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Juliet Palmer  

5 Cactus Dreams

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1988
for voice and chamber ensemble

  • Instrumentation
    vocalist, oboe, tenor saxophone, viola, cello, cactus and camera flash. Performed in darkness with light flashes to trigger each movement - performers also walk while playing.
  • Availability

Craig Utting  

Apocalypse

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1985
for bass singer and chamber ensemble

Gillian Whitehead  

Bright Forms Return

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1980
for mezzo-soprano and string quartet

  • Programme Note

    Bright Forms Return written in 1980 while I was composer-in-residence for Northern Arts (UK), is one of the first pieces I wrote that is concerned with landscape (and sea-scape). I was living in Northumberland, on the moors north of Newcastle, very near the house where Kathleen Raine had spent her childhood. When I was asked to write a piece for the Cumbria Quartet and mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Lamb, Raine’s poetry was an obvious choice, as its northern imagery was very familiar to me.

    Although the piece is designed as a single entity, the quartet falls into four clearly-defined sections in its setting of the four short poems. The vocal writing is relatively simple (rhythmically at least), and the writing for the quartet sometimes reflects the poetic imagery or mood, and is sometimes derived from the formal structure of the poems. The text, which comes from The Oval Mirror published by Hamish Hamilton, is used with the kind permission of the author and her publishers.

  • Availability

David Hamilton  

Canticle 4

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 1983
for mezzo-soprano, cor anglais and piano

David Griffiths  

Charms and Knots

Duration: 13' 00" Year: 1987
song cycle for baritone and piano

  • Programme Note

    This set of songs was written in 1987 during my time as lecturer in voice at Otago University.

    The title is drawn from the second song of the set.

    Herbert’s poetry has always been a delight to me and in these settings I have endeavoured to capture in music his unique and lively reflections on his relationship with God. His words are beautifully wrought and fathom deep waters making a challenge for musical setting. However I think the songs touch something of the intentions of this great metaphysical poet.

    David Griffiths

  • Availability

Kit Powell  

Chinese Songs

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 1988
for high soprano and tape

  • Programme Note

    First performed in a concert of the Swiss Computer Music Center with soloist Franziska Staeheli. Later performances in Bern (with a short lecture about it by me) and in Schaffhausen. Bruno Spoerri also played the tape abroad, in a demonstration of our work here.

    Preparation for the work involved analysis of several Chinese instruments; Ch’in (a zither), gong and wood block. The wave analysis was done with a computer program and my imitations were realized on the Computer Music Center’s DMX. There are two sets of texts: from the Tao Te Ching (Lao Tse) and from the I Ching. The Lao Tse texts were chosen by me and set with traditional notation. The I Ching texts were chosen by chance (with the computer) and set with a computer generated graphic notation. Proportions within the piece were also made with a computer program using chance and units of Golden Section. (More details in the introduction to the score).

    This piece could be performed with two singers: one singing the Tao texts, the other singing the I Ching texts.

  • Availability

Eve de Castro-Robinson  

Commemoration

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 1988
for unaccompanied mezzo soprano or soprano

Andrew Perkins  

Composition In Red

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 1987
for mezzo-soprano, flute, viola and cello

Tony Ryan  

Concert Champetre

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1988
a song cycle for voice and piano

Kit Powell  

Devotion to the Small

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1988
a song cycle for soprano and five percussionists