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Michael Norris  

14 Islands

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005
for flute/bass flute, percussion, and prepared harp

Ross Carey  

Bagatelles

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005
for piano trio

  • Programme Note

    These twenty (mostly very brief) bagatelles were among the first pieces I wrote while on a one-month residency at the Visby International Centre for Composers in Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, in October 2005.

    The musical material I use in these Bagatelles I feel relates to my being in Europe (albeit a rather far-flung part) for the first time, and my subsequent reflection on my ‘European’ classical musical upbringing on the other side of the world in New Zealand. At times the music veers into irony, such as the violin caught in a maze of its own making (bagatelle 7) or the pianist unable to stop her rapid motions at either end of the keyboard (no. 14), sometimes to a laid-back jazzy feeling (no. 11) or quasi-improvisation (no 10); there are dance-like numbers too (4 and 19). The set ends with the longest bagatelle, a chromatic meditation over the open fifths of the cello and low register of the piano.

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Robin Toan  

Barcelona Postcards

Duration: 14' 00" Year: 2005, r. 2008
for flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, cello and piano

  • Programme Note

    1. The first movement illustrates the plethora of fish to be seen at the Aquarium at feeding time. There are small fish, big fish, colourful fish and plain fish. I have tried to mimic the darting movements of the small fish with quick high grace notes and tremolos. In contrast, the darker notes of the oboe and the piano represent the bigger, slower and brooding fish.

    2. Watching the harbour in the morning is one of the most serene and beautiful experiences one can have in Barcelona. One morning I visited the harbour when the skies were clear and the sun was sparking on the ocean, which was a most brilliant blue. The area was almost deserted; it was early. I have captured the tranquillity of the moment with an intimate trio of cello, violin and clarinet.

    3. Finding large as life puppets in the square outside the Cathedral was a delight. I imagined them to be alive, moving jerkily, interacting and dancing a little in an empty space.

    4. Stepping out of the Metro and being confronted by La Sagrada Familia was a momentous experience. I have chosen two aspects of what I felt for this movement. Firstly, there is the foreboding nature of the building; the way it looks as though it were melting, twisting and almost lurching as it towers over you. Secondly, there is the light and peace that radiates from it through the optimistic spires and delicate bird decorations.

    5. The fun side of Gaudi can be seen in the fairytale-like Park Gell, which is full of excitement, laughter and maybe (if you’re lucky) at bit of dancing.

    Barcelona Postcards received a Honorific Mention Award in the 2005 Frederic Mompou International Award for the Young Composer Competition of the Joventuts Musicals de Barcelona.

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Chris Watson  

Carrick Bend

Duration: 14' 00" Year: 2005
for solo saxophone and chamber ensemble

  • Instrumentation
    solo saxophone (tenor and soprano), flt, ob, cl, bs cl, hn, tpt, tbn, 3 perc., hp, gtr, pno, 2 vln, vla, vc, db.
  • Programme Note

    This work might be seen as a survey, from one end to the other, of a symmetrical, double-ended knot, where one thread is made of a sonic imagining of wire and the other of silk. Myriad loops and elbows, dippings under and over and threadings of eyes give rise to possibilities for certain meldings of materials, collisions of density, flavour and colour. Considered one of the most secure methods of tying two lines together, the Carrick Bend, like all bend-knots, has loose ends…

    Carrick Bend was commissioned by Stroma, with funding from Creative New Zealand. It was premiered by Stroma (cond. Hamish McKeich), with saxophonist Lars Mlekusch, in Wellington in 2005.

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Karlo Margetic  

Chamber Concertino

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005
for chamber ensemble

Anthony Ritchie  

Clouds, op.114

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005
for solo trombone and brass band

  • Instrumentation
    soprano cornet, solo cornets, cornets 1,2, repiano, flugel horn, solo horn, horns 1,2, baritones 1,2, trombones 1,2, bass trombone, euphoniums, E flat bass, B flat bass, timpani, 2-3 percussion, solo trombone
  • Programme Note

    The starting point for this piece was some dramatic cloud formations I experienced while in Morrinsville, near Hamilton. It was a brilliant sunny day, with occasional huge and interestingly shaped clouds floating past. They provided inspiration for the opening texture for my piece Clouds, which is flowing and slowly unfolding in character.

    Clouds can assume many different shapes and characters and this is reflected in my piece. There are stormy ideas with strong rhythms, jagged ideas built from small motifs, mysterious ideas that suggest darker clouds, bright climaxes that suggest the sun bursting through.

    The solo trombone is like a small aeroplane, weaving its way through the clouds and enjoying a rather turbulent journey. Its part is soloistic but integrated into the band texture and often underpinned by the percussion, who have an important role in sustaining the momentum of the piece. Near the end the soloist has a brief cadenza before the music rises to a rumbling climax. This passage finally disintegrates, as the clouds disperse.

    Anthony Ritchie

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Anthony Young  

Concertino for Orchestra

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005, r. 2010

  • Instrumentation
    22*22; 4331; timp., perc. (2 or 3), hp; strings
  • Programme Note

    This piece is affectionately known as ‘Bugs’ or ‘the Bug piece’ to me, and that is what it is about: the wonderful creepy crawlies native to New Zealand. Motivation for writing this piece came from two sources. As part of my residency with the Auckland Philharmonia in 2004, I was required to write a piece for a concert specifically at children and families. Naturally, it needed simple structures, lots of energy and a bit of fun.

    The second motivation with regard to a specific programme was a love for all native New Zealand fauna, and not just beautiful birds. So much music has been written with bird song or in celebration of New Zealand’s landscape. But nothing to my knowledge had been written about the humble creatures which often inspire revulsion rather than awe. Despite their not so cuddly appearance, native insects and invertebrates are just as fascinating and unique to these islands of ours as any other endemic wildlife.

    The first movement is Giant Weta. Often the most notorious for exciting disgust, these magnificent insects are quite amazing, but all to often fall prey to introduced mammals.

    The second movement is titled Giant Snails. Native giant snails are enormous, and often live in kauri trees, or feed on giant earthworms on the forest floor.

    The Nelson Cave Spider is a extremely unique creature. Like so many other creatures and plant life of New Zealand, it is a relic of ancient times and preserved by New Zealand’s isolation.

    Finally, perhaps the most unusual of all is the Peripatus, sometimes known as the velvet worm, a blue centipede-like creature that crawls through undergrowth in search of prey.

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Helen Bowater  

declination 0 (zero)

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005
for mixed chamber sextet

Gareth Farr  

Dialogue

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005
for marimba and vibraphone

  • Programme Note

    Dialogue was commissioned by Jeremy Fitzsimons in 2004 with funding from Chamber Music New Zealand and is Gareth’s first work for two mallet percussion instruments. The piece explores the ability of the two instruments to blend into one as well as highlighting the contracts in tone between the two.
    The first movement is a development of a chord progression played by the marimba at the beginning; Balinese interlocking techniques (kotekan) are used in the second movement; and the third movement is a moto perpetuo (constant motion) with the two instruments dashing forwards in parallel, in counterpoint, and in canon.

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Dylan Lardelli  

Duo

Duration: 11' 40" Year: 2005, r. 2011
for oboe and guitar