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

Maria Grenfell  

A Feather of Blue

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 2000
for piano trio

  • Programme Note

    Commissioned in 2000 by the NZTrio, A Feather of Blue takes its title from a phrase in a poem called A View From A Window by New Zealand writer Kevin Ireland. I have always admired the wry humour and brightness of Kevin Ireland’s writing and many years ago set three of his poems for soprano and mixed ensemble. As a kind gesture Mr Ireland sent me a copy of his book of poems Skinning A Fish, and I was particularly struck by the imagery of colours, flowers, feathers and birds in this poem, which illustrates rain pouring down a window pane and giving way to a burst of sunshine after a storm.

    Maria Grenfell

  • Availability

Eric Biddington  

A Little Scherzo

 Year: 2009
for double bass and piano

Eric Biddington  

A Little Trio for Recorders

 Year: 2008
for two treble recorders and one tenor recorder

Lissa Meridan  

a quiet fury

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2008
for symphony orchestra and live electronics

  • Programme Note

    During 2007 I spent a lot of time making field recordings of background noise in Paris, and analysing the spectral and rhythmic content of those recordings. I found the more I listened to my recordings, the more musical material I found hidden in these background hisses and hums, chatterings and otherwise banal noises: rhythms, mysterious melodies, energies and harmonic tensions. While working on this commission for the NZSO, I decided to try to capture the intrinsic musical essences I could hear in my field recordings, and interpret those sounds in an orchestral context, with the juxtaposition of the original noise recordings finding musical relationships in the orchestral counterpart. The resulting piece is a conjuring of various energies, or furies, caught in the background noise of Paris, and finding their way into the back of my throat to be sung into a quiet fury.

    Lissa Meridan

  • Availability

Eric Biddington  

Adagio Triste

 Year: 2008
for two violins and piano

Dorothy Buchanan  

An Ocean Between Us

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

Chris Adams  

Anastasis

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2009
for full orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    3*3*3**3*;4331;timp; perc; hp; strings
  • Programme Note

    Anastasis is an exploration of musical contrasts where chamber music elements of intimacy and social interplay are juxtaposed with the colour and power of a full symphonic orchestra. Baroque Concerto Grosso traditions form the conceptual basis of Anastasis: instrumental divisions within the orchestra, like the wind sections, are exploited, and new instrumental groupings have been created using combinations of individual players across the ensemble. Elements from the twentieth century Concerto for Orchestra form have also been utilised, particularly the focus on the diversity of instrumental colour, extended instrumental range and virtuosity, and the array of dynamic and textural possibilities.

    Anastasis, our first taste of the APO’s resident composer, Chris Adams, proved to be a most attractive score.

    Adams knows where and how to uncover unexpected colours in a piece that enjoys jolting us with huge orchestral shouts in among more subdued, almost filigree passages.

    The second movement unfolds, with woodwind patterning, from lounge-laden harmonies and Adams nods to all manner of musics throughout the piece, right through to its conga-line finale.

    It is an appealing score that deserves a life beyound this single performance."

    William Dart, NZ Herald 7th September, 2009
    For the full article please click here

  • Availability

Alex Taylor  

antiphony

Duration: 02' 30" Year: 2009
brass fanfare

David Farquhar  

Beyond ...

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 2004, r. 2005
for orchestra

Pieta Hextall  

Bridge of Remembrance

Duration: 05' 35" Year: 2006
for full orchestra