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Matthew Davidson  

After Brahms

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2000
nine concert tangos for piano four hands

David Farquhar  

black, white and coloured: fourth set

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 2002
five pieces for piano

David Farquhar  

black, white and coloured: second set

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 2000
five pieces for piano

Jonathan Crehan  

Five Lyric Pieces

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 2005
for solo piano

John Rimmer  

Hammerheads

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2008
for four pianists playing two pianos

  • Programme Note

    Hammerheads is a double piano duet. It was composed in 2008 for four talented young Nelsonian pianists, Emily Deans, Jennie Verstappen, Natasha Ironside and Holly Tippler who played the piece several times during the year. These pianists are students of acclaimed teacher Mary Ayre who commissioned Hammerheads with funding from Creative New Zealand.

    The work is in 5 sections contrasting slow with fast music and draws some of its pitch material from one chord in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

    Hammerheads presents ensemble challenges for the performers with tricky rhythmic patterns in the fast sections. Its harmonic language is based primarily on a six-note descending scale heard in the opening bars.

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Alex van den Broek  

Piano Piece No. 3

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2009
for solo piano

Ross Carey  

Recollections (Volume 1)

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2001
seven pieces for solo piano

Matthew Davidson  

Six Chorale Preludes for Piano Solo

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 2002

  • Programme Note

    Originally, chorales were arrangements from plain chant (the first religious songs in the Catholic Church and the recognized beginnings of all western “art” music). Luther made many such transcriptions, and may even have composed some tunes himself. These melodies were settings of religious texts originally from the Catholic mass, and later adapted to Protestant requirements. The supreme test of any composer is to set the melodies well for four voices, and the most accomplished examples are those of J. S. Bach.

    The melodies would have been well known to churchgoers in the 16th and 17th centuries, so a tradition developed wherein the famous tunes were improvised upon by church musicians at points during the services. These improvisations became what we now consider to be Chorale Preludes.

    Early works by composers such as Sweelinck and Buxtehude preceded those of J. S. Bach, arguably the most skillful composer of all time. JSB, in turn, perfected the medium (heretofore exclusively the domain of the organist). Others, such as Brahms, Reger, and Vaughan Williams, followed suit in the centuries to come. Busoni’s piano transcriptions of Brahms and Bach organ chorale preludes are justifiably celebrated.

    To walk in the foot steps of JSB is indeed a dangerous path. Obviously, one does not wish to invite comparison between oneself and such a colossus of musical history. Therefore, the task of the composer tackling such an endeavor is to create a new world of sound wherein the point of reference is obscured.

    In this piece, voice work is kept as simple as possible. From the first number, wherein one finds intentionally “wrong” harmonizations (which would hopefully not rankle my teacher Alexander Rapoport – to whom it is respectfully dedicated); to the Brahmsian second (dedicated to an old flame); the Brubeckian third (dedicated to Gary Smart); the Gershwinesque fourth (dedicated to Tomoko Deguchi); the Stravinskian fifth (unrecognizable to those who know Bach’s stellar setting of the same – and dedicated to my late father who did not go gently into that good night); ending with a four-voice fugue based on the same material of the first prelude (dedicated to fellow former students David and Charis Duke); throughout all, one hopefully finds a few surprises.

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