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Bryony Jagger  

A Nursery of Pain

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1989
for solo treble recorder (with optional spoken voice )

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”.

  • Availability

John Elmsly  

Dialogue III

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1989
for cello and piano

Jonathan Besser  

Duo for Violin and Piano

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1989
for violin and piano

Kit Powell  

Father's Telescope

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1989
a playful music theatre piece for singer, speaker and tape about power and submission

Dorothy Buchanan  

Mary Magdalene and the Birds

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1989
a song cycle for mezzo and clarinet

Gillian Whitehead  

Moon, Tides and Shoreline

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1989
for string quartet

  • Programme Note

    In this work, inspired by Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast – ‘home’ during the composer’s six-week residency at Victoria University in 1989 – the relationship between music and environment is particularly strong. The cello’s low repeated D, which opens the piece, is the fundamental pitch heard in the sea and the restless semi-quavers evoke the continuous movement of waves crashing on the Paekakariki shore. Whitehead’s fascination with medieval philosophy and music, incorporating concepts of natural cycles, is reflected both in the title and in the compositional process, where magic squares were used to generate the background structure.
    (Programme note by Emma Carle and Jack Body).

    “This is a rich evocative piece that is never merely picturesque, as the title might suggest. It has a lyrical complexity reminiscent of Tippett… (it) achieves moments of great beauty.” (Tim Bridgewater, The Dominion).

    “The highlight for me was the premiere of Gillian Whitehead’s Moon Tides, and Shoreline. … Perhaps there are marine associations to be heard in the score, but, more importantly, one appreciates the work’s cool and eminently logical form. The various musical motifs are inventive in themselves and intriguingly handled.” (William Dart, Music in New Zealand)

  • Availability

David Farquhar  

String Quartet

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1989

Nigel Keay  

Symphony for Strings - Three Images of Java

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1989
for string orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    Minimum strs: 8,6,5,4,3
  • Programme Note

    In this three movement work for large string orchestra, the first movement is inspired by the image of a Javanese dancer accompanied by gamelan music and is reflected in the fast hocketing textures over long low bass notes analogous to the gamelan gongs. The central Adagio (for strings) is, quite unlike Barber’s famous movement, quite deliberately without climax reflecting the constantly oppressive tropical heat. The last movement is of an intense nature such as found in the pressure of population.

  • Availability

Kenneth Young  

The Enchanted Dance Hall

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1989
for brass band