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Gillian Whitehead  

Alice

Duration: 36' 00" Year: 2002
an eight movement monodrama for mezzo-soprano and orchestra

Score Sample
Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    3343, 3310, harp, timp., 3 perc., strings, mezzo-soprano
  • Programme Note

    In 1909 Alice Adcock, a lively and adventurous young woman from Manchester, was on her way to New Zealand. She was 23, and had recently developed TB, for which there was then no cure. Somehow she persuaded her widowed father to let her travel alone to the other side of the world in case a healthy climate would save her life. (It worked – she lived for another 50 years). The family kept her entertaining letter describing shipboard life, and a few postcards from her have also survived, but most of what we know about her time in New Zealand comes from her father’s letters to her, of which he kept copies, or from family tradition. On her arrival in New Zealand, Alice went into service, travelling widely, much to the consternation of her father. As housekeeper (and the only woman) on a farm in Makarora (a remote settlement on Lake Wanaka) she became pregnant to an unknown man, but was ‘rescued’ by marriage to a local farmer, Charles Pipson, shortly before the birth of her daughter. In 1911, her beloved father died; in 1912, Alice and Charles had a son and the following year, pregnant again, Alice took her children back to England to visit her family. Tragically, while she was away, her husband died suddenly of typhoid fever. Alice hurried back to Makarora to claim her inheritance, but left the two babies with her brother Sam and his wife (who were shortly to emigrate to New Zealand) and took only her eldest child, the illegitimate one, with her. This outraged her sisters-in-law, who saw it as an insult to their dead brother; they sent her away from the farm empty-handed. Once again she had to take a housekeeping job, this time in the North Island. In 1914, Alice and her brother’s family met up again, and Alice began a new life. (Fleur Adcock – abridged) The music of Alice is text-driven, ranging between a language at times extremely simple, as was the basic musical language of the settlers, and at times quite complex, evoking a storm at sea, or the unease of the settlers in a new environment, or Alice’s reaction to the problems which beset her. The piece is held together by various referential motifs. The initial idea, which perhaps suggests the instability of the sea, is also present in the bell-like sounds marking Charles’ death, music associated with a storm at sea is later associated with mental stress, while music suggestive of the movement of shipboard lice later underlies Alice’s traumatic encounter with her sisters-in-law.

    There are eight sections, which often merge into one another: 1. in a letter to her father, Alice describes shipboard life; 2. in New Zealand, she compares her past life and hopes for the future; 3. a dialogue between father and daughter, expressed through their letters; 4. in Makarora, Alice discovers she is pregnant; 5. Alice hears of her father’s death; 6. in England, she learns of her husband’s death; 7. back in Makarora, Alice is turned away by her sisters-in-law; 8. turning her back on the South Island, Alice looks forward to her new life with her brother’s family in the north.

    While writing this piece, I was drawn again and again into the thought that, although this is a true story, set in a particular place at a certain time, it has the resonances of a universal myth, known to all of us who live here. Our forebears, or we ourselves, have crossed the seas to begin a new life, with unforeseen and unimaginable difficulties and felicities, whether ten years, a century or a millennium or so ago.

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Jeff Lin  

Anxiety... Tumbling into Ecstasy

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 2004
for orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    2*222; 4231; timp., perc.(3), hp; strings Percussion: triangle, maracas, tubular bells, bass drum, marimba, roto-toms, claves, thunder sheet, gong and metal wind chime
  • Programme Note

    Anxiety is a common psychological disorder in modern society. It is a state of uneasiness or tension caused by over-worrying about a possible future problem or danger. Ecstasy here implies a state of exalted delight, joy, and then, gradually moves to a more extreme emotion.

    A person experiences various feelings every day. However, some people have to overcome certain psychological difficulties, such as phobia or anxiety. This piece reflects two aspects of feelings, anxiety and ecstasy, which are unique in humans. One maybe we are trying to avoid, while another one, we are trying to pursue. Some people may have already experienced both of these two states in real life. Others may have just suffered anxiety but never have made the journey into the euphoria of ecstasy. It is interesting to notice that if these two feelings are persistent or triggered by certain events, they both can lead to intense emotions, such as Anxiety Attack and an ecstasy of rage.

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Ross Harris  

As though there were no God

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 2003
for orchestra

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Lissa Meridan  

blast

Duration: 03' 00" Year: 2002
for orchestra

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Ross Harris  

Cento

 Year: 2005
for full orchestra

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Dorothy Buchanan  

Confluence

Duration: 09' 00" Year: 2002
for full orchestra

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Karlo Margetic  

Dubina

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 2005
for orchestra

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Chris Adams  

Elegy (for a world obsessed with violence)

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2002
one movement work for orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    3*3*33; 4331; timp, 2p, cel, hp, string
  • Programme Note

    Elegy is my personal reflection on the events of September 11th, 2001, their aftermath and the fixation on and use of violence in our global culture. Although the piece took me just over six months to complete, I started writing it shortly after the attacks on the Twin Towers. I was living in Wells, and was physically very distanced from the events that the world observed taking place in America and later in Afghanistan, Bali, Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Spain. In this piece, I am exploring both the horrific tragedy of the situation, and the American response to that day. It is an emotional response to the tragedy and not in any way programmatic. Essentially Elegy is a work full of hope. Hope that it is possible to find better ways to resolve conflict within our world. Hope that it is possible for different cultures and beliefs to coexist with understanding and tolerance for others. Hope that people will not see everything as black and white with only one right way or answer and not be influenced by ignorance or greed.

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John Rimmer  

Europa

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2002
concerto for brass band and orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation

    Orchestra:(1)2,2,2(1),2(1); 4331; timp., perc. (3), hp; strings. (Percussion: small and large suspended cymbals, tam tam, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, tubular bells, snare drum, 2 bongos, 3 tom toms, bass drum.)
    Brass Band: sop cornet, solo cornet, 1st cornet, 2nd cornet, 3rd cornet, flugelhorn, tenor horn, baritone, tenor trombone, bass trombone, E flat euphonium, E flat bass, B flat bass
  • Programme Note

    In composing this concerto I recognise two contrasting musical cultures within the European artistic tradition. The Brass Band represents what I call a ‘closed’ musical system portrayed by its standardised instrumentation heard to great effect in its stirring marches, sonorous hymn playing, contest pieces and arrangements of popular and show music, while the orchestra with its dazzling array of many instrumental colours, its flexible instrumentation and its potential for pushing musical boundaries, represents an ‘open’ musical system. I wanted also to exploit the virtuosic capacity of the brass band as a concerto soloist and to celebrate through this work the unity and solidarity amongst brass musicians.

    Europa is a one movement work in five main sections which alternate slow atmospheric music with a fast and rhythmic style. The latter is heard in the many rapid passages which switch from band to orchestra and vice versa. Notable also is the relationship between the band and the orchestra particularly in the cadenzas for the brass band followed by the orchestral brass.

    I was spurred into composing this work after reading about Europa, one of the large moons of the planet Jupiter first seen by Galileo in 1610 and named after a goddess of Greek mythology. Such thoughts were instrumental in generating my first musical ideas, for instance the name ‘Europa’ is represented by a six note melody heard throughout the work. However, my initial thoughts about Europa receded as I explored and developed the musical material. ‘Europa’ was commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia. The work was first performed by the Dalewool Auckland Brass and the Auckland Philharmonia conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya on 13 June 2002 in the Auckland Town Hall.

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Robbie Ellis  

Feral

Duration: 05' 30" Year: 2009, r. 2012
for full orchestra

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • Instrumentation
    2[picc]2[ca]2[bcl]2[cbsn]; 4331; timp.; 3perc.; strings
  • Programme Note

    Feral is the story of a creature that lives somewhere humans seldom go. His environment is dank and dark. Sunlight seldom penetrates the tree canopy – day is differentiated from night only by a thin translucent film. This area is down the side of a hill in a remote, inhospitable valley not easily accessed by others. Perhaps it’s a forbidding lost world at the back of your garden.

    The creature is aggressive, easily spurned, and thoroughly anti-social – both by environment and by choice. He has no need of a name, because nobody ever sees him long enough to give him one – or at least nobody lives to tell the tale. You find yourself on his turf. Nobody can hear you.

    You’re never to be heard from again.

    Feral was workshopped by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and conductor Hamish McKeich as a finalist in the 2009 NZSO/Todd Corporation Young Composers Competition. The piece was highly commended through winning the Orchestra’s Choice Award.

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