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Gillian Whitehead  

Ahotu (O Matenga)

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1984
for chamber ensemble

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    flute, trumpet, cello, percussion, 2 keyboard (2 pianos, celesta, harpsichord)
  • Programme Note

    Ahotu is the sixth in a series of instrumental pieces based on the phases of the moon, and refers to the seventh day of the cycle. The entire thirty-day cycle has been used as one of the rhythmic generators of the piece, with vowels and consonants translated into durations to provide the apparently irrational rhythms, which are contrasted in a series of short ensemble or solo sections with either proportional or regular rhythms. The two longest sections are centrally placed. The first, featuring trombone and percussion, presents the language-based material in the percussion; the second, starting with the long piano solo, begins a mensural canon based on the proportional material. However, half-way through this canon, recapitulatory material begins, and subsequent appearances of the canon occur in continually shorter blocks, each transformed very differently. O Matenga, in the title of the piece, refers to the Maori custom, found also in many other civilisations, of providing sustenance for the spirit to the next world after death.

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David Hamilton  

Andorra

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1984
for chamber sextet

  • Instrumentation
    flute, 2 clarinets, bassoon, percussion, piano
  • Programme Note

    Incidental music for the play Andorra by Max Frisch, produced by Epsom Girls Grammar and Auckland Grammar.

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Christopher Blake  

Clairmont Triptych

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1988
for wind quintet and piano

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • Instrumentation
    flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano
  • Programme Note

    Clairmont Triptych was written in fulfilment of a commission by Chamber Music New Zealand for the Auckland Wind Quintet with pianist David Guerin to perform on a New Zealand tour in 1988.

    The music derives its inspiration and impetus from the work of the New Zealand painter Phillip Clairmont (1949 – 1984). He was something of an enfant terrible of the New Zealand art world, living his life and his painting with a reckless passion and energy. His work is vibrant and strong, conveying an intense and energetic power. Aspects of these elements are captured in the music, although it is not programmatic, but connects with paintings through analogy and allusion. Amongst the profusion of themes and ideas there are two prominent recurrent subjects in Clairmont’s work – the domestic interior and the self portrait. These form the thematic base of the first two of the three inter-linked movements of the work. The first movement, Interiors, mirrors the fractured vibrancy of the Clairmont interiors by use of a very fast toccata-like movement in sequences of fluctuating tempo. This creates a continuously “flexing” aural effect which reflects the unsettling quality of the images. The second movement, Self Portraits, uses a recurring three note motif C-B-Bb. These are the composer’s initials (C-H-B in German), thus the self portrait becomes ambiguous. The music seeks to realise to an extent the technique and viewpoint of the self portraits. The third movement, Jimi Rocks, refers to the influence of rock music on Clairmont’s painting, particularly during his studies and the early part of his career in Christchurch. The three movement formal structure is a musical equivalent of the triptych format Clairmont often used in his painting.

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Bryan James  

Composition XII

Duration: 05' 00" Year: 1981
for chamber sextet

  • Instrumentation
    flute (doubling piccolo), oboe, clarinet, horn, baritone saxophone (doubling bassoon), percussion
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David Farquhar  

Concerto for Six

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1987
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, vibraphone and piano

Score Sample
  • Programme Note

    The main theme of the first movement is built on a deliberately ‘square’ 4 note scale figure; this is interlaced with perfect 4th ‘wobbles’ and triplets and together they weave tonal games in a capricious journey.
    Four rich chords (all essentially triads with added semitones) which open out, bloom and close again are the flowers displayed in the tranquil second movement, and for the final a jaunty but restrained dance through various tonalities grows out of the subtle thematic combination of notes from both C and F sharp, normally the most distant keys.

    Notes taken from Ritual Auras, Atoll CD (ACD 842)

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Jonathan Besser  

Dance of the Zestniks

Duration: 07' 00" Year: 1988
for clarinet, 2 violins, percusssion, piano, double bass

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Dorothy Buchanan  

Fanfare 1982

Duration: 02' 00" Year: 1982
for 3 trumpets, trombone, timpani and organ

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Chris Cree Brown  

Juxtapocluster

 Year: 1980
for flute, clarinet, violin, harpsichord and 2 pianists

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Gillian Whitehead  

Manutaki

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1985
for chamber sextet

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David Hamilton  

Mister Bones and Mister Jones

Duration: 20' 00" Year: 1985
incidental music for a play by Eve Hughes

  • Instrumentation
    6 players: flute (doubling piccolo), two clarinets (doubling alto saxophones), trumpet, and piano duet. Music also includes songs for cast to sing.
  • Programme Note

    In 1985 Epsom Girls Grammar and Auckland Grammar Schools presented a double bill of two New Zealand plays. Under the overall title of “Family Benefits”, the plays were Anyway Sweet Christmas by Gordon Dryland, and Mister Bones and Mister Jones by Eve Hughes. Both plays dealt with the family unit and the search for success and recognition. The latter play also demanded a certain amount of incidental music, to which were added (with the playwright’s permission) several songs to amplify aspects of the action or narrative. The lyrics were written by the director Michael Evershed.

    Mister Bones and Mister Jones is presented as a type of minstrel show, held together by the character of “Mister Interlocutor” – a sort of ringmaster. Two families are contrasted: one striving for material success, while the other cares little for the trappings of contemporary society.

    Of the many school productions I have been music director for, this was one of the happiest and most enjoyable experiences.

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