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This music was originally commissioned by Richard Campion for the New Zealand Players’ production of Ring Round the Moon by Jean Ahhouil, translated by Christopher Fry. In the second act there is a ball taking place offstage and demanding a large number of dances which are specified in the text.

The music was first recorded on acetate discs by a ad hoc orchestra led by Alex Lindsay; these small recordings were then played through speakers for the production, sounding very loud to the cast but filtering out more gently to the audience. At the end of the long national tour, the cast knew the music very well and suggested to me that I should do something with it.

The result, some years later, 1957, was a suite of nine dances first performed by the Alex Lindsay Orchestra. This rapidly became my most performed piece and was commercially recorded by the Alex Lindsay Orchestra in the 1960s, a recording still available today from Kiwi Pacific Reords.

Ashley Heenen, through the NZ APRA Committee, commissioned an arrangement for full orchestra for the NZ Youth Orchestra to take on a tour of Europe and China in 1975. This version was shortened to six dances by leaving out the first three numbers. The music has also been used for a ballet, The Wintergarden, choreographed by Arthur Turnbull for the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company – this version included a tenth dance not in the 1957 Suite. Since 1975 two further version have been commissioned: Waltz Suite (1989), for string orchestra (five dances) for the Nova Strings, and an arrangement of the original Dance Suite (1992) for violin and piano (nine dances) for Isador Saslav.

• Farquhar: Short Suite from Ring Round the Moon; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
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• Farquhar: A Short Suite from Ring Round the Moon; computer-set 

  Parts - written | Hardcopy - computer set
  

• Farquhar: Short Suite from Ring Round the Moon; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $20.00
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• SOUNZ Orchestral 1993 

  DAT
  
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• New Zealand Composers  Year: 1995 

  CD
  
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• McKenzie: Alice in Wonderland - a ballet suite; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $20.00

• McKenzie: Alice in Wonderland; computer-set 

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• Music by Lachlan McKenzie 

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• Whitehead: Angels born at the speed of light; facsimile 

  Full score | Pdf - facsimile
  

• Whitehead: Angels born at the speed of light; facsimile 

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• Biddington: Beauty and the Beast; facsimile 

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This dance theatre project was commissioned to celebrate the New Zealand Women’s Suffrage Centennial, and explores a range of historical and contemporary issues. It is based on documents written by Kate Shepherd and was choreographed by Susan Jordan.

• Fisher: Bone of Contention; facsimile 

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• Fisher: Bone of Contention (excerpt); facsimile 

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• Helen Fisher: Bone of Contention  Year: 1993 

  Cassette
  
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• Palmer: Cypress; computer set 

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• Palmer: Cypress; computer set 

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• Biddington: Dance Sketches; facsimile 

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• Biddington: Dance Sketches; facsimile 

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The rich overtone resonances from low, rubber-stopped notes on the piano create sensuous single sound moments in the music. These Filipino gong music inspired resonances combine with slow European chorale-like gestures throughout to provide breath moments within an increasingly combative musical texture. The melodic-line derived from Bontok war-chant, usually the prerogative of men, finds full cry in erotic “sea ripples”, which in turn generates long-lyric lines expressive of the poem’s princess meditation on war. Even the chorale-like breath segments work in shortening gasps leading to transfigured Kulintang (Filipino percussion) segments whose dance-like momentum undergird the “metal timbre” climax of work. The text is drawn from Merlinda Bobis’ epic poem Cantata of the Warrior Woman Daragang Magayon – a revisionist re-telling of the Philippines ancient myth associated with the active volcano Mount Mayon. It charts the play of ambivalence and conviction of a beautiful maiden on the eve of battle and is interpreted by the composer as a metaphor of volcanic, erotically-fuelled anger against social injustice, not just in war but in cultural colonisation.

• Crossman: Daragang Magayon Cantata; computer  

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• Daragang Magayon Cantata - Bruce Crossman / Merlinda Bobis 

  Video
  
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• Bruce Crossman: Selected Works (1996-2001) 

  CD
  
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• Bruce Crossman: Intercultural Sounds 

  CD
  
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• Bruce Crossman: Selected Works (1996-2001) Vol. 2 

  CD
  
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• Double Resonances - Bruce Crossman  Year: 2008 

  CD
  

• Farquhar: Fives; facsimile 

  Full score | Pdf - facsimile
  

• Farquhar: Fives; facsimile 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  $35.00
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• Farquhar: Fives; facsimile 

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• Biggs: Four Oriental Pieces; facsimile 

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