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Gillian Whitehead  

Bright Forms Return

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1980
for mezzo-soprano and string quartet

  • Programme Note

    Bright Forms Return written in 1980 while I was composer-in-residence for Northern Arts (UK), is one of the first pieces I wrote that is concerned with landscape (and sea-scape). I was living in Northumberland, on the moors north of Newcastle, very near the house where Kathleen Raine had spent her childhood. When I was asked to write a piece for the Cumbria Quartet and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Lamb, Raine’s poetry was an obvious choice, as its northern imagery was very familiar to me.

    Although the piece is designed as a single entity, the quartet falls into four clearly-defined sections in its setting of the four short poems. The vocal writing is relatively simple (rhythmically at least), and the writing for the quartet sometimes reflects the poetic imagery or mood, and is sometimes derived from the formal structure of the poems. The text, which comes from The Oval Mirror published by Hamish Hamilton, is used with the kind permission of the author and her publishers.

  • Availability

Ronald Tremain  

Eleven Haiku

Duration: 14' 00" Year: 1980
for tenor and oboe

Anthony Ritchie  

Five Songs of Colour

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1980
for soprano and piano

Gillian Whitehead  

Hotspur

Duration: 35' 00" Year: 1980
for mezzo soprano and chamber ensemble

  • Instrumentation
    clarinet, clarinet/bass-clarinet, violin/viola, cello, percussion (marimba, 9 drums in high to low sequence, drum of fluctuating pitch, bass drum, 5 suspended cymbals, ching - Thai finger cymbals, bell tree, rasp, 2 woodblocks, 3 temple blocks, wood chimes)
  • Programme Note

    This monodrama for mezzo soprano and chamber sextet, commissioned by Northern Arts UK, tells of the 14th century North of England warrior Henry Percy (Hotspur), seen through the eyes of Elizabeth Mortimer, in a striking ballad sequence written by Fleur Adcock.

    Whitehead’s imaginative score combines exotic and arresting instrumental colours, a strong dramatic vocal line (often with flamboyant flourishes) and an admirable overall conception of the mood changes and tonal graduation of the work. (William Dart, NZ Listener)

    She has the rare gift of knowing when to us nightmarish vehemences and when to be utterly straightforward and calm. (Roger Covell, Sydney Morning Herald).

  • Availability

Richard Bolley  

Reflections on "She moved through the fair"

 Year: 1980
for soprano, oboe, piano duet (or solo) and percussion

Bryony Jagger  

Shoriken

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1980
a song cycle for soprano and treble recorder

Tony Ryan  

Songs of the Moon (rev.1991)

Duration: 23' 00" Year: 1980, r. 1991
a song cycle for voice and piano

Dorothy Buchanan  

Spring

Duration: 02' 00" Year: 1980
For solo soprano or treble

  • Programme Note

    This setting was written for Christchurch treble Ashley White in 1980. Thomas Nash’s words evoke the joy and carefree spirit of Spring, the season of renewed hope. With his ’cuckoo’s, jug-jugs’ and other onomatopoeic sounds abounding throughout, it seemed a lovely vehicle for a gifted treble’s special quality

  • Availability

Bryony Jagger  

The Shadow of Your Presence

Duration: 14' 00" Year: 1980
a song cycle for soprano and piano

Anthony Ritchie  

Why Don't You Talk To Me?

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 1980
for soprano (or high voice) and piano