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Kit Powell  

Christophorus

Duration: 45' 00" Year: 1981, r. 1982
Christmas cantata for baritone, children's chorus, wind orchestra and percussion

• Instrumentation
  Solo baritone, childrens' chorus Orchestra: 2222; 2220; timp., perc.(2), pno, organ; no strings. Uses slide projections
• Programme Note

  The first version was written in 1981 collectively with Andre Fischer, a pupil at the Kantonsschule Zürcher Unterland in Bülach. It is a setting of words from an advent calendar by Max Bolliger. It is scored for baritone soloist (Christophorus), children’s chorus and wind orchestra, with percussion. The work was performed twice in December 1981.

  Christophorus tells the story of St. Christopher, a very strong man, who is searching for an ogre who rules the world. Each year, instead of finding the ogre, he finds a child in distress. In the eighth year, still searching, he meets Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. During the night, when Jesus is born, the child speaks to him and says he has met the ogre seven times already. Christophorus now knows what the ogre is, but is much less sure of his ability to conquer lt.

  The characters of and the children whom he meets are dressed in costume, but do not act. The Cantata is, however, illustrated by a series of slides which are shown during the whole performance.

  In 1982 in Christchurch I revised Christophorus and translated the text into English. It was performed for a season before Christmas of that year, with James Dames singing the part of Christophorus. This revised version has double wind, piano, organ and three percussionists, plus the children’s chorus. A recording was made.

• Availability

  • Powell: Christophorus; facsimile 

    Score and parts | Hardcopy - facsimile
    
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Thomas Goss  

Eagle's Children

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 2000
music for a choreographic poem by Anandha Ray and Charles Anderson

• Instrumentation
  for singers and chamber orchestra - flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 5 percussionists, acoustic guitar, double bass; Native American singers
• Programme Note

  Original programme note from the premiere:

  For co-choreographer Anandha Ray, this dance is a very personal introspection. Ms. Ray dedicates this dance to Dan Meeks, the seventh son of a seventh son, medicine man for his tribe, her late great-grandfather. Though her family’s American Indian heritage was kept secret to avoid the severe prejudices of the South, Ms. Ray was privileged to learn from him a few of the traditions for planting and using sacred tobacco as a healing tool. The dance was inspired in honor of this ancestry. Anandha Ray and Charles Anderson, with widely varying backgrounds and styles of dance, collaborated with Thomas Goss in each section of the choreographic process to co-create the sections and movements of the dance and music. Loran Watkins’ costume design augments the abstract representation of Ray’s memories of her American Indian culture intertwined with her family’s need to hide this heritage. The lyrics in Goss’s score were adapted and translated by Native American healer Fred Jack Miles Manitoumahwhingon from a traditional Chippewa Indian prayer for times of journey, whether physical or spiritual.

Douglas Mews  

Lazarus

Duration: 1h 05' 00" Year: 1989
a biblical opera for 11 characters and chamber orchestra

Gillian Whitehead  

Requiem

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1981
for mezzo soprano and organ

• Programme Note

  Undoubtedly, this is one of Whitehead’s more unusual collaborations. The work, intended for five dancers and organ, with soprano added at the composer’s request, was to have been performed in five cathedrals around Britain during the summer of 1982. Due to the cancellation of the dance component however, the work received performance in only one of the cathedrals – Carlisle – but was later presented with a solo dancer, Bronwyn Judge, at the 1987 Sonic Circus in Wellington. The singer on that occasion was Glenys Taylor and the organist Douglas Mews. The composer initially delayed beginning work on the piece, since her sister was expecting a baby, and a Requiem did not seem an appropriate preoccupation. The successful birth was however followed by two close-family deaths and it was these which provided the composer with the emotional impetus to proceed with the composition. (Programme note by Emma Carle and Jack Body).

• Availability

  • Whitehead: Requiem; facsimile 

    Full score | Hardcopy - facsimile
    
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  • Whitehead: Requiem; computer-set  Year: 2001 

    Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
    
    $12.00
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  • Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 3 - Composer Portrait: Gillian Whitehead  Year: 2000 

    CD
    
    $15.00
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Douglas Mews  

The Kiss

Duration: 1h 10' 00" Year: 1984
a biblical opera for 16 characters

• Instrumentation
  harp, organ, celeste, flute, oboe, trumpet, cello, bass, percussion.

Douglas Mews  

The Waiting Father

Duration: 1h 05' 00"
a biblical opera for 11 characters and chamber orchestra