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Bryony Jagger  

A Poet's Requiem

Duration: 1h 15' 00" Year: 1998
for 3 narrators, soprano, mezzo & contralto soloists, choir and orchestra

Alexander Cowdell  

A Portrait of Christina Rossetti (Goblin Market)

Duration: 1h 00' 00" Year: 1998
for female actor and piano trio

John Rimmer  

Galileo

Duration: 1h 30' 00" Year: 1998
a chamber opera using for 6 singers, small chorus and 8 players, also using electroacoustic music and DVD of visuals

  • Instrumentation
    Television newsreader (spoken voice), Nobelman (baritone), Castelli (tenor), Galileo (baritone), Boy/Angel (mezzo soprano), Three Priests (tenor/baritones), Heretic (baritone), Christina (soprano), Military Man (baritone), Sea Captain (baritone), Troubadour (mezzo soprano), Cardinal Bellarmino (tenor), Pope Urban VIII (bass baritone), Pope John Paul II (baritone), small chorus of townspeople; flute doubling piccolo, oboe, clarinet doubling bass clarinet, horn, piano, percussion, violin and cello. Electroacoustic music played through at least eight loudspeakers. DVD of visuals.
  • Availability

David Hamilton  

Noel!

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 1998
a Christmas choral celebration for young singers

Gillian Whitehead  

Outrageous Fortune

Duration: 1h 58' 00" Year: 1998
a chamber opera in two acts

Dorothy Buchanan  

The Daughters of the Late Colonel

Duration: 33' 00" Year: 1998
a short opera in one act

Michael Williams  

The Prodigal Child

Duration: 1h 00' 00" Year: 1998
a chamber opera

Rod Biss  

Waiata Aroha

Duration: 45' 00" Year: 1998, r. 2010
a song cycle for three singers of eight songs by Witi Ihimaera with string orchestra with harp and saxophone

  • Programme Note

    When Witi Ihimaera approached me with his cycle of poems he gave them to me with a very detailed description of how he wanted them set, even to suggesting that there should be instrumental ‘variations’ between each song.

    Waiata Aroha, he wrote, “is a group of ‘last songs’ sung by a young man facing death (tenor), his lover (baritone) and the dying man’s elder sister (mezzo-soprano). The song cycle itself comprises three solos, two duets and one trio.”

    When he showed me the poems I was most impressed with them and thought that they would undoubtedly work well as a song cycle. We agreed that the overall of the cycle should not be too dark, quoting again from Witi’s note; “Like at a tangihanga the ultimate mood should be one of transformation, coming to terms with the cycle of life and death.”

    His idea of ‘variations’ between the songs has not entirely disappeared, but instead of writing separate instrumental movements I have allowed the music to develop into dance-like sections, and where Witi has provided particularly visual images I have tried to match them in the music.

    The first draft of the song cycle was completed as long ago as 1998, revisions took me up to 2005, and since then I have put it onto the Sibelius computer programme making a few further changes at the same time. Witi has said that he might like to make a few changes to the words before any performances takes place – but largely speaking I think the cycle is complete. A piano reduction is available.

    Rod Biss
    26 July 2010

  • Availability