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A Musical Party was commissioned by the New Zealand Accordion Association (NZAA) to commemorate their 30th anniversary in June 2001. The weekend and Musical Party was dedicated to Silvio De Pra, honouring him for his outstanding contribution to the accordion in New Zealand. He has chaired the Accordion Examination Board of NZ Inc. since its inception in 1972 and been chief examiner since 1992.

A Musical Party was premiered by a massed accordion orchestra and conducted by the composer, Gary Daverne. It was later revised and arranged for solo accordion and symphony orchestra, which is the version that appears here.

• Daverne: A Musical Party; computer-set 

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• Daverne: A Musical Party; computer-set 

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• Gary Daverne: Rhapsody  Year: 2007 

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The inscription on the north face of a sundial in the garden of Inverleith Park, Edinburgh, reads ‘I number none but sunny hours’. On the south side it says, ‘So passes life. Alas! How swift’.

The music of Alas! How Swift is fast, with a constant speed of 138 beats per minute. Around this constant, underlying tempo, however the speed sometimes quickens and sometimes slows. Even the moments of relaxation are underpinned and, perhaps, ruffled by persistent movement. The impetus for the music comes from fast repeated notes on the solo trumpet. The energy engulfs the whole orchestra.

Notes taken from Cresswell: The Voice Inside, NAXOS 8.570824

• Lyell Cresswell: The Voice Inside 

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3343, 3310, harp, timp., 3 perc., strings, mezzo-soprano

In 1909 Alice Adcock, a lively and adventurous young woman from Manchester, was on her way to New Zealand. She was 23, and had recently developed TB, for which there was then no cure. Somehow she persuaded her widowed father to let her travel alone to the other side of the world in case a healthy climate would save her life. (It worked – she lived for another 50 years). The family kept her entertaining letter describing shipboard life, and a few postcards from her have also survived, but most of what we know about her time in New Zealand comes from her father’s letters to her, of which he kept copies, or from family tradition. On her arrival in New Zealand, Alice went into service, travelling widely, much to the consternation of her father. As housekeeper (and the only woman) on a farm in Makarora (a remote settlement on Lake Wanaka) she became pregnant to an unknown man, but was ‘rescued’ by marriage to a local farmer, Charles Pipson, shortly before the birth of her daughter. In 1911, her beloved father died; in 1912, Alice and Charles had a son and the following year, pregnant again, Alice took her children back to England to visit her family. Tragically, while she was away, her husband died suddenly of typhoid fever. Alice hurried back to Makarora to claim her inheritance, but left the two babies with her brother Sam and his wife (who were shortly to emigrate to New Zealand) and took only her eldest child, the illegitimate one, with her. This outraged her sisters-in-law, who saw it as an insult to their dead brother; they sent her away from the farm empty-handed. Once again she had to take a housekeeping job, this time in the North Island. In 1914, Alice and her brother’s family met up again, and Alice began a new life. (Fleur Adcock – abridged) The music of Alice is text-driven, ranging between a language at times extremely simple, as was the basic musical language of the settlers, and at times quite complex, evoking a storm at sea, or the unease of the settlers in a new environment, or Alice’s reaction to the problems which beset her. The piece is held together by various referential motifs. The initial idea, which perhaps suggests the instability of the sea, is also present in the bell-like sounds marking Charles’ death, music associated with a storm at sea is later associated with mental stress, while music suggestive of the movement of shipboard lice later underlies Alice’s traumatic encounter with her sisters-in-law.

There are eight sections, which often merge into one another: 1. in a letter to her father, Alice describes shipboard life; 2. in New Zealand, she compares her past life and hopes for the future; 3. a dialogue between father and daughter, expressed through their letters; 4. in Makarora, Alice discovers she is pregnant; 5. Alice hears of her father’s death; 6. in England, she learns of her husband’s death; 7. back in Makarora, Alice is turned away by her sisters-in-law; 8. turning her back on the South Island, Alice looks forward to her new life with her brother’s family in the north.

