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.

Reset

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
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Gillian Whitehead  

Outrageous Fortune

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

Add to Wishlist

Full information

William Dart  

Songs to the Judges

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

Score Sample
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Anthony Ritchie  

Symphony No. 1 - 'Boum'

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

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • 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
Add to Wishlist

Full information

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

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • 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
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Kit Powell  

The Ever-Circling Light: Te Ao Hurihuri

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 1980
four choruses for SATB choir and 6 percussionists

Score Sample
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Rod Biss  

Waiata Aroha

Duration: 45' 00" Year: 1998, r. 2010
a song cycle for three singers of eight songs by Witi Ihimaera with string orchestra with harp and saxophone

  • Programme Note

    When Witi Ihimaera approached me with his cycle of poems he gave them to me with a very detailed description of how he wanted them set, even to suggesting that there should be instrumental ‘variations’ between each song.

    Waiata Aroha, he wrote, “is a group of ‘last songs’ sung by a young man facing death (tenor), his lover (baritone) and the dying man’s elder sister (mezzo-soprano). The song cycle itself comprises three solos, two duets and one trio.”

    When he showed me the poems I was most impressed with them and thought that they would undoubtedly work well as a song cycle. We agreed that the overall of the cycle should not be too dark, quoting again from Witi’s note; “Like at a tangihanga the ultimate mood should be one of transformation, coming to terms with the cycle of life and death.”

    His idea of ‘variations’ between the songs has not entirely disappeared, but instead of writing separate instrumental movements I have allowed the music to develop into dance-like sections, and where Witi has provided particularly visual images I have tried to match them in the music.

    The first draft of the song cycle was completed as long ago as 1998, revisions took me up to 2005, and since then I have put it onto the Sibelius computer programme making a few further changes at the same time. Witi has said that he might like to make a few changes to the words before any performances takes place – but largely speaking I think the cycle is complete. A piano reduction is available.

    Rod Biss
    26 July 2010

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information