maori women and children chanting songs, but no armed struggle. Te Whiti and Tohu were taken away, the Pa was broken up, and hundreds sent away to prison. Despite a press blackout, two reporters were smuggled into the Pa, one commenting that “it was one of the saddest and most painful spectacles I have witnessed”.

    Remember Parihaka attempts to sum up my thoughts and feelings about the events at Parihaka. The slow opening is peaceful, like a sun rise, with melodic fragments that slowly unfold into a fuller, more passionate statement. Flutes and oboes announce a chant-like theme, based on an actual song composed at the time of the incident. This ‘Maori’ theme alternates with a more European-sounding theme on solo violin, accompanied by an Irish drum, the bowron. At the heart of the piece the various melodic ideas come together over a grinding, relentless bass, building to a climax. In the short postlude, the peace of the opening is suggested, but now it is tinged with sadness, and a slightly uneasy feeling.

    Remember Parihaka was first performed in 1994, under the baton of John Hopkins.

  • Availability

David Farquhar  

Shadow

Duration: 35' 00" Year: 1970
a one-act opera for soprano, tenor, baritone and bass and ensemble

Helen Caskie  

Ten Cent Mixture

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1998
five fun songs for SATB choir