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2222; 4230; timp, perc; strs.

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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10 singers, childrens' chorus, orchestra: 2121; 2200; perc., pno; strings

A Christmas opera in 3 acts, based on a Ngaio Marsh play, and including audience participation in a number of carols.

• Farquhar: A Unicorn for Christmas; facsimile 

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• Farquhar: A Unicorn for Christmas; facsimile 

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2 sopranos playing percussion; 1 bass playing percussion; Bass; Tenor; Dancer; women's chorus; flute, alto flute, clarinet in A, bass clarinet, bassoon; horn, trombone, bass trombone; timpani, piano; strings (including solo electric violin); Percussion: Javanese drums, bass drum, tamtam and optional Javanese gong, gender, slentem, kempul.

An operatic setting of the dance-play by W.B. Yeats which is also performable as a dramatic cantata in a concert version. This is a one-act work and is ritualistic in nature reflecting Yeats’ modeling of the text on the Japanese Noh play. The music is at times dark and atmospherlc, and the archetypal symbolism and metaphysical suggestion of the text, wlth its archaic language and bleak images, is a rich source of inspiration for this. The musical language is comprehensive with tonality and atonality used in conjunction with each other to express literary ideas. Written for five solo singers with the main roles being a tenor and a bass, and a dancer, the backing ii provided by a 30 or so piece orchestra including piano, solo electric violin, and gamelan instruments.
(Programme note from composer’s website)

• Keay: At the Hawk's Well; facsimile 

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• Keay: At the Hawk's Well; facsimile 

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• Nigel Keay: At the Hawk's Well; video 

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• Nigel Keay: At the Hawk's Well 

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• Nigel Keay: At the Hawk's Well 

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voice and piano

Away with the Fairies is a string of kitsch songs about fairies and pixies, animals and children. They are linked by recitatives which, like the songs, include quotations from other composers’ music.

• William Dart: Song Book; computer-set 

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

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.

• Blake: Bitter Calm; facsimile 

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• Blake: Bitter Calm; facsimile 

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• Blake: Bitter Calm (Scenes 1-3) 

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bagpipes, cello, marimba/harp/tenor drum (1 player), violin, flute/piccolo (1 player), clarinet/bass clarinet/soprano and alto saxophones (1 player)

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 

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• Palmer: Cypress; computer set 

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• Palmer: Cypress; computer set 

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treble recorder plays triangle, narrator should be male voice, and the mezzo is also required to dance. This work can also be performed by one person as a concert work, if the dance is omitted. Songs can be performed as separate works.

• Jagger: Dreams in the Grass; facsimile 

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3 sopranos; 2 mezzos; 4 tenors; 4 baritones; 1 bass; chorus Orchestra: 2121; 2100; 2 percussion; keyboards; strings

The Tempest is Shakespeare’s most musical play; as Caliban says “…the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs….”. Its musical demands include many songs and many magic effects, storms and a celestial masque.

Strangely, while many composers (including myself!) have written incidental music for the play, there have been very few operatic adaptations. Yet the fable contains all the operatic ingredients of romance, intrigue and comedy with lots of magic thrown in – is the happy ending a drawback!? There is also an important theme of freedom present, as the ‘tangata whenua’ of the island, Caliban and Ariel, struggle to get free from their slavery to Prospero. They finally succeed, and Prospero himself in the Epilogue asks the audience to “set him free” to leave magic and the stage, just as Shakespeare is also signalling his retirement from play-writing.

My adaptation of Shakespeare has reduced his text to about a quarter of the original, and five acts to three.

Act 1 starts with the storm, presents Prospero’s story so far and his relationships to Miranda, Ariel and Caliban, and ends with Ferdinand’s arrival and his falling in love with Miranda.
Act 2 is in five symmetrical scenes – courtiers, “comics”, lovers, “comics”, courtiers -, and presents the intrigues aimed at killing King Alonso and Prospero, but thwarted by Ariel.
Act 3 provides more magic ( Prospero’s masque of spirit godesses, celebrating the lovers’ betrothal), and leads to the denouement, where Prospero assembles everyone, forgives the would-be murderers, and announces the departure of all the the visitors to celebrate Miranda and Ferdinand’s wedding in Naples.
The Epilogue (originally for Prospero alone), is adapted as a vaudeville finale for the entire cast, ending with the everyone adding clapping to their singing, and inviting the audience to join in.

• Farquhar: Enchanted Island; computer-set 

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• Farquhar: Enchanted Island; facsimile 

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• Farquhar: Enchanted Island; computer-set 

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• Farquhar: Enchanted Island ; computer-set 

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flute/ piccolo, 2 trumpets, percussion, piano. Five Dancers can be replaced by two percussionists.

• Farquhar: Fives; facsimile 

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• Farquhar: Fives; facsimile 

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• Farquhar: Fives; facsimile 

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