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

Judith Exley  

A Song of Marigolds

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1990
for soprano and gamelan orchestra

  • Programme Note

    The poem is a reflection of the transient nature of love and life. The gamelan, being an intergral part of a traditional which sees life as cyclic, maybe offers a balance. I have endeavoured to express this polarity by using traditional materials in non-traditional ways.

    Judith Exley

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Jonathan Besser  

Bird Without Wings

Duration: 14' 00"
For female voice and ensemble

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Ian Sinclair  

Concert Overture - "Land of the Kea"

Duration: 12' 00" Year: 1993
one movement work for symphony orchestra drawing influences from the South Island

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Anthony Young  

Concertino for Orchestra

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005, r. 2010

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    22*22; 4331; timp., perc. (2 or 3), hp; strings
  • Programme Note

    This piece is affectionately known as ‘Bugs’ or ‘the Bug piece’ to me, and that is what it is about: the wonderful creepy crawlies native to New Zealand. Motivation for writing this piece came from two sources. As part of my residency with the Auckland Philharmonia in 2004, I was required to write a piece for a concert specifically at children and families. Naturally, it needed simple structures, lots of energy and a bit of fun.

    The second motivation with regard to a specific programme was a love for all native New Zealand fauna, and not just beautiful birds. So much music has been written with bird song or in celebration of New Zealand’s landscape. But nothing to my knowledge had been written about the humble creatures which often inspire revulsion rather than awe. Despite their not so cuddly appearance, native insects and invertebrates are just as fascinating and unique to these islands of ours as any other endemic wildlife.

    The first movement is Giant Weta. Often the most notorious for exciting disgust, these magnificent insects are quite amazing, but all to often fall prey to introduced mammals.

    The second movement is titled Giant Snails. Native giant snails are enormous, and often live in kauri trees, or feed on giant earthworms on the forest floor.

    The Nelson Cave Spider is a extremely unique creature. Like so many other creatures and plant life of New Zealand, it is a relic of ancient times and preserved by New Zealand’s isolation.

    Finally, perhaps the most unusual of all is the Peripatus, sometimes known as the velvet worm, a blue centipede-like creature that crawls through undergrowth in search of prey.

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Daniel Stabler  

eccco fantasy for orchestra

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 2002, r. 2005
for orchestra

Score Sample
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Anthony Young  

Mamaku

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2002
for full orchestra

Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    3*(alto)3*33; 4431; timp., perc. (3), hp; strings Percussion: mba, sus. cym., tri., wdblck, b.d., tam-tam, tub. bells, xyl., glock.
  • Programme Note

    The mamaku is the black tree ferns and is the tallest tree fern of New Zealand. Like other ferns, its fronds open out, forming the koru. Off one shape, more of the same shapes unravel, and then off these in turn, tiny parts of the frond unravel, and so on. From the moment of ‘birth’, the gradual cycle continues until the magnificent tree fern is towers, quite different from its original form and the koru is still present. In this piece I’ve explored slow metamorphosis, with the aim to grow sounds out of each other with contrasting results. Diatonic chords out of chromatic clusters, beauty out of chaos. All of this begins from a single note, f, at the start which is born out of string harmonics and imperceptible pitches, and concludes with hint that the cycle an ongoing one.

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Felicity Williams  

More Songs for Early Childhood

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1990
For Voice(s) and Piano

Add to Wishlist

Full information

Douglas Lilburn  

Sings Harry

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1954
song cycle for baritone and piano

Score Sample
  • Programme Note

    Sings Harry, a setting of six poems by Denis Glover, tells of an endearingly idiosyncratic New Zealander. It is a prime example of Lilburn’s subtle handling of poetic texts. The self-reflective tone of the protagonist, and the slightly complex narrative mode, are established in the first song: it is Harry’s voice that we hear, Harry singing his home-made song cycle; yet a guiding narrator is ever present to tells us so. One’s awareness of this narrative voice is enhanced throughout the cycle by the recurrent falling-third motif at the phrase ‘sings Harry’, and by the composer’s frequent use of a vocal reciting tone or a pitch to which the voice is drawn. It is nonetheless easy to become absorbed in the various voices of Harry, which range from the crusty critic to the carefree swaggerer. Lilburn captures the fluctuating temporality and unpredictability of his subject with great sensitivity and humour. In the final song, a delightful recollective melange of landscapes and uncles, this is achieved by means of recurrent motifs (the ‘river running by’) and reflective pauses. Sings Harry was released in 1960 on a label called Kiwi New Zealand Composer Edition. It was the third work by Lilburn to be recorded and the sole piece on a 45 rpm disc. Programme note: Nancy November

  • Availability
Add to Wishlist

Full information

David Griffiths  

Six Legs or More

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 1976
For piano

Score Sample
Add to Wishlist

Full information

Brigid Ursula Bisley  

Waipounamu

Duration: 11' 00" Year: 1995
for orchestra

Add to Wishlist

Full information