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Every now and then the deputy musical directors of Auckland Choral Society are invited to jointly conduct a concert. In 1999 this took the form of a ’subscriber’s bonus’ concert, containing works requiring minimal accompaniment forces. Early discussions lead us in the direction of a Shakespeare-themed concert. In addition to conducting some American settings of Shakespeare, I decided to write a new cycle using Shakespearean texts. Given the nature of the intended concert, I wanted to write a work which was immediately approachable and contained an element of fun. My original intention was to compose a cycle based on references to flowers in Shakespeare’s writings, as I had a copy of a book which detailed them. However, it soon became apparent that many references were part of texts which were not suitable for a musical setting : some were conversational and others merely a passing mention of a flower. I broadened my scope a little and fashioned a sequence of seven texts which all refer in some way to things botanical and/or seasonal. The first text is from ‘As You Like It’ and sets the well-known ‘it was a lover and his lass’ in a jazzy idiom. A complete contrast of mood is presented in ‘Come, buy’ from ‘The Winter’s Tale’, where the words detail a variety of items which might be purchased to charm a lady. The third piece is a short setting of ‘Hark, hark the lark’ from ‘Cymberline’. Unlike Schubert’s well-known setting, this lark is rather boisterous and rowdy! The music owes more than a little to mid-twentieth century film music, perhaps a film involving a frenetic chase sequence! The centerpiece of the cycle is a setting of Shakespeare’s best-known sonnet ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (sonnet 18). Here the women’s voices are heard on their own, with the 2nd altos given a rare chance to take the limelight. The fifth piece is a reflective setting of ‘I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows’ from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Initially unison voices present the melody, breaking into harmony only for the second half of the song. Throwing caution to the wind, the sixth piece is a madcap, cartoonish setting of ‘When daisies pied’ from ’Love’s Labour’s Lost’. Where better to end the cycle than with the ‘flower-power’ era of the 1960’s and a swinging version of ‘Under the greenwood tree’ from ‘As You Like It’, using just about every harmonic cliche of the music of that time. ‘A Shakespeare Garland’ was written for, and is dedicated to, Auckland Choral Society who gave the first performance.

• Hamilton: A Shakespeare Garland; computer set 

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• Buchanan: Five Songs of Love; facsimile 

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• Buchanan: Five Songs of Love and the Land; facsimile 

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• Buchanan: Five Songs of Love and the Land; facsimile 

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• Dorothy Buchanan: Five Songs of Love and the Land; audio 

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• Five Songs of Love and the Land  Year: 1992 

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• Marshall: Kyrie Eleison; computer set 

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for choir (SATB) a cappella

This Mass was composed as a tribute to the millennium. The form of the Mass has had a profound influence on the development of western music. Subtly buried in its constructions are reflections of the sounds of every century of the past millennium, from the plainsong monody and early organum of one thousand years ago, through the sounds of the ‘ars antiqua’, the evolution of the music of the renaissance, the baroque, the classical and the romantic periods, to the sounds of the 20th century (including a tone row, blues, percussive rhythms and so forth). The plaintive, yearning harmonies of the opening Kyrie, contrasts with the joyful sounds of the Gloria and Sanctus. The Credo is a coat of many colours and the final Agnus Dei, composed in the Ionian mode, contains no accidentals – it answers Shoenberg’s observation that “there is still plenty of good music to be written in the key of C”.

• Twomey: Missa Novi Saeculi (Opus 12); computer-set 

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• Twomey: Missa Novi Saeculi; Computer set 

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• Ray Twomey: Gloria in Excelsis Deo 

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• Reflections - Music Composed by Ray Twomey 

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• Ray Twomey: A Child is Born  Year: 1999 

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Ensemble: brass quintet (2trp,hn,2trm), 2perc (percussion1: vibraphone - with bass bow, suspended cymbal, triangle, bongos; percussion 2: tam tam, glockenspiel, suspended cymbal, tubular bells, timpani), piano and organ

• Hamilton: Paraha; facsimile 

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• Hamilton: Paraha; facsimile 

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Commissioned by Auckland Choral Society, this work is scored for mixed-voice choir and brass band. The poems are from a collection of the same name by American poet Jack Prelutsky. The work is a light-hearted look at the subject of dragons, largely from their own perspective.

• Hamilton: The Dragons are Singing Tonight; computer set 

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• Hamilton: The Dragons are Singing Tonight; computer set 

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• The Dragons are Singing Tonight 

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