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David Farquhar  

A Christmas with Carols

Duration: 31' 00" Year: 1994, r. 1996
for SATB choir and narrator and orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    1100;0000; perc: tubular bells; strings. Narrator may be a separate speaker or from the choir. Bells may be able to be played by choir member as required only in final movement.
  • Programme Note

    This celebratory work for choir and orchestra consisting of three Christmas ‘scenes’ brings together arrangements of 15th, 16th and 17th century carols with some of the well-known traditional carols. The audience can be invited to join in with a carols in each section including O Little Town of Bethlehem, The First Nowell and O Come All Ye Faithful.

  • Availability

David Farquhar  

A Christmas with Carols

Duration: 31' 00" Year: 1994
for SATB choir and narrator with organ

Bryony Jagger  

A Poet's Requiem

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

Bryony Jagger  

Birds of Enlightenment

Duration: 53' 00" Year: 1978
theatre cantata based on a Noh play for choir, soloists and percussion

Ivan Zagni  

Breath of Hope

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 1990
for SATB choir and orchestra

Colin Gibson  

Cantata: The Spirit Within

Duration: 46' 00"
for mixed choir, readers and string quartet

Andrew Perkins  

Christchurch Vespers

Duration: 40' 00" Year: 2011
for solo soprano, SATB choir and orchestra

Anthony Ritchie  

From the Southern Marches

Duration: 2h 00' 00" Year: 1997
for choir, soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists and orchestra

  • Programme Note

    From the Southern Marches was the brain-child of George Griffiths, historian and owner of Otago Heritage Books in Dunedin. He writes: ‘For many years I’d pondered the nature of the southern region and the people who live in it – particularly the contradictory characteristics passed on from our Scots forebears, with their unrelenting capacity for hard work and their uncertain trust in the rewards to be gained from it. In a broader view, it seemed the development of a southern character was a story so rich in human spirit and diversity that it demanded some kind of expression.’ The ‘kind of expression’ depended very much on George’s choice of texts which come from a wide variety of sources, ranging from old Maori chants to more recent poetry.

    The work progresses more or less in a chronological manner, but avoids becoming a potted history of the south. Each text from each particular era focuses on a special characteristic of the time – whether it is the reckless optimism of the gold miners in the 1860s, or the grim reality of the needle-workers in the 1880s who were virtual slaves. George has drawn on a rich variety of ideas and texts, so that more serious items are contrasted with humour, as in Thatcher’s The Old Identity or ‘King’ Dick Seddon’s political speech. Some items involve text with existent tunes, and the music becomes an arrangement (as is the case with The Old Identity). Sometimes these tunes are just a starting point for lengthy elaboration, as in Bright Fine Gold, based on the tune for Hot Cross Buns.

    From the Southern Marches has a format that is similar to oratorio, with alternations between solo vocal items and choruses, with the addition of two purely orchestral sections. There is even references to the ‘recitative’ style in The Jubilee, Southern Education and elsewhere. It runs to almost two hours in length, and is divided into two halves.

    Such was the success of the premiere in March 1998, From the Southern Marches was repeated in December of the same year, this time with Dobbs Franks conducting. In 1998, Otago Heritage Books won a Special Merit Award in the National Business Review’s Business Sponsorship of the Arts Awards .

  • Availability

Alfred Hill  

Hinemoa

Duration: 52' 00"
cantata for soloists, choir and orchestra

Jack Body  

Invocation

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 1998
for SATB choirs; Cook Island choir, bells, shofar, organ, tape and orchestra