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David Hamilton  

A Child Lay in a Little Crib

Duration: 02' 05" Year: 2012
for solo soprano, SSA choir and piano

  • Programme Note

    This piece was originally the fifth movement of a short Christmas cycle (“Angels and Shepherds and Wise Men All”) was written in 2012 for the end of year concert by South Auckland Choral Society to be conducted by the composer. The concert included my school choir, St Mary’s Schola, and I was keen to write something that the combined forces (including the soloists) in the concert could sing together.

    The cycle doesn’t try to encapsulate the entire Christmas story, but focusses on those characters on the edge of the story – the angels, the shepherds and the wise man. In this piece, the characters who gathered around the infant Jesus are focussed on: the animals, the angels and the shepherds.

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David Hamilton  

Ave Maris Stella

Duration: 04' 40" Year: 2012
for SSA choir with singing bowl

  • Programme Note

    Ave Maris Stella (“Hail, star of the sea”) is a plainsong Vespers hymn to Mary. It was especially popular in the Middle Ages. The creation of the original hymn has been attributed to several people, including Bernard of Clairvaux (12th century), Saint Venantius Fortunatus (6th century) and Hermannus Contractus (11th century). The text is found in a 9th century manuscript in the Abbey of Saint Gall (St. Gallen in present-day Switzerland).

    The piece uses little material other than the original chant melody. It is presented against a single sustained pitch from the singing bowl which sounds throughout. The work uses a mix of fully notated and semi-improvised music to create an atmospheric response to the text. Only the first and last verses of the text are used, with the choir only ever singing the first verse, and two solo voices singing the final verse.

    “Ave Maris Stella” was written for St Mary’s Schola (St Mary’s College, Auckland).

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Graham Parsons  

By the Rivers of Babylon (SATB)

Duration: 03' 10" Year: 2013
for SATB choir with optional piano and/or drum accompaniment

Graham Parsons  

By the Rivers of Babylon (SSA)

Duration: 03' 10" Year: 2013
for SSA choir with optional piano and/or drum accompaniment

Graham Parsons  

By the Rivers of Babylon (TTB)

Duration: 03' 10" Year: 2013
for TTB choir with optional piano and/or drum accompaniment

Graham Parsons  

Changing the Clocks - Trials of the Digital Age

Duration: 02' 20" Year: 2010
for small to medium sized TTB choir with optional accompaniment

Graham Parsons  

Changing the Clocks - Trials of the Digital Age

Duration: 02' 20" Year: 2010
for small to medium sized SATB choir with optional accompaniment

Graham Parsons  

Changing the Clocks - Trials of the Digital Age

Duration: 02' 20" Year: 2010
for for small to medium sized SAB choir with optional accompaniment

Graham Parsons  

Changing the Clocks - Trials of the Digital Age

Duration: 02' 20" Year: 2010
for small to medium sized SSA choir with optional accompaniment

David Hamilton  

Come sleep. Oh sleep.

Duration: 04' 40" Year: 2012
for SSAA choir and piano

  • Programme Note

    This sonnet, by Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), is part of a long sequence of poems titled “Astrophel and Stella”, which tracks the development of a love affair between the narrator (Astrophel) and the virtuous, intelligent, idealized Stella. Stella had a real-life counterpart who Sidney loved, yet eventually saw marry another man.

    The thirty-ninth sonnet is “Come sleep. Oh sleep, the certain knot of peace” in which the narrator personifies Sleep. He prays that Sleep will come and release him from his current state of misery – only through sleep will he be able to be free from the war raging between his head and his heart, between reason and love. All he seeks is “…smooth pillows, a sweetest bed, a chamber deaf of noise and blind of light”. He rationalizes that he can entice Sleep by promising that the image of Stella will appear in his dreams, and Sleep will be able to watch. This would be the greatest tribute he could pay. The narrator prefers Stella to appear in his dreams, because he then need not face the reality that she is not his own.

    “Come sleep. Oh sleep” was commissioned by Euphony (Kristin School, Auckland) and conductor David Squire.

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