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

John Rimmer  

A Cambridge Canzona

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1961, r. 2008
for brass quintet (orchestral instruments)

John Rimmer  

A Cambridge Canzona

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1961, r. 2008
for brass quintet (brass band instruments)

Yvette Audain  

A Charleston Kick With Steel Caps – alto sax quartet version

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2011
for four alto saxophones

Jodi Chen  

A message to Han Cho

Duration: 06' 06" Year: 2003
for orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B flat, 1 bass clarinet in B flat, 2 bassoons, 4 French horns in F, 2 trumpets in C, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone, timpani, percussion 1: suspended cymbal, percussion 2: triangle, harp, vibraphone, strings
  • Programme Note

    A message to Han Cho (the Yangzhou magistrate) for orchestra was inspired by the Chinese poem, A message to Han Cho by Du Mu (803-852AD, China) in the Chinese Tang dynasty. In this poem Du Mu expresses the sadness of the magistrate yearned for the day to return to his distant love. This orchestral work contains musical ideas influenced by the Eastern culture and utilising Western orchestration to imitate the sound of Chinese instruments (Chinese zither and vertical bamboo flute) to purposely maintain the cultural connection with the original tenor of the poem. To achieve this synthesis I experimented with the pronunciation of the poem in Mandarin, and then compose the melodic lines to suit the four-line poem which became the theme of the music. The image of a fair lady plays the flute under the moon on the Twenty-Four Bridges is a traditional Chinese painting specially selected for this particular poem.

    青山隱隱水迢迢, From mist the green hills emerge and afar the river flows,
    秋盡江南草木凋. grass still grows in Jiangnan, yet the end of fall is close.
    二十四橋明月夜, Over the Twenty-Four Bridges the bright moon glows,
    玉人何處教吹簫. where the fair lady teaches the flute no one knows.

  • Availability

Rosemary Russell  

A Wellington Christmas or Christmas Eve Reflections

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2000
for three part treble choir with SATB choir and finger cymbals

  • Programme Note

    In the deepness of the night before Christmas, children dream of exciting and wondrous things: so do adults, but they are also fraught with arrangements and planning for the big day. a call for simplicity and remembering the loving and gifting nature of Christmas. This piece is performed “in the round” i.e. the adult choir encircles the audience and the children stand up the central aisle. The adult choir gradually moves around the audience and sings at times in smaller groupings. The audience does not know where the sound will come from next. The children need to be able to hold 3 simple parts. Finger cymbals are used to indicate stars and nocturnal animals create an interesting opening. It is depicts a New Zealand Christmas experience.

  • Availability

Maria Grenfell  

Alegria

Duration: 07' 00" Year: 2004
for orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    1(1)1(1)1(1)2; 4231; timp., 2 perc.; strings
  • Programme Note

    ‘Alegria’ is an education piece for children of primary school age. It focuses on aspects of rhythm and ostinato, and it is based on the flamenco principle of 3+3+2+2+2 (12 beat cycle). Flamenco music is based on Spanish gypsy music, and is often accompanied by clapping, so there are clapping parts included for members of the orchestra. The audience may learn the simple clapping patterns so they can accompany the orchestra when they hear the patterns. The central section in 5/8 is intended as an asymmetrical contrast to the duple and triple meters of the outer sections. “Alegria” means ‘joy’ or ‘happiness’ in Spanish.

  • Availability

Carol Shortis  

Amokura

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 2008
a lullaby for SATB choir with piano accompaniment

  • Programme Note

    Amokura refers to a red-tailed tropic bird, a rare visitor to Aotearoa/New Zealand, whose tail-feather is treasured by Māori. One such feather was incorporated into the design of a pūtōrino (flute) that Dr Melbourne played. This was one of the last songs Dr Melbourne wrote, and he never recorded it; as with all of his songs, only the words were written down. The song was written for his granddaughter, also called Amokura, who is perhaps the only person who ever heard it sung.


    Dr Melbourne devoted his life to restoring the voices of traditional Māori instruments, which had lain, unplayed in museums in Aotearoa/New Zealand and around the world. His passion for these taonga pūoro or ‘singing treasures’ shines through in the words of this song, where he likens Amokura to all those things most special to him.


    *No performance without prior consent of composer/Hirini Melbourne Whanau Trust

  • Availability

Carol Shortis  

An Tuiream Bais

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2009
a Gaelic death dirge for a cappella SSAATTBB choir

  • Programme Note

    The Carmina Gadelica, known in Gaelic as Ortha nan Gaidheal, is a six-volume collection of orally-transmitted prayers, poems, blessings and other material, collected by the folklorist Alexander Carmichael in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the second half of the nineteenth century. Carmichael subsequently translated this material, and edited the first two volumes. The death dirge An Tuiream Bais was published in the third volume, edited by Alexander’s grandson, James Carmichael Watson. I have set the first, fourth, fifth and sixth verses in the original Gaelic language.

  • Availability

Anthony Ritchie  

Balkan Bagpipes

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 1985
for amateur orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    2(1pc)222; 4210;timp (3), 1-2perc (sd-dr,tri,xylo, sus cym, tamb), pf,hp; strs
  • Programme Note

    This is a lively 9-minute piece is written for a full-sized amateur orchestra. It evokes the music of East European bagpipes, which the composer experienced while studying in Budapest, in 1984.

  • Availability

Anthony Ritchie  

Caroline Bay Suite

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1999
four pieces for piano

  • Programme Note

    This suite of four short pieces is aimed at the younger pianist, of Grade 3 – 4 level. Sunrise, children playing, a runner and a carnival have become the subjects for imaginative musical interpretation.

  • Availability