Search Music:

cor anglais, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass

‘faccee’ is composed as a set of loosely related, programmatic movements which portray different moods through the day. ‘faccee’ is intended as a lighter work of chamber music with elements of mystery, humor, charm and satire.

‘Dawn’ begins the work slowly, with the darkness and solitude of morning blossoming full fruit into daylight, then relaxing into the day. Movement two, ‘Boogie’, quickens the pace and is akin to experiences while walking the streets of the city. The further one travels, the more activity one encounters until reaching the heart of the city, where a rousing canon surrounds you with people and congested traffic. Then, suddenly, you arrive at your destination and with one last exclamation are in the door.

‘Daydream’ is a brief visit into the realm of nostalgia and sentiment, with a pleasant, recurring melody in the english horn and violin. What better for a finale than an old-fashioned ‘galop’ ? This ‘galop’ is, rather, a musical pun on the Viennese version. The ‘Galop’ gives way to the ‘Trio Satirico’ which pokes fun at traditional trios with a duple/triple reconfiguration of 9/8; making for a gawky feel. Then on to the ‘Finale’ where themes from earlier in the day are revisited in a whirlwind finish.

• Stabler: faccee; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

• Stabler: faccee; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Stabler: 'faccee'  Year: 2002 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

Percussion: 2 bongos, 2 Congas, small tom; also requires: calligraphic paintbrush, large sheet of paper, white sand, two palm-sized black rocks

• Norris: 14 Islands; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $8.50
  • • Quantity:

• Norris: 14 Islands; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $8.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Michael Norris: 14 Islands; audio 

  Media on Demand | Embedded
  

• Two works by Michael Norris 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

It is impossible not to feel inspired when playing some of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Debussy’s two books of preludes, or Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. As a composer I wanted to make a small mark of respect to these greats with some dedications. I have also taken a cue from Bach and Shostakovich and included contrapuntal forms within these preludes. While not wanting to restrict myself to the form of a fugue, there are several preludes which are close in spirit to fugues: Nos.17 and 19 for instance, are what I would call my ‘prelugues’. There is also a passacaglia (No.16) which owes a debt to Shostakovich. I have conceived these pieces as a unified whole. Within them I have attempted to cover a whole variety of characters and moods, from the improvisational and experimental to the lyrical and gentle, from the wild and gestural to the calm and peaceful, from the quirky and ‘black’ to the light and sunny, from the depressive to the resolved. The extensive technical planning and preparation behind these pieces has been fun for me as the composer, but in the end it is the sound and musical expression that matters. I would like to think this voyage of discovery has led to something new and interesting to listen to.

• Ritchie A.: 24 Preludes; Computer Set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $35.50
  • • Quantity:

• Ritchie A: Twenty-four Preludes; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $42.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Anthony Ritchie: Piano Preludes  Year: 2004 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

alto flute/piccolo; clarinet in A; bass clarinet/small bamboo chimes to hang on music stand; horn in F/small bamboo chimes to hang on music stand; bass trombone/small bamboo chimes tohang on music stand; percussion: 2 suspended cymbals, hihat, sizzle cymbal, 3 toms, medium bass drum, 3 woodblocks, three sets of maracas, bamboo or wood chimes; harp; violin;viola; cello and bass

In this work, cycles of accumulation and decay move in broad wave-like gestures, recalling the sea. I am fascinated by the potency of the tiniest gesture, syllable or phoneme. Having no ‘meaning’ in itself, the syllable ‘and’ is weightless and transient, yet holds enormous power to link ideas; to create anticipation/momentum. It is like a wave bearing thought towards utterance. …and…11 was composed for, and is dedicated to, Chachi and Lontano.

• Ker: [...and...11]; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

• Ker: ...and...; computer set 

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

• NZ Women Composers Vol. 2 

  CD
  

• Dorothy Ker: ...and...  Year: 2002 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

• diffracted terrains: Chamber Music of Dorothy Ker  Year: 2007 

  CD
  
  $35.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

This piece was composed in close collaboration with Andrew Sparling whose facility in using quarter-tone fingerings made it possible to experiment with these to produce music which exploits their timbral and colouristic qualities. It was stimulated by a return visit, following a seven-year absence, to New Zealand in 2002. Imagery of the sea is strong within its musical/poetic discourse and the piece is broadly structured over a cycle of seven ‘intensity waves’. The title is shared by an earlier work […and… 11] for 12 players (composed for Lontano in 2002). The link between these contrasting works is the morphology of the wave, encapsulated as a sonic envelope of aspirate (a) – resonant (n) – explosive (d), along with the extremes of space that are characterised in the music by extreme contrasts in dynamic, register and motion. Sparling has performed and recorded the piece in a number of different realisations. In April it was performed by Australian player Richard Haynes at the TURA International Festival in Perth and broadcast by ABC.

