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Denise Hulford  

Bold as Brass

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1992
for brass quintet

  • Instrumentation
    trumpet in C; trumpet in B flat; horn in F; tenor trombone; tuba
  • Programme Note

    Bold as Brass is written for a brass quintet consisting of two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba. The work is designed to show to best advantage the varying qualities and abilities of each of these instruments, and accordingly there are solo passages and cadenzas for each. Hulford has experimented with each line as a “voice” and has manipulated and blended the differing timbres to excellent effect. The composition is in 3 movements. The first and third of these are reasonably fast and are somewhat aggressive in nature while the second is slower and reflective. The world premiere of the work occurred in Seoul, Korea, in October 1993 by members of the Korean National Orchestra. The work has not been performed in its entirety in New Zealand.

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Thomas Goss  

Broken Glass

Duration: 17' 05" Year: 2000
a suite for violin and guitar

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • Programme Note

    Broken Glass portrays a dialogue between two opposing natures about the passing of beauty as represented by the two instruments of guitar and violin. It is a meditation on how two people create the ending within themselves for their mutual story, and collaborate through both tension and surrender to bring that ending to life.

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Denise Hulford  

Cantata: A Disciple Dreams

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1985
for soprano, tenor, flute, cello, organ and SATB chorus

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Jack Speirs  

Cantico del Sole

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1989
for soprano soloist, mixed choir and chamber orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    3000;0330; perc, hp, pf; strings
  • Programme Note

    Commissioned by the Schola Cantorum of Dunedin to celebrate its 125th Jubilee in 1988, this work for for soprano soloist, mixed choir and orchestra sets the first part of S. Francesco d’Assisi’s Canticle of Brother Sun.

    The Canticle is an expression of the medieval belief in the beauty, goodness and intelligibility of the created world. It is also an expression of Francis’s own idea of all creation living in a spirit of fraternity and community. This vision of the total reconciliation of humanity with the universe is symbolized in a number of ways. One such is the ordering of the elements in pairs, which combine the masculine and feminine: sun-moon, wind-water, fire-earth.

    In this setting, the soprano soloist represents the feminine principle, and the choir the masculine. A version of the work has been arranged for a smaller orchestra, with organ replacing the strings. The work has been described by one critic as “one of the most exciting and satisfying works for choir and orchestra by a New Zealander”, and by another as a work which “will undoubtedly continue to be performed regularly on account of its accessibility and performability”.

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Christopher Norton  

Carol Jazz

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1982
improvisations on five Christmas carols for piano

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Jenny McLeod  

Cat Dreams

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 2008
for nine players

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    for piccolo, koauau (or second piccolo), flute, clarinet in B flat, percussion, marimba, vibraphone, harp and piano
  • Programme Note

    My brother and his partner had two black cats, Doris, the elder (and undisputed boss), was half the size of Stanley. The cats arrived one day quite unheralded, realised they were onto a good thing, and promptly settled down as rulers of the house. In old age Doris went slightly spastic and wonky. We all thought she would go first, but she lived my brother.

    Jenny McLeod

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Douglas Lilburn  

Chaconne

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1946
for piano

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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.

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Christopher Blake  

Christ at Whangape

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 2007
for string orchestra

  • Programme Note

    A heartrending, exquisite sculpture of Christ on the Cross stands on a headstone in the graveyard of St. Gabriel’s Church at Pawarenga in Northland, New Zealand. Its intimations of eternity are caught in the Robbin Morrison photograph Christ at Whangape Harbour which appears in his 1994 photographic essay A Journey. It is an image of Christ in the wilderness. He is held in a primeval landscape of bare, low, dark hills, silhouetted against a grey sky and luminous sea and mudflats in the harbour.

    How did Christ come to be in this place? The music presents the revelation of His spirit that starts with the French Pikopo or Bishop sailing into the great harbour Te Hokianga-nui-a-Kupe. It is an event of immense significance. The bearers of God and his Son literally follow the path of Kupe, the traditional discoverer of New Zealand, and arrive in a schooner named after his homeland.

    The Word of God is spread by His servants. The Mill Hill Missioners build churches and make converts. The Spirit of God suffuses the harbours, valleys and hills of the north. The souls of the priests and worshipers of past generations permeate the churchyard. A silver of early morning sunlight suddenly lights up, in perfect relief, the epitaph beneath Christ on the Cross. It is a miracle, a hidden text revealed by the hand of Christ above.

    This is the final piece of Northland Panels, a series of four works for string orchestra based on photographs from A Journey. The others in the series are Angel at Ahipara, Night Journey to Pawarenga and Anthem of the Kaipara.

    Christopher Blake
    December 2007

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Denise Hulford  

Christmas Bells

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1995
for choir, tenor saxophone and piano

  • Programme Note

    The 100 Voice Chorale based on the North Shore of Auckland commissioned Denise Hulford to write a Christmas Carol for the Choir. After spending some time searching for a poem with a happy tone to it, and not being able to find anything suitable, Denise commissioned Jenny Pattrick to write a poem. The poem that Jenny provided was exciting, accessible and quite humorous. The final work was a fun and Christmas focused composition which was most successful, and approximately the length of a short Cantata. The work has been performed a number of times, and has always been well received.

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