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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 

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

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

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• SOUNZ Orchestral 1993 

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• New Zealand Composers  Year: 1995 

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Written during a month-long residency in November 2005 at the Visby International Centre for Composers, in Visby on the Swedish Baltic island of Gotland, this piece was inspired by the surroundings there- the history related to its importance in the Hanseatic League and prior to that the long Viking period; and in particular the old town with it’s beautifully preserved encircling medieval town wall.

The piece consists of seven descriptive historical episodes, and includes two poems to be narrated by the pianist in episodes 2 and 7- ‘Clouds’ and ‘Centuries’. The vocalisations are mainly sung, hummed and whistled sounds, along with the breaths of the third section indicating the onerous task of building the wall.

• Carey: Great Wall; facsimile 

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• Ross Carey: Great Wall; audio 

  Media on Demand | Embedded
  

• Buchanan: Mary Magdelene and the Birds; facsimile 

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• Buchanan: Mary Magdalene and the Birds; computer-set  Year: 1993 

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• Buchanan: Mary Magdalene and the Birds 

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• Bellingham, Dennis, Rawson: NZ vocal music  Year: 2006 

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This suite of dances for small orchestra incorporates music originally written for the Jean Anouilh/ Christopher Fry play. It has become the composer’s most performed work.

This small orchestra version is the original 1953 scoring that was recorded for the NZ Players to take on tour. In that recording we used a “harpsichordized” piano (sheets of newspaper over grand piano strings) to give an extra “edge” to the sound; you’ll see the Waiteata score says “piano or harpsichord”, and it has been performed with harpsichord.

In writing the dances, I followed the play-script for the second act, keeping to regular 8-bar dance formulas and asking the director, Richard Campion, for approximate durations for each dance; (his original estimations usually turned out to be much too short!). Only one dance, the Tango, was danced on stage; here my wife-to-be, Raydia d’Elsa, helped me by going through the steps and fitting in the dialogue. (Letter from David Farquhar to Tom Bayliss.)

(Note by the composer.)

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

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• Farquhar: Ring Round the Moon: A Dance Suite; computer-set 

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• Farquhar: Ring Round the Moon - Ballet Suite; facsimile  Year: 1981 

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• Orchestral Music by Norman, Ritchie, Elmsly, Farquhar 

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• The Alex Lindsay Orchestra: Ring Round the Moon 

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• Ring Round the Moon  Year: 1963 

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• Alex Lindsay String Orchestra  Year: 1998 

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• Freed: Sounds and Winds of Wellington; facsimile 

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• Freed: Sounds and Winds of Wellington; facsimile 

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• Whitehead: the wind was in their wings; facsimile 

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• Tremain: War of the Newts; facsimile 

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