Search Music:

‘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.

• Grenfell: Alegria; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

• Grenfell: Alegria; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $25.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Maria Grenfell: Alegria and River Mountain Sky 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

Arapatiki was commissioned by Stephen De Pledge as one of a series of Landscape preludes, and received its first performance in the Wigmore Hall, London, in January, 2004. Arapatiki translates (from the Maori language) as ‘the way of the flounder’, and is the ancient name of the sand flats in front of my house at Harwood, near Dunedin. The piece has something to do with the advance and retreat of the tide across the flats, where many species of sea and water birds spend much of the day – an ever-varying water-scape. The opening idea is based on the song of the korimako or bellbird.

• Whitehead: Arapatiki; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $19.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Whitehead: Arapatiki; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $16.00
  • • Quantity:

• Landscape Preludes  Year: 2011 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $40.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Gillian Whitehead: Arapatiki; video 

  Media on Demand | Embedded
  

• Gillian Whitehead: Various Works 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• Stephen de Pledge - Landscape Preludes  

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• Stephen de Pledge plays Arapatiki by Gillian Whitehead 

  DVD
  
  • Borrow

• Tuhonohono: Music by Gillian Whitehead 

  DVD
  
  • Borrow

• An Interview with Gillian Whitehead 

  DVD
  
  • Borrow

• Stephen de Pledge: Three Landscape Preludes  Year: 2004 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• Gillian Whitehead: Arapātiki CD  Year: 2012 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

This piece takes a text which John Dowland wrote and set to music, and offers a different setting, in a style contemporary with the original one.

• Maclean: Come Heavy Sleepe; facsimile 

  Full score | Pdf - facsimile
  

• Maclean: Come Heavy Sleepe; facsimile 

  Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
  
  $4.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

Comic was written for the Howick School of Music Youth Orchestra. It was premiered in December 2004 at Elim Church, Howick, Auckland

• Toan: Comic; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $10.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Toan: Comic; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

The title of this work may seem unexpected as there is no ‘Concert Grosso No. 1’ in my list of works! However I’ve always considered my 1985 work for strings and percussion ‘Well Done, Mister Bach’ to be a concerto grosso. That work features the leaders of all five string parts as a ‘concertante’ group. In a more traditional Baroque manner, this work features just the leaders of the first and second violin and cello sections as the soloists. My intention with the work was to write something in the manner of a Baroque concerto grosso, drawing inspiration from typical styles of the period. Mixed in are my own musical and compositional preferences, so that in the end the piece might be described as ‘Baroque meets minimalism’. I finally gave into the temptation to give the three movements titles. The title, ‘Prelude’, of the first movement is a little ironic as it is longer than the remaining two movements combined. The second movement, ‘Air on a Shoestring’ suggests a rather brief, perhaps truncated air, in this case, a piece which fails to return to its home key. The final movement is in the manner of a Baroque fugue, I knew that university paper would finally come in useful one day!. ‘Concert Grosso No. 2’ was commissioned by the Music Department of St Cuthbert’s College in Auckland, and follows a commission from them the previous year for ‘Whisper to me’ (for choir, strings and percussion).

• Hamilton: Concerto Grosso No. 2; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $22.50
  • • Quantity:

• Hamilton: Concerto Grosso No.2; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $22.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

Double Bass Concerto in e minor was written as a showpiece for the more natural characteristics of the double bass, such as the warmth and solidity of plucked strings, the ease of harmonics, the resonance of open strings, and the extended 4-octave range. The double bass is a member of the viol family, with an inherently more delicate quality to its timbre than its modern orchestral cousins the violin, viola, and ‘cello. As a solo instrument, it offers an alternate view of virtuoso string playing; a low register dark with rich, complex broodings, a middle range filled with anticipation and veiled longing, and an unusually graceful and poetic high compass bereft of throaty tension or shrillness.

This concerto is written in the form of a rhapsody or capriccio, in one movement with an extended, freer exposition. Under alert tremolo, the bass opens with an impulsive statement that climbs three times from its rock-bottom open E string to its highest harmonics. The strings answer with a quiet, gentle elegy, soon transformed by the bass into a more yearning episode that ends on an unsettled note. A bravura melody leaps forth from this cloud, a folk-dance tune that gambols between soloist and orchestra, leading the music through restless changes of key and expectation. A heartfelt strain emerges, eventually guiding the music to a floating, dreamy musical landscape. Over pulsing strings, the bass ponders the themes of the concerto in tender detail throughout its range of pitch and color, suggesting a haven of peaceful beauty. The previous mood springs back to life in a boisterous answer, leading to a cadenza in which the bass’s ruminations are gruffer and more pointed than before. In the final coda the strings return to their elegy, then the bass takes the orchestra back to the beginning, reversing the sprawling gestures to drift down from the heights, fading to silence on a lingering octave E.

