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M Louise Webster  

An Infinite Shore

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2011
Clarinet quintet in three movements

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  • Instrumentation
    Bb Clarinet, string quartet
  • Programme Note

    This work for clarinet quintet in three movements was written following time spent in the north of Scotland, during which I visited the remote and desolate places that my family left behind when they emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand in the 19th Century. Although the music is not intended to be strictly descriptive, the image underpinning the work is that of an infinite shore that stretches from the line of steep cliffs at Badbea overlooking the North Sea, around the world to the rocky southern shores of Aotearoa New Zealand. The work draws on the tonal colour and extremes of pitch that are possible in the clarinet, and the extraordinary platform of sound of the string quartet.

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Lyell Cresswell  

And Every Sparkle Shivering

Duration: 21' 00" Year: 1999
for piano quintet

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    string quartet and piano
  • Programme Note

    And every sparkle shivering to new blaze,
    In number did outmillion the account
    Reduplicate upon a chequered board

    Dante, The Divine Comedy – Paradise XXVIII
    Translation by Rev. H.F.Cary (1814)

    Observe the circle nearest, and know
    the reason for its spinning at such speed
    is that Love’s fire burns it into motion.

    Dante, The Divine Comedy – Paradise XXVII
    Translated by Mark Musa (1995)

    In Canto 28 of Paradise, Dante, the pilgrim, is faced with an unbearably piercing light reflected in the eyes of his beloved guide, Beatrice. He turns and sees nine ever decreasing circles burning and whirling at different speeds. These circles give off sparks that sing hosannas. Dante has seen a spherical universe with God at the centre. He asks why the universe is not really like this, Beatrice tells him that he is now seeing it from a spiritual rather than a physical point of view, and that the reason for the great speed of the inner circle “is that Love’s fire burns it into motion”.

    This imagery of circles within circles whirling, burning and giving off sparks seems to demand some musical treatment. It suggests a number of musical ideas revolving around each other and establishing a smooth relationship, and the warmer notion of love setting these ideas in motion.

    The quintet, which is in one continuous movement, revolves around five central ideas. These ideas are moved around like pieces on a chessboard, each trying to gain some strategic advantage in pursuit of a single objective. Two of these ideas provide the rhythmic drive of the piece. The first, hesitant, but gathering speed and rising in pitch, is introduced by the viola at the beginning. The second, direct and syncopated, is announced by all four strings when they play together for the first time, before it is taken up by the piano. The main source of melodic material is a quiet tune, a love song, that threads its way through the piece, played first by the two violins and viola. The full version is heard in a piano solo played simply in octaves. In another guise this tune becomes the fourth idea, a fast dance that gathers momentum as the quintet reaches its climax. The fifth idea, fast accumulating scales, links the melodic and rhythmic elements and helps provide energy. The piece begins with a piano chord, which becomes a pivot for all these ideas and crops up in a variety of ways at crucial points.

    And Every Sparkle Shivering is something like a mosaic composed by inlaying small tesserae of coloured stone or glass to create a sparkling over-all design. There is conflict between the warmth and vigour of sparking fire and spinning circles, and the coolness of glinting stone and flickering glass.

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Jack Body  

Bamboo Music for eight players

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1979
for 8 musicians playing bamboo instruments

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Kit Powell  

Clarinet Quintet

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1962
for clarinet and string quartet

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Mike Nock  

Dialogues, Meditations and Reflections

Duration: 20' 00"
for piano quartet

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Felicity Williams  

Dragon Kite

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 1991
dance drama based on a Japanese legend

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Juliet Palmer  

drift, drop

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 2006
for large chamber ensemble, in two groups

  • Instrumentation
    Ensemble 1: piano solo, bassoon, trumpet, bass, percussion; Ensemble 2: piccolo/flute solo, oboe, bass clarinet, trombone, cello, percussion
  • Programme Note

    drift, drop grew out of the folksong Down by Sally’s Garden as sung by Leo Spenser in Lakefield, Ontario in 1957. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Lakefield, and I certainly wasn’t there in 1957, but I have a small distintegrating volume of Canadian folksongs on the top of my piano. A lot of rambling and roving takes place in this song, and I kept finding myself singing it as I rode my bike through Toronto’s laneways. This song, which long ago drifted over from Ireland, guided me through the labyrinth of composing – Drift, to float along, to deviate; something driven. Drop, to fall, to collapse; a precipitous shift.

    Juliet Palmer

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Philip Dadson  

Drum/Sing

Duration: 26' 00" Year: 1984
group composition tuned percussion, voices and drones , 'From Scratch'

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Neville Hall  

Evolving Music

Duration: 22' 00" Year: 1990
for chamber ensemble

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Lachlan McKenzie  

Flute Quintet

Duration: 25' 00" Year: 2002
for flute and string quartet

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