Sub Navigation

Search Music:

Search for music by typing a word or phrase in the box below or by selecting one or more categories from the list on the side.

Reset

Or search for products by selecting an option below, and typing a word or phrase in the box above

  • Scores
  • CDs and DVDs
  • Downloads
  • Education Resources

Alan Starrett  

3 movements towards g

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1980
for string quartet

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Bill Barclay  

Circular Concerto

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1988
for string quartet

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Jack Body  

Epicycle

Duration: 13' 00" Year: 1989
for string quartet

  • Programme Note

    Composed in 1989 for the Kronos Quartet, Epicycle is rarely played due to its level of difficulty. The unrelenting running patterns, filled with displaced accents, changing meters, and hairpin hockets (rapidly played interlocking phrases passed from player to player) are just a part of the challenge. Jack Body explains, “When I write for string quartet I like to think of the instruments as equal partners within the same register, each with its own quality of sound, not in the vertical hierarchy – from cello upwards towards the first violin that we normally hear from a string quartet. This makes strenuous demands on the cello of course, who must ascend into the violin’s register, since the reverse is not possible.

    Since I first composed Epicycle for the Kronos quartet in 1989 I have always been dissatisfied with tis brief conclusion. In 2004 I decided to rectify this and wrote a new final section (the third) which is a kind of antithesis of the rest of the work – instead of a single line melody we have chords; instead of just employing the upper register we explore a fuller spectrum of sound, though still based on the original circular melody. Thus Epicycle concludes.”

    From notes by Charles Amirkhanian
    for the CD “Ring of Fire” © 2008 Other Minds

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Jonathan Besser  

Hokianga

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1981
for string quartet

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Jonathan Besser  

Klez

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1984
for string quartet

  • Instrumentation
    for violin 1, violin 2, viola and cello
  • Programme Note

    Klezmer Jewish music absorbs many musical influences from Germany through to Greece and the Middle East. Once the Klezmer arrived in New York the music incorporated jazz. Jonathan arrived in New Zealand in 1974 from New York and composed Klez in 1984 for a jam session with two violinist friends.

    Jonothan Besser arranged his popular gypsyish Klezmer tune Klez for Jade String Quartet in 2007.

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Clare Maclean  

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

Duration: 08' 00" Year: 1984
for string quartet

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Gillian Whitehead  

Moon, Tides and Shoreline

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

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • 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
Add to Wishlist

Full information

John Elmsly  

Moto Perpetuo

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1987
for four violins

Score Sample
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Matthew Davidson  

Music for String Quartet

Duration: 06' 00" Year: 1988, r. 1996
for string quartet

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Michael Smither  

Polyphonic Chords

 Year: 1980
graphic score for four players (originally intended for four cellos)

  • Programme Note

    This is a set of pieces to be played by four instruments.

    Composer’s instruction is that each musician takes a colour, and the four players play the colours concurrently. Each of the 12 pieces can be played in any order, with the performers to decide how many and in which order to perform them. There can be a break or not between pieces.

    In the “Michael Smither” book it states “The polyphonic chords developed out of gestural drawings meant to be read by players of musical instruments capable of glissanding or bending notes, and were designed specifically for four cellos.”

    Donald Armstrong

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information