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And every sparkle shivering to new blaze,
In number did outmillion the account
Reduplicate upon a chequered board

Dante, The Divine Comedy – Paradise XXVIII
Translation by Rev. H.F.Cary (1814)

Observe the circle nearest, and know
the reason for its spinning at such speed
is that Love’s fire burns it into motion.

Dante, The Divine Comedy – Paradise XXVII
Translated by Mark Musa (1995)

In Canto 28 of Paradise, Dante, the pilgrim, is faced with an unbearably piercing light reflected in the eyes of his beloved guide, Beatrice. He turns and sees nine ever decreasing circles burning and whirling at different speeds. These circles give off sparks that sing hosannas. Dante has seen a spherical universe with God at the centre. He asks why the universe is not really like this, Beatrice tells him that he is now seeing it from a spiritual rather than a physical point of view, and that the reason for the great speed of the inner circle “is that Love’s fire burns it into motion”.

This imagery of circles within circles whirling, burning and giving off sparks seems to demand some musical treatment. It suggests a number of musical ideas revolving around each other and establishing a smooth relationship, and the warmer notion of love setting these ideas in motion.

The quintet, which is in one continuous movement, revolves around five central ideas. These ideas are moved around like pieces on a chessboard, each trying to gain some strategic advantage in pursuit of a single objective. Two of these ideas provide the rhythmic drive of the piece. The first, hesitant, but gathering speed and rising in pitch, is introduced by the viola at the beginning. The second, direct and syncopated, is announced by all four strings when they play together for the first time, before it is taken up by the piano. The main source of melodic material is a quiet tune, a love song, that threads its way through the piece, played first by the two violins and viola. The full version is heard in a piano solo played simply in octaves. In another guise this tune becomes the fourth idea, a fast dance that gathers momentum as the quintet reaches its climax. The fifth idea, fast accumulating scales, links the melodic and rhythmic elements and helps provide energy. The piece begins with a piano chord, which becomes a pivot for all these ideas and crops up in a variety of ways at crucial points.

And Every Sparkle Shivering is something like a mosaic composed by inlaying small tesserae of coloured stone or glass to create a sparkling over-all design. There is conflict between the warmth and vigour of sparking fire and spinning circles, and the coolness of glinting stone and flickering glass.

• Cresswell: and every sparkle shivering; computer-set 

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• Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 11 - Chamber Music III  Year: 2010 

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• Vidulich: Aotea Suite; facsimile 

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• Vidulich: Aotea Suite; facsimile 

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• Vidulich: Aotea Suite; facsimile 

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In 1990 I attended the launch of Cilla McQueen’s new book Berlin Diary. This diary made a big impression on me, initially because it brought back memories of my own trip to Europe. I also liked the brilliant mixing of poetic and prosaic styles, and the vivid descriptions of people and places. Something else that impressed me was the strong contrast between the inhuman political situation in Berlin (the wall was still up) and the natural, peaceful beauty of Dunedin, New Zealand (Cilla’s and my own home town). A few months later the Aramoana tragedy (where a deranged gunman killed 13 people – Aramoana is a remote seaside township at the end of the Otago peninsula) changed that around. Cilla’s beautiful, almost ecstatic centrepiece in the dairy “O Aramoana” now took on a terrible subtext, and it seemed as if the inhumanity of Berlin had come to the remote beach community. A year later, the Berlin wall finally came down, and the unification of East and West Germany became a reality.

When Judy Bellingham approached me in 1991 to write a song cycle for her, I immediately wanted to set extracts from the Berlin Diary, to capture these layers of dramatic historical irony along with the essence of a marvellous text. In reality I was able to only set a fraction of the diary to music, and hence the title of my work – Berlin Fragments (which I would also like to think suggests the breaking of the Berlin wall into bits). After talking to Cilla about the work, I decided to make “O Aramoana” the heart of the work, around which somewhat shorter texts are clustered. Sections are often linked by a recurrent chord in the bottom of the piano (the dyad E-F), which I have imagined as a tombstone in musical terms. Framing the work are brief sections which convey the flight to and from Berlin (the “green below” being an unmistakable reference to a return to New Zealand).

The 23 minutes of this song cycle run continuously.

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• Bellingham, Dennis, Rawson: NZ vocal music  Year: 2006 

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This cycle of pieces was written for South Auckland Choral Society’s end of year concert which I was invited to conduct in 2007. The original request was for a concert of New Zealand music, but beyond a number of short Christmas pieces there is little in the way to extended seasonal music by New Zealand composers. I offered to write something new for the concert, to complement Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.

Having already written a Christmas cycle for a similar choir the same year, I was keen to move away from texts about the trappings of the Christmas story. I finally found a number of texts about children and their relationship to Christmas. Surrounding these texts are some more traditionally focussed texts. Inevitably it was hard to avoid poetry with images of snow, bells and stars.

The first poem is a traditional Afro-American spiritual text and sets the scene by telling of Mary and her baby. In order to give the men of the choir something worthwhile to do in the rehearsal (white the women worked on the Britten), I decided to feature them in several pieces. The second text, “Children’s Song of the Nativity”, is really a series of questions such as a young child might ask: “What will we see? Can we go in?” The third text, for unaccompanied men’s voices, is the despairing pleas of a young man who desperately wants to be something significant in the nativity play this year. The fourth text sets Eleanor Farjeon’s “Advice to a Child” – some suggestions as to ways in which Christmas might be prepared for.

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• Dellow: The Liturgy of the Eucharist; facsimile 

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• Tremain: Mass for mixed voices and organ; facsimile 

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Undoubtedly, this is one of Whitehead’s more unusual collaborations. The work, intended for five dancers and organ, with soprano added at the composer’s request, was to have been performed in five cathedrals around Britain during the summer of 1982. Due to the cancellation of the dance component however, the work received performance in only one of the cathedrals – Carlisle – but was later presented with a solo dancer, Bronwyn Judge, at the 1987 Sonic Circus in Wellington. The singer on that occasion was Glenys Taylor and the organist Douglas Mews. The composer initially delayed beginning work on the piece, since her sister was expecting a baby, and a Requiem did not seem an appropriate preoccupation. The successful birth was however followed by two close-family deaths and it was these which provided the composer with the emotional impetus to proceed with the composition. (Programme note by Emma Carle and Jack Body).

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• Whitehead: Requiem; computer-set  Year: 2001 

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• Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 3 - Composer Portrait: Gillian Whitehead  Year: 2000 

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Commissioned by the Palmerston North Choral Society to commemorate Women’s Suffrage Year 1993. Scored for SATB choir with SATB soloists, flute and piano, the songs are ecstatic in nature with words from the Song of Solomon, Thomas Campion, Fiona McCloud, John Clare, and Alice Meynell. The work requires an average ability choir and very competent flute and piano players; it celebrates the human spirits’ ability to praise, be joyful and live with love and mystery.

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• Caskie: View mee Lord; computer-set 

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• Caskie: View Mee Lord; computer-set 

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• Caskie: Love lives beyond the Tomb; computer-set 

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• Kowhai - an album of songs by NZ women composers  Year: 1994 

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• Music by Helen Caskie 

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This choral work was commissioned by Auckland Choral Society and was one the composer’s earlier works to consciously employ minimalist techniques. An exuberant work it includes a mixed-voice choir (SAATBB) with two semi-choruses (SSA and SAB) with accompaniment for organ, piano and percussion.

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• Farr: Te Wairua O Te Whenua; computer-set 

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