• Goss: Double Bass Concerto in e minor; computer-set 

  Piano reduction | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $23.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Goss: Double Bass Concerto in e minor; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Pdf - computer set
  

• Goss: Double Bass Concerto in e minor; computer-set 

  Piano reduction | Pdf - computer set
  
  $23.00
  • • Quantity:

• Goss: Double Bass Concerto in e minor; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

Written for the 2004 Douglas Lilburn Trust Composition Prize competition, Fanfare of the Earth dates from my second year of undergrad at the University of Auckland. The première was by a scratch ensemble in the Prize Gala Concert. Due to the difficulty in scheduling and assembling 11 brass players (an unwieldy task I set myself mostly to prove I could), the one and only rehearsal finished 55 minutes before the gig. The performance was, as I remember, functional to put it kindly; dodgy to put it honestly; a bit shit, to be blunt.

Losing nearly all of my Sibelius files in a hard drive crash the following year, it was only on paper that this piece languished in my archives (a Bernadino wine box in my parents’ attic). But when Lee Martelli, Education Manager of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, mentioned to me that she’s always on the look-out for brass music, I saw a chance to literally dust off and figuratively resuscitate it. Inputting it into Sibelius again (and reflecting on how that software has changed – what wonders Dynamic Parts and Magnetic Layout are!) I’ve made revisions, mostly to articulation, phrasing and dynamics.

The piece itself then? I suppose I should say something about it. So…
It’s a fanfare… and it’s written for brass… kind of does what it says on the tin, really. No complex layers here.

• Ellis: Fanfare of the Earth; computer set 

  Score and parts | Pdf - computer set
  
  $21.50
  • • Quantity:

• Ellis: Fanfare of the Earth; computer set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $26.00
  • • Quantity:

• Ellis: Fanfare of the Earth; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

• Hamilton: Folk Song Suite for Strings; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

• Hamilton: Folk Song Suite for Strings; computer-set 

  Parts - written | Hardcopy - computer set
  

• Hamilton: Folk Song Suite for Strings; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $16.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• McLeod: Godsongs No. 13: 17 Christmas Carols; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $12.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

Greenstone Sinfonia is a sinfonia concertante in the classical sense, a multi-movement work in which several soloists work together with the orchestra to make a concerted whole. It differs from a concerto grosso in that its solo parts are more individual, tending to play off, rather than into, the fabric of the orchestra.

While the music in this piece is in the style of the composer, the name and mood of each movement is derived from the pounamu talismans of New Zealand. Carved by Maori craftsmen in greenstone jade (and sometimes bone), these highly prized objects were not only worn as jewelry: they helped to convey a sense of status and attitude towards life. The different shapes symbolized the relationship of the Maori to nature, their ancestors, and the spirit world.

A Patu is a war club: as a greenstone it represents facing and overcoming life’s challenges. The first violin soloist introduces a lilting, expectant theme, building as the other instruments join in a song of greeting. A trade-off of solo statements leads to a haka, a slapping, chanting Maori cry of defiance and readiness for battle.

The highly ornate symbol of Hei matau was used as a charm for safe journey over water, and represents the hook used by Maui to catch the mighty fish that became the North Island of New Zealand. This movement is a peaceful contrast to the first in its lazy rocking meter and billowing phrases.

Manaia is a spirit that protects and provides for an iwi, or tribe, portrayed in profile as part-way between the worlds of spirit and flesh. The music is spirited and bird-like, fluttering and dancing from quartet to orchestra with the viola as the bridging instrument.

The ‘cello takes over in the last movement, Koru, named for the spiraling twist of the native fern frond. Paying tribute to that emblem of unfolding nature, melodies unwind with slow, deliberate calm, layering one on another through a simple, hymn-like chord progression into a joyous ode to life.

• Goss: Greenstone Sinfonia; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $27.00
  • • Quantity:

• Goss: Greenstone Sinfonia; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $27.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Goss: Greenstone Sinfonia; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Pdf - computer set
  

• Goss: Greenstone Sinfonia; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

• Thomas Goss: Greenstone Sinfonia 

  Digital sound file - MP3