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David Hamilton  

Concertino For Percussion and Chamber Orchestra

Duration: 07' 55" Year: 2009
for percussion and chamber orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    for solo percussion: triangle (medium size), cow bell, three suspended cymbals (small, medium and large), four temple blocks, a pair of bongos, four roto-toms and xylophone (or marimba); 3120; tenor sax; 0221(opt.); strings
  • Programme Note

    This short work was written for the orchestra of Auckland Grammar School and a talented senior student percussionist. It is in a straight-forward tonal style, including a cadenza for the soloist.

    The work consists of three main ideas. Follow a short introduction the xylophone presents the main melodic material of the first idea. The 2nd main idea is chromatic chord that builds through the orchestra several times. Against this the percussion has more angular melodic material and more syncopated rhythmic ideas. The second section builds to a climax which immediately gives way to the 3rd section which is fugal. The melody from the 1st section re-appears, not as the fugue subject, but rather as the counter-subject of the fugue. This section mainly features the woodwind section of the orchestra interacting with the percussionist. The fugue winds down into a short cadenza for the soloist, and then material from the opening two sections is recapitulated in abbreviated form. The music builds to a final climax.

    The percussion part avoids exotic or unusual instruments, favouring basic equipment found in most school music departments with an active instrumental programme. The only tuned percussion instrument is a xylophone, with the remainder being a mix of wood, skin and metal instruments.

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Thomas Goss  

Concerto in b minor

Duration: 11' 35" Year: 2001
for cello and string orchestra

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • Programme Note

    Using the baroque concerto as a model, this work is designed to feature a baritone voice, of which bassoon, baritone saxophone, and even bass clarinet would work effectively as soloists. The key of B minor was chosen for its ease of playing and dark yet resonant qualities in the string ensemble. The first movement is a deviation from the traditional form of theme-and-variations, in which the theme is expressed with ever-accelerating note values while maintaining the same steady tempo. First, a somber statement in quarter-note octaves arcs across the landscape of strings, from basses and cellos to the first violins and back, then picked up and transformed by the cello solo with an edge of longing. The icy second statement of the theme in eighth notes allows the cello to push against the ensemble a little in the contrast of the solo string tone, while the warm triplets of the third statement give the ensemble a chance to work out. The brief cadenza that follows pushes the theme from quarter notes to eighths to triplets, finally settling on the 16th notes that drive the theme to a bustling conclusion.

    The second movement relies on simplicity in its use of the ABA aria form. The cello’s gentle but indulgent melody floats over a cushion of pulsing chords. The strings introduce a countermelody in triplets that leads up to a solemn chordal statement, and then becomes a factor in the development of the original melody.

    The concluding rondo blends both the modern and baroque concepts of the “hook,” a catchy phrase that sticks in the mind because of some unusual note. In this case, the snag is a diminished 5th, more common to the blues than to the baroque concerto. Here it is explored using all of the opportunities that the freedom of the rondo form allows, boldly stated at the beginning, punctuating episodes of development, sneaking in at times where it is least expected, then bringing the movement to a close with a feeling of unsettled finality.

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Thomas Goss  

Concerto in F

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 2002
for violin and string orchestra

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • Programme Note

    Violin Concerto in F takes its themes and forms from folk song and dance music of old Europe. The first movement is an extended recasting of the classic Scottish Ballad _Wild Mountain Thyme". After an extended introduction that states the melody of the ballad, the music accelerates and tightens into a jig. Throughout the piece, tension is maintained between the free-flowing natural melody and the choreographic energy of 6/8 time, even during the long cadenza. A brief episode from the ensemble brings the music back to the mood of the opening before finishing on a high, unexpected chord.

    The second movement, entitled Reverence, is a synthesis of Balkan choral rhythms and melodies, with shifting bars of 7/8, 3/8, and 5/8. The solo part teams up with principal first and second violin soloists in central episodes reminiscent of choral drone singing of Bulgaria and Macedonia. The title refers to the respect a ballet class shows to their pianist at the end of their time together, and in a greater way the honor we show to those who help to bring our lives meaning.

    Brawl, the title of the first movement, refers not to a fistfight but a round dance of the Renaissance that was popular in England and France in which participants play “follow the leader.” This dance may be the ancient ancestor of hoedown music, to which it bears a strong resemblance. The opening violin solo is derived from a tune of the great French lutenist Robert Ballard, and is answered by a raucous, offbeat countermelody in the strings. The scope of the rhythmic jousting touches on many disparate styles, including spy movie music and a trace of heavy metal before returning to the reel-and-drone of the beginning.

