Search Music:

St Michael’s Church in Remuera (Auckland ) is one of the finest acoustics in the city for choral music. When I heard Viva Voce was presenting a concert of “heavenly music” there as the choir’s final concert for 2011, I offered to write a new piece. My earliest regularly performed work,“Lux Aeterna was already scheduled for the programme, so I felt this would make a nice comparison of works written 32 years apart. Conductor John Rosser readily agreed to the idea.

Angele Dei is a text traditionally attributed to St Anselm (c.1033-1109) although it is now believed to have been added to his works after his death probably in the 11th or 12th centuries. It is a brief prayer to a guardian angel – one who is charged with protecting against the assaults of demons, that might lead one into sin.

The piece is full of warm rich choral textures, beginning with the women’s voices descending in a scale-like passage which repeats several times against simple tonal chords in the men’s voices. The build to the climax uses textures reminiscent of Renaissance composers, featuring a string of suspensions in the harmony. The work ends quietly with an Amen section and final statement of the title.

David Hamilton

• Hamilton: Angele Dei; computer set  Year: 2011 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

This short cycle examines the differences between northern and southern hemisphere experiences of Christmas. These differences are encapsulated in Margaret Mahy’s early poem Christmas in New Zealand which contrasts the colours of a summertime Christmas with the images of snow and robins on Christmas cards. The second piece sets a Christina Rossetti poem which suggests that Christ’s birth was early in the day watched only by the angels and the animals. The third piece sets a traditional text which describes the typical landscapes of a northern hemisphere Christmas – the bare tress and the animals foraging for food. The fourth movement is a piece for band alone, which picks up on elements of the opening movement as well as varied treatment of fragments from the well-known carol “Good King Wenceslas”. The final piece sets a widely anthologized poem of unknown authorship. It humorously returns us to a summertime Christmas where there‘s no snow, and where Santa might end up with a suntan in the “Pacific summertime” Christmas.

Christmas Here and There was commissioned by South Auckland Choral Society for the choir’s end of year concert 2011.

• Hamilton: Christmas Here and There; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

Gloria Deo! is a vibrant song of celebration.

• Lange: Gloria Deo!; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $11.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Lange: Gloria Deo!; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $8.00
  • • Quantity:

A contemporary folk style worship song based on the Nunc Dimittis where Simeon and Anna recognise Jesus as the Messiah when he is presented in the temple by his parents as a baby. Suitable for unison or choral singing, it is in Eb, 4/4 time and in a flowing crotchet = 100. The simple piano accompaniment may be elaborated. Add guitar, bass, drums etc to suit.

• Russell: Let us Go in Peace; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $6.00
  • • Quantity:

• Russell: Let us Go in Peace; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $8.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

This is a modern folk song about the history of glass-making in Sunderland. It is part of a collection of songs about the River Wear, “Winter Wear”. It can be performed as a Christmas song, or at other times of year. It is not especially religious.

Glass-making has always played an important role in the cultural and industrial history and soul of Sunderland and the River Wear: Benedict Biscop’s unique use of French glass-makers to fill in the windows of his monastery church, St. Peter’s in the 9th century; the industrial melting pot of the 19th century where the abundant supply of coal from the Durham coalfield, ferried down the River Wear fuelled several industries, most notably steel-making, shipbuilding and glass making; the European monopoly of Joblings Glassworks making heatproof oven-ware out of Pyrex in the mid- 20th century; and the National Glass Centre of today in which students at the University and glass artists from around the country craft enchanting art works. The first people to see each of these phenomena must have been transfixed by the novelty they were witnessing. This song portrays the response to each of these first encounters with the magical glass.

• Camm: Magical Glass; computer set 

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

• Camm: Magical Glass; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $6.50
  • • Quantity:

This is a modern folk song about the history of glass-making in Sunderland. It is part of a collection of songs about the River Wear, “Winter Wear”. It can be performed as a Christmas song, or at other times of year. It is not especially religious.

Glass-making has always played an important role in the cultural and industrial history and soul of Sunderland and the River Wear: Benedict Biscop’s unique use of French glass-makers to fill in the windows of his monastery church, St. Peter’s in the 9th century; the industrial melting pot of the 19th century where the abundant supply of coal from the Durham coalfield, ferried down the River Wear fuelled several industries, most notably steel-making, shipbuilding and glass making; the European monopoly of Joblings Glassworks making heatproof oven-ware out of Pyrex in the mid- 20th century; and the National Glass Centre of today in which students at the University and glass artists from around the country craft enchanting art works. The first people to see each of these phenomena must have been transfixed by the novelty they were witnessing. This song portrays the response to each of these first encounters with the magical glass.

• Camm: Magical Glass; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $9.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow
  • Hire

• Camm: Magical Glass; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $7.00
  • • Quantity:

This mass was written to commemorate the installation of the new organ at St Matthews in the City in 2011. It uses the traditional texts of the Latin mass and is for organ and choir. Originally it was performed within the Sunday liturgy.

• Bell: Mass for the Patronal Feast; computer set 

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

• Bell: Mass for the Patronal Feast; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $42.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Michael Bell: Mass for the Patronal Feast 

  Digital sound file - MP3
  
  $8.50
  • • Quantity:

Inspired by Russian strotchny liturgical polyphony

• Jack Body: Psalm 137 - hardcopy score 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $11.50
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Jack Body: Psalm 137 - downloadable PDF 

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

• The Tudor Consort: The 'Earthquake' Mass  Year: 2012 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

This short work was written for the annual carol service of Diocesan School for Girls (Auckland) at the request of conductor David Gordon. The work was to feature a solo soprano and contain fairly easy choir parts for a staff choir. The text is of unknown authorship, and is originally simply titled “Advent Song”. The words look towards the coming of the baby Jesus, and the impact his arrival will have on the world. The work is in a relaxed jazz-swing style.

• Hamilton: That Day is Waiting to be Born; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

This text, originally in the Catalan dialect, is generally associated with Christmas. It tells of giving various gifts – things that would have been familiar to the writer of the text – to the infant Jesus: raisins, olives, figs, sweet honey etc. There is a metaphorical hint of the events of Easter in the last lines.

The Son of the Virgin was written for a choir workshop with students of Ascham School (Sydney, Australia) when they visited St Mary’s College in Auckland as part of their tour to New Zealand in 2011.

• Hamilton: The Son of the Virgin; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

• David Hamilton: The Son of the Virgin; audio 

  Media on Demand | Internal - audio
  

• The Treble Voice Choral Music of David Hamilton Vol. 4  Year: 2013 

  CD
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow