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Dorothy Buchanan  

An Ocean Between Us

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2006
for mezzo-soprano and piano quartet

Eve de Castro-Robinson  

At water's birth

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2008
for piano trio

  • Instrumentation
    violin, cello, piano (some preparation required); all performers required to speak

    Piano preparation: the strings between c’’’ and a’’’ need to have a flat metal object laid on top to achieve a bright, jangly ringing sonority (especially from mm 26-37). This/these to be removed by the pianist in the section from m 45.

    The three strings F, G, A flat, should have firm rubber wedges between them to create a dull thuddy sonority (for the section at m42), but with a still discernible pitch
  • Programme Note

    At water’s birth is a meditative, ritualistic work, whose sonic palette includes prepared piano sonorities and some vocalising from the players, including whispering, spoken words and whistling.

    The pushing out of the boundaries of the conventional instrumental sounds is something I have employed in other works such as the whistling and knocking on the piano lid in small blue for piano and the bell and tamtam playing in Ring True. The meandering sections of the music suggest a relationship with the forces of water, its depth, currents and undercurrents and there is a sense of ritual in some of the chant-like rhythms.

  • Availability

Ross Carey  

Come Together

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 2006
for SATB choir, viola and piano

  • Programme Note

    Written for the students of the National School for the Blind and Vision Impaired, Manurewa. Ideas for the text and musical form were workshopped with some of the students and their teacher, Wendy Richards in October, 2005, and again in March, 2006. The finished work looks at ideas about difference, belonging and finding common ground; a lyrical opening and closing section frames a more energetic middle section exploring ideas of conflict and tension, before finally the choir is able to unite (come together) at the end of the piece. The piece received its first performance at the National School for the Blind and Vision Impaired annual national music camp held in Manurewa, Manukau City, in July, 2006.

  • Availability

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.

  • Availability

Gary Daverne  

Fanfare and Procession

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 2002
for orchestra

Leonie Holmes  

For Young Nick

Duration: 05' 30" Year: 2002, r. 2012
for orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    2222;4231;timp;2 perc;piano;harp,strings
  • Programme Note

    As I listened to media reports on the ownership of Young Nick’s Head, I began to wonder about the life of the real ‘Young Nick’, who first sighted this land from the deck of the ship Endeavour. What was life like on board the ship for the young boy, and how did it feel to sight the land? Various images came to mind, including a silhouette of land in the early morning light, or a murky shape barely visible through grey storm spray, or a dark smudge on a bright blue horizon. This piece was written with these images in mind.

    For Young Nick was premiered by Wellington Youth Orchestra in 2003.

  • Availability

John Rimmer  

Fragile Earth

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2004
for oboe and string trio

  • Instrumentation
    oboe, violin, viola, cello
  • Programme Note

    Fragile Earth

    Fragile Earth is a conservationist’s lament and was inspired by the anti-nuclear poem “No Ordinary Sun” written in the early 1970’s by the celebrated poet Hone Tuwhare.

    The piece presents a brooding chant which undergoes variation by means of rhythmic and textural contrasts, organic growth and fragmentation.

    Fragile Earth was commissioned by Tom and Anne Morris for the Ensemble Philharmonia and first performed on 20 November 2004 at the Auckland Public Library auditorium.

    Fragile Earth

    Fragile Earth is a conservationist’s lament and was inspired by the anti-nuclear poem “No Ordinary Sun” written in the early 1970’s by the celebrated poet Hone Tuwhare.

    The piece presents a brooding chant which undergoes variation by means of rhythmic and textural contrasts, organic growth and fragmentation.

    Fragile Earth was commissioned by Tom and Anne Morris for the Ensemble Philharmonia and first performed on 20 November 2004 at the Auckland Public Library auditorium.

  • Availability

John Rimmer  

Frozen Continent

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 2005
for soprano cornet and piano

Colin Gibson  

Hymn for Anzac Day Himene mō te rā o Anzac

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 2005
for congregational singing with keyboard accompaniment

Dorothy Buchanan  

Late Song

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 2001
for flute (doubling piccolo/narration), clarinet, piano and narrator