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Ronald Tremain  

Nine Studies

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1960
for violin and viola

Douglas Lilburn  

Salutes to Seven Poets

Duration: 29' 00" Year: 1952
for violin, piano, and narrator

  • Programme Note

    Curnow requested this work from Lilburn in 1952 for a poetry reading at Auckland University College. The event took place on the evening of 9 August that year, and involved a substantial amount of poetry (twenty-two poems in total) read by the poets involved. (Actually the works of eight poets were represented: Baxter read “Canto at Twenty-seven” by Louis Johnson).

    Lilburn’s music was premiered by Antonia Braidwood (violin) and Donald Bowick (piano). One movement was supposed to precede each reading, providing the audience with the composer’s musical impressions of the work and personality of each poet. In the event, however, the order was reversed, which led to some confusion for the audience and some displeasure for the composer. Typical of New Zealand composition of the time, there was no fee to be had for the work. Lilburn even had to pay his way to Auckland for the rehearsals. On his return to Wellington, Lilburn shelved and forgot about the work. It was not until a chance meeting at his doctor’s surgery in 1988/89 that he was reminded of its existence by Lady Dorothea Turner, who had reviewed the first performance. At that point Lilburn contacted the violinist Dean Major to ask if he would be interested in performing it. After some negotiation the composer also determined that he would write a narration to go along with the music in lieu of the twenty-two poems, and (most surprisingly) volunteered to read this himself.

    Salutes to Seven Poets was recorded by Concert FM on 5 September 1989, by Major (violin), with Rae de Lisle (piano). As if to make up for thirty-eight years of neglect of the work, this recording received a Mobil Award in 1990.

    (Note by Nancy November).

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Alfred Hill  

String Quartet No. 4

Duration: 24' 10" Year: 1916
for string quartet

  • Programme Note

    This quartet was dedicated to Henri Verbrugghen and the members of this string quartet, with specific dedications of the second movement to the violinist, David Nichol, the third to second violinist, Jenny Cullen and the fourth to Henri Verbrugghen himself. Though the inscription is missing one can reasonably assume the first movement was dedicated to the cellist, James Messens.


    The first two movements are familiar to audiences through Hill’s transcription of them as the first two movements of his Symphony in C minor, The Pursuit of Happiness. The Scherzo was composed while Hill was a student in Leipzig and was orchestrated to form part of Symphony NO. 1 and the Finale also exists as a Rondo for cello or violin with piano. The second movement, Adagio ma non troppo, opens with an eight-bar melody in the viola, repeated by the first violin, and shows an English influence, with harmonic suspensions reminiscent of Edward Elgar. This is believed to be the first recording of the complete original work.


    Donald Maurice
    from Alfred Hill – String Quartets Vol. 2, NAXOS

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Anthony Watson  

String Quartet No.1

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1959

Larry Pruden  

String Trio

Duration: 24' 00" Year: 1953
for violin, viola and cello

Ronald Tremain  

Theme and Variations

Duration: 22' 00" Year: 1952
for two violins

Edwin Carr  

Three Pieces

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1968
for cello and piano