• Ker: [...and...1]; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $12.00
  • • Quantity:

• diffracted terrains: Chamber Music of Dorothy Ker  Year: 2007 

  CD
  
  $35.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

The title itself is a play on the words “fatality” and “tonality”, the two words and concepts colliding to form “[f]at[on]ality”. Similarly, the music presents two contrasting musical languages that intersect and compete violently for dominance. The first of these is a tonal language, represented by various types of (major/minor etc.) chords derived from four constituent triads of a twelve-tone row. The first phrase presents this language in conflict with itself, collapsing two triads into a hexachord at the punctuation points of the phrase. These chords then begin to extricate and extrapolate themselves, – beginning in the right hand at the start of the second phrase – under which the twelve-tone row (presented in the accelerating and decelerating lines of the first phrase) is fragmented and rhythmically manipulated. This twelve-tone row represents the second musical language, that is, a quasi-serial atonal language that is subjected to transformation by inversion, retrograde, multiplication etc. While on one level the music is concerned with the intersection and interdependence of these languages, it is also concerned with the dramatic consequences of that collision. The dynamic and rhythmic frameworks are somewhat extreme, providing a constantly surging, climactic structure that, in the end, resolves ambivalently. The inspiration for the piece came from a poetic doodle, reprinted below:

con.vent.shun

wanting to dis / dys
place / figure / function

this fatal tonality
tonal fatality
total finality
final totality

this [f]at[on]al entity

cacophonic / catatonic
coughed up and codified

maybe some kind of
superficial facticity / deep fiction
palimpsestic / incestuous

stasis / stagnation
repetitious f[l/r]agellation
sheer f[l/r]agrance

and you can’t get out

or in

• Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $9.00
  • • Quantity:

• Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $9.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Alex Taylor: [f]at[on]ality; video 

  Media on Demand | External - video
  

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

• Grenfell: A Feather of Blue; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

• Grenfell: A Feather of Blue; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $12.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Grenfell: A Feather of Blue; computer-set 

  Parts - written | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $20.00
  • • Quantity:

• Grenfell: A Feather of Blue; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:

• New Zealand Trio - Spark  Year: 2004 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

This piece was inspired by a most mundane and unremarkable occurrence that you may well ignore – like a flick of lights. Was it a signal, or was it accidental. If it wasn’t an accident, what would have happened if I responded. Maybe something wonderful, maybe not. Was it meant for me? Was it meant for anyone? Could things have gone sour? All these things plunge through the mind, but no one will ever know.

But even after it is shrugged off, the bitter sweet sound of opportunities lost sing on.

A Flick of Lights is in a single movement primarily for solo bass clarinet, but with two other hidden parts for effect. The hidden parts (clarinet and soprano) can be included in the programme (as in first performance) or excluded from the programme (as in second performance) if a surprise for the audience is desired. Hidden parts should be or should sound distant.

• Young, A.: A Flick of Lights; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $9.00
  • • Quantity:

• Young, A.: A Flick of Lights; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $9.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

a furred tail upon nothingness for solo oboe was written for Slovene oboe player Matej Sarc and forms part of the cycle ‘Canto 2’ for wind quintet. The entire cycle was premiered at the 2010 Slowind Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia by the Slovene wind quintet Slowind.

• Hall: a furred tail upon nothingness; computer set 

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

• Hall: a furred tail upon nothingness; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $19.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

3[1.alto.3/picc]3[1.2.ca]3[1.2.bs cl]3[1.2.contra], 4331, timp., 2 perc., piano/celestra, harp, strings[14.12.10.8.6]

The overall conception of the piece is underpinned by an evolving, wave-like movement – continuous cycles stretching/compressing/proliferating. There is a strong connection to the sea, as in [… and…11], composed in 2002. A passacaglia of seven chords, gradually permutating until they eventually assemble into reverse order, form the ground or ‘canvas’. The various textural and linear surfaces of the piece all emerge from this ground as reflections, extensions, compressions, or distillations of the core material. Quarter-tones (division of the chromatic scale into 24 tones instead of the usual 12) enrich and intensify the harmony while rendering it more tactile and less pitch-defined.

Review:

“The 7-minute a gentle infinity…is both atmospheric and deft in Ker’s handling of a large orchestra, subtly dynamic (not least in the use of percussion), edgily communicative, and vibrant in its imagery; a piece full of good things, arguably cut off prematurely. Conducted by Pavel Kotla, the LSO once again suggested that Ker (in attendance) is a composer to watch out for.”

-Colin Anderson, www.classicalsource.com

• Dorothy Ker: a gentle infinity - hardcopy score 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $21.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Dorothy Ker: a gentle infinity - downloadable PDF 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $18.00
  • • Quantity:

• Dorothy Ker: a gentle infinity - hire set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire