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Ronald Dellow  

8 Songs From The I Ching

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1998
a cycle for high voice and oboe

Maria Grenfell  

A Pinch of Time...

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1991
five songs for baritone (or medium voice) and piano

Brigid Ursula Bisley  

Come Back Safely

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 1995, r. 1999
for soprano, string quintet and percussion

Dorothy Ker  

Dances After the Haiku

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1990
for soprano, viola, clarinet, cello and piano

  • Programme Note

    This cycle is linked to The Rock, Whatipu for solo soprano, which preceded it without break in the 1990 performance – this is the ideal format.

    This work is in five movements; the numbering of the movements relates to the cycle of poems by Denis Trussell (I, II, III, VII, X).

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Anthony Ritchie  

Five Dunedin Songs for Tenor and Guitar Opus 77

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 1995

  • Programme Note

    Poems by Iain Lonie and Bernadette Hall, and commissioned by Tony Donaldson for performance by himself (guitar) and Robert Oliver (tenor) in 1997, with funding from Creative NZ. Originally from Dunedin, Bernadette studied Classics under Iain Lonie at Otago University. I have to thank two other Classicists with regard to the selection of these poems for setting: Andrew Barker who put me onto Iain’s poetry, and Gail Tatham who recommended Bernadette’s poems to me.

    Anthony Ritchie

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Stephan Schulz  

Five New Zealand Songs

Duration: 17' 00" Year: 1991, r. 2002
for baritone and piano

Dorothy Buchanan  

Fragments and Letters

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1992
a song cycle for voice, clarinet and cello

Juliet Palmer  

Love is a Thing

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1992
for soprano, harp and harpsichord

  • Programme Note

    What thing is love? for, well I wot love is a thing. It is a prick, it is a sting, It is a pretty pretty thing; It is a fire, it is a coal, Whose flame creeps in at every hole; And as my wit doth best devise, Love’s dwelling is in ladies’ eyes: From whence do glance love’s piercing darts That make such holes into our hearts; And all the world herein accord Love is a great and mighty lord, And when he list to mount so high, With Venus he in heaven doth lie, And evermore hath been a god Since Mars and she played even and odd. - George Peele (1558-1596)

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David Hamilton  

No Other Heaven

Duration: 19' 00" Year: 1997
five songs for tenor and guitar

  • Programme Note

    In 1995 a volume of New Zealand love poetry was published under the title My Heart Goes Swimming. Instead of using one of the more conventional orderings of the poems, the editors arranged the poems chronologically according to when they believed the poets had written them. My selection of poems retained this organisation, although during composition of the cycle I substituted my original choice for the final poem with Robin Hyde’s Road’s End. The poets represented in the cycle are A.R.D. Fairburn, Mary Stanley, Brian Turner, Denis Glover and Robin Hyde.

    There is no real common thread which links the poems, other than their subject of love. All except the first speak directly to another person, whereas the first is descriptive of a loved one. The second poem speaks of the intimacy of love. It provides the cycle’s title in its last two lines: “I seek no other heav’n beyond your mortal face”. The third poem has the poet offering to give the reasons why love has flourished: to “…invite me to speak of the secrets I never knew I wanted to tell you”. The fourth poem uses the recurring line “I am bright with the wonder of you” to describe the various attractions of the loved one. The final song is a re-working of a piece which originally appeared as part of my Three Robin Hyde Impressions of 1993 for choir and piano. It seemed to fit here as a bittersweet farewell to love : “you have made summer golden, now you go”.

    No Other Heaven was commissioned by New Zealand guitarist Tony Donaldson with funding from Creative New Zealand whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

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Lyell Cresswell  

Snatches, from Baptized Generations

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1995
for tenor and piano

  • Programme Note

    1.
    When Bells stop ringing – Church – begins –
    The Positive – of Bells –
    Then Cogs – stop – that’s Circumference –
    The Ultimate – of Wheels.

    2.
    A word is dead
    When it is said,
    Some say.
    I say it just
    Begins to live
    That day.

    3.
    Drab Habitation of Whom?
    Tabernacle or Tomb –
    Or Dome of Worm –
    Or Porch of Gnome –
    Or some Elf’s Catacomb?

    4.
    I’ve seen a Dying Eye
    Run round and round a Room –
    In search of Something – as it seemed –
    Then Cloudier become –
    And then – obscure with Fog –
    And then – be soldered down
    Without disclosing what it be
    ‘Twere blessed to have seen –

    5.
    I’m Nobody! Who are you?
    Are you – Nobody – Too?
    Then there’s a pair of us?
    Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

    How dreary – to be – Somebody!
    How public – like a Frog –
    To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
    To an admiring Bog!

    6.
    Ample make this Bed –
    Make this Bed with Awe –
    In it wait till Judgement break
    Excellent and Fair.

    Be its Mattress straight –
    Be its Pillow round –
    Let no Sunrise’ yellow noise
    Interrupt this Ground –

    7.
    Over and over, like a Tune –
    The Recollection plays –
    Drums off the Phantom Battlements
    Cornets of Paradise –
    Snatches, from Baptizes Generations –
    Cadences too grand
    But for the Justified Processions
    At the Lord’s Right hand.

    8.
    There is a pain – so utter –
    It swallows substance up –
    Then covers the Abyss with Trance –
    So Memory can step
    Around – across – upon it –
    As one within a Swoon –
    Goes safely – where an open eye –
    Would drop Him – Bone by Bone.

    9.
    “Faith” is a fine invention
    When Gentlemen can see –
    But Microscopes are prudent
    In an emergency.

    10.
    Too few the mornings be,
    Too scant the nights.
    No lodging can be had
    For the delights
    That come to earth to stay,
    But no apartment find
    And ride away.

    11.
    Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
    Were I with thee
    Wild nights should be
    Our luxury!

    Futile – the Winds –
    To a Heart in port –
    Done with the Compass –
    Done with the Chart!

    Rowing in Eden –
    Ah, the Sea!
    Might I but moor – Tonight –
    In Thee!

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