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

Christopher Blake  

Bitter Calm

Duration: 1h 30' 00" Year: 1993
opera in two acts for soloists, chorus and orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    2sop,1ten,2bari,SATB chorus and orchestra: (2)22(2)2(2); 2220; 2perc,timp,2keyb; strs.
  • Programme Note

    Bitter Calm is a full length opera for five principals, chorus and orchestra in two acts. It is based on an incident at Motuarohia Island in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand in the 1840s. It is a drama of human passions in the contexts of land alienation and tensions between Maori and new settlers. Premiered at the New Zealand International Festival for the Arts in 1994 and filmed for television.

  • Availability

Jenny McLeod  

Earth and Sky

Duration: 1h 30' 00" Year: 1968
community music theatre

Dorothy Buchanan  

Film Music

Duration: 1h 40' 00" Year: 1993
adaptation for clarinet, cello, and piano of music for silent film

  • Programme Note

    This music for eleven silent films,including Treasures / Nga Taonga, for clarinet, cello, and piano, would be most suitable for chamber music groups, including secondary school performers.

  • Availability

Brigid Ursula Bisley  

In Memoriam

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 2004
for ensemble, taonga puoro, and voices

  • Instrumentation
    2 fl. (dbl. alto flute, 2 players), oboe (dbl. cor anglais, 1 player), clarinets (1), piano, percussion (1 player: vibraphone, triangle, maracas, rainsticks, 3 gongs of different sizes, small tambourine), drumkit, violins (2), viola, cellos (2), bass, taonga puoro: wooden koauau, iwi kuri, iwi maire, large putorino, putatara, porotiti, birdcalls; 1-2 baroque sopranos, 1 chamber soprano, 1 Maori female voice (alto range)
  • Availability

Gillian Whitehead  

Outrageous Fortune

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

Gary Daverne  

Panapa and The Floating Island

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 1997
a musical for 8-10 year olds

William Dart  

Songs to the Judges

Duration: 50' 00" Year: 1980
a song-play

Anthony Ritchie  

Symphony No. 1 - 'Boum'

Duration: 32' 00" Year: 1993
for full orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    (1)222(1)alto sax2; 4231; perc; timp; strings
  • Programme Note

    The title of this symphony comes from the ominous tam tam stroke that opens the first movement, a mysterious sound heard by two of E M Forster’s characters in A Passage to India when they investigate the Marabar Caves. This is a sound which symbolises the mysteries of life and death, although Ritchie warns us not to take it all too literally. “The echo is only a starting point to a general theme of human struggle. The listener can interpret the music in his or her own way.”

    The first movement opens sonorously in the tonality of G, pulsating chords leading us inevitably to the first main theme, a theme that Ritchie himself characterises as a “muscular, Brucknerian theme”, although the momentum that it engages owes more to Shostakovich. A sinuous saxophone theme is very significant in the central section, as is the lengthy oboe theme in the moderato section. The second movement opens with the sharp, bright sounds of oboes and clarinets accompanied by Cook Islands log drums. The log drum punctuates the movement’s textures and creates a sense of propulsion. A light-hearted dance introduced by string quartet offers an opportunity for a change of mood. The third movement is a lament for the victims of the Bosnian wars.

    The highly evocative scoring of the opening pages was inpsired by the wailing of a Maori karanga, while tolling bells imbue this elegy with a special sense of tragedy. The symphony ends with a ‘grand dance’ which shows Ritchie has not been untouched by rock music. Several themes are brought together in an ecstatic coda, after which the music slowly unwinds over a reiterated pedal note. The opening of the first movement returns, and the final sound we hear is a single stroke on the tam tam.

    Symphony No.1 ‘Boum’ was completed while Ritchie was Composer-in-residence with the Dunedin Sinfonia in 1993, and first performed the following year, under the baton of Sir William Southgate. It has received numerous performances, and was recorded for radio by the NZSO, in 1998, Auckland Philharmonia in 1996, Dunedin Sinfonia in 1994.

  • Availability

Helen Fisher  

Takiri Mai Te Awatea

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 1990
for SATB choir and kapa haka group

  • Instrumentation
    Taonga puoro: optional koauau
  • Programme Note

    This work is for SATB choir, for kapa haka performing karanga, waiata, poi, patere and haka, also for contemporary dance and taonga puoro. It is in three sections: Te Ahiahi(Evening), Te Po (Night), Te Atatu (Dawn), and is a parable for the bicultural journey of Aotearoa New Zealand. In 1986 I wrote the lyrics while studying te Reo Maori at the Kuratini with Teariki Mei and in 1990, I completed the music while doing Composition Honours at Victoria University. In the same year ‘Takiri Mai Te Awatea’ was workshopped at Ngake Poneke Young Maori Club, but it is yet to receive a full performance.

  • Availability

Helen Fisher  

Taku Wana - The Enduring Spirit

Duration: 37' 00" Year: 2002
for two mezzo sopranos, Kai-karanga, taonga puoro (traditional Maori instruments), flute/piccolo, bodhran, string quartet

  • Instrumentation
    one of the mezzo sopranos needs to be familiar with performing Maori waiata.
  • Programme Note

    This chamber work, composed in 2002, is based on the music drama of the same title, with music by Helen Fisher, Maori composition by Wi Kuki Kaa and lyrics by Lauris Edmond. This shorter work for two sopranos, kai-karanga, string quartet, flute, bodhran and Maori instruments was produced for a CD on the Atoll label (ACD 203). This work focuses on some Maori and Pakeha women’s stories surrounding the events of the 1843 Wairau tragedy. These are stories of compassion, which have a resonance for New Zealand today, showing a way forward for reconciliation and racial harmony.

  • Availability