While writing this piece, I was drawn again and again into the thought that, although this is a true story, set in a particular place at a certain time, it has the resonances of a universal myth, known to all of us who live here. Our forebears, or we ourselves, have crossed the seas to begin a new life, with unforeseen and unimaginable difficulties and felicities, whether ten years, a century or a millennium or so ago.

• Whitehead: Alice; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Alice; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Alice; computer-set 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Alice; audio 

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• Whitehead: Quintet and Alice  

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• Gillian Whitehead: Alice 

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Blood Lilies was written in November/December 2007. It is a rondo built around the text of a poem from the composer’s poetry collection In an Auckland City Garden (published by Heartbreak Publishing in 2006.

• Jagger: Blood Lilies; facsimile 

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(1)11(1)22; 4331; timp., perc. (3), hp; mezzo soprano; strings

• Cresswell: Canterbury Rhymes; computer-set 

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Euphonium (solo); 2222; 2231; timp. perc. harp celesta; strings

• Young, K.: Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra; computer set 

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• Young, K.: Concerto for Euphonium and Orchestra; computer set 

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piano and double wind orchestra, with slightly extended percussion section

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is untitled but the music is hardly “absolute”. On the contrary, it is often extroverted, evocative, and full of passionate expression. The piece is both a concerto, in terms of the amount of writing for the piano (including three extended cadenzas), and also a symphony since it has an equally demanding role for the orchestra. The relationship between the two forces alternates between independence and embracement.


The first movement, in moderate tempo, is lyrical in nature and evolves around singing lines. The melodic style shares similarities with the music of some of the nationalities of Southern China, for example, of the Miao people.


The second movement has a long slow introduction which unfolds from a series of mysterious chords. They form the basis for the rest of the movement that becomes fast and virtuosic, combining dancing rhythms and long melodic lines. The whole work evokes an atmosphere of songs and dances of ancient times.

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was commissioned by Professor Jack Richards who is an ardent supporter of New Zealand music. I played the 1st performance with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Keneth Young in the Wellington Town Hall in May 2008.

Gao Ping, August 2008

• Gao: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; computer-set 

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• Gao Ping: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra 

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2222; 42211; timp; 3 perc; hp; strings

The poem is by Li Yu (李煜) [937- 978], who is a well-known Chinese poet. He was the last emperor of the Southern Tang dynasty, deposed in 975. His works focus on the memory of lost pleasures.

I believe baritone and orchestra are the best medium to convey the emotion and color of this poem. My personal interpretation not only reflects the dark life after he was deposed, but also shows visions of the wonderful events that took place when he was in his homeland. My piece is an interweaving of these mixed emotions, and a sense of confusion of timeline as Li Yu ponders his past memories and his pitiful reality.

Jeff Lin

• Lin, J.: Exile from the Native Land; computer-set 

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• Lin, J.: Exile from the Native Land; computer-set 

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2 (2nd doubling bass fl.), 2 (2nd doubling C.A.), 1 E flat cl., 1B flat Cl., 2 bsn (2nd doubling Contra); 2,2,1,0; timp., perc. (bass dr., snare, cym., tubular bells, vib.); strings, including solo viola.

Perhaps a little like objects in cyberspace, memories are simultaneously real while in another sense, imagined fabrications. Each of us has stored an incalculable number of memories that become distorted, fade over time, or are forgotten. The questions of how real are memories and when do they exist or cease to exist has fascinated me for several years. This work is intended to speak about forgotten memories, not only personal ones, but also the countless memories that have been lost or misplaced over the millennia of human existence. There is a melody on the solo Viola that first appears two minutes into the work; it is reiterated twice, but is coloured by other sounds on each successive rendition, perhaps like the colouring of our memories.

• Cree Brown: Forgotten Memories; computer-set 

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• Cree Brown: Forgotten Memories; computer set 

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• Chris Cree Brown: Forgotten Memories; audio 

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• New Zealand Selection 2 

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• Forgotten Memories  Year: 2005 

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trb solo + 2(picc).2.2(bass).2(cbn) / 2.2.0.0 / timp.1perc / str

• GUNG-HO - Virtuoso Works for Trombone - David Bremner  Year: 2009 

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