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Thomas Goss  

Double Bass Concerto in e minor

Duration: 11' 10" Year: 2004
for double bass and string orchestra

  • Programme Note

    Double Bass Concerto in e minor was written as a showpiece for the more natural characteristics of the double bass, such as the warmth and solidity of plucked strings, the ease of harmonics, the resonance of open strings, and the extended 4-octave range. The double bass is a member of the viol family, with an inherently more delicate quality to its timbre than its modern orchestral cousins the violin, viola, and ‘cello. As a solo instrument, it offers an alternate view of virtuoso string playing; a low register dark with rich, complex broodings, a middle range filled with anticipation and veiled longing, and an unusually graceful and poetic high compass bereft of throaty tension or shrillness.

    This concerto is written in the form of a rhapsody or capriccio, in one movement with an extended, freer exposition. Under alert tremolo, the bass opens with an impulsive statement that climbs three times from its rock-bottom open E string to its highest harmonics. The strings answer with a quiet, gentle elegy, soon transformed by the bass into a more yearning episode that ends on an unsettled note. A bravura melody leaps forth from this cloud, a folk-dance tune that gambols between soloist and orchestra, leading the music through restless changes of key and expectation. A heartfelt strain emerges, eventually guiding the music to a floating, dreamy musical landscape. Over pulsing strings, the bass ponders the themes of the concerto in tender detail throughout its range of pitch and color, suggesting a haven of peaceful beauty. The previous mood springs back to life in a boisterous answer, leading to a cadenza in which the bass’s ruminations are gruffer and more pointed than before. In the final coda the strings return to their elegy, then the bass takes the orchestra back to the beginning, reversing the sprawling gestures to drift down from the heights, fading to silence on a lingering octave E.

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Matthew Davidson  

Music for Piano with Orchestra

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 2008
for piano and orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    3[1.2.picc]3[1.2.ca]22, 2110, 2 perc., harp, solo piano, strings
  • Programme Note

    This work is not really a conventional concerto, nor is it a symphony, but rather, a hybrid of the two. The first movement is inspired by Egyptian Oud music, and is a series of variations on a nine-note mode of my own invention. Each subsequent variation before and after the “Taqsim” has a number of measures divisible by nine. This is also true for some groups of time-signatures. While this may seem arbitrary, in fact it is (we composers often are an arbitrary lot). The second movement is a pastiche of how Bruckner might have written a slow movement to a concerto if he had ever written one (however, melodies of Basque and Czech baroque origin are employed). Movement three is titled after an aphorism in Twee (a West African language) and means, metaphorically, “I’m no better than you are.” While using Ligeti’s concept of placing two diatonic melodies a minor ninth apart, it also moves into different bi-tonal key signatures, thereby providing some harmonic movement (although not movement in the conventional western sense). It also emulates some African dance music where often one finds regular beats of unequal length. The final movement uses two Renaissance melodies as its foundation, “A la Guerra, a la Guerra” and the title melody. In addition, there is a melody for the second group (we are dealing with sonata form, here) which has its origins in the folk music of the langue d’Oc region of France.

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Robin Fazakerley  

Piha Waiata Po

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2002
for solo cello and chamber orchestra

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Thomas Goss  

Variations on a Young Violinist

Duration: 11' 30" Year: 2003
solo violin and string orchestra

Score Sample
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  • Programme Note

    Variations on a Young Violinist has the standard form of the classical “theme-and-variations” model. Yet it explores and modifies more than just the ubiquitous theme from Niccolò Paganini’s 24th Caprice, which is stated at the opening. The work also illustrates the varying moods and mindsets of being a young musician, with anxiety, exuberance, melancholy, awe, frustration, hilarity, determination, and giddiness being just a few of the emotional textures that dictate the character of individual sections.

    The strings state the theme with terse simplicity before giving way to the solo violin, which banters the melody about with double-stops and bravura swoops and dives. A dancey variation follows with rustling pizzicati supporting a pensive, expanding soliloquy. Rustle becomes bustle with a rhythmically ambiguous tear through the strings. A savage gesture segues to the next variation, alternately suspending and unleashing the nervous energy inherent in the theme. The solo violin now takes a lead role as Paganini’s motive is twisted by a spooky, anguished waltz, exalted in a calm, heartfelt hymn, and saddled in a racing moto perpetuo. There is even a sassy, bluesy turn to the proceedings before the final elegy brings the work to bittersweet, reverent close.

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