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A Village Wedding combines two different conceptual approaches; that of the program piece wherein images or activity is described by music; and that of the concerto grosso, a Baroque form which both collectively and individually showcases the players of an ensemble. In the latter case, the piece would seem to fulfill many if not all of the 18th-century requirements. After an overture, movements based on dance rhythms ensue, including the Pavane, March, Gigue, and Rigadoon. Yet the material is cast in a mold that is necessarily programmatic. The Overture, with its opening solemnity, birdsong trills, and developing energy, is intended to describe the bright Sunday morning of a country village, along with the excitement and bustle of wedding preparations. The _Meditation_’s searching cadenza and pensive sweetness exhorts the attendants to send out their blessings to the bride and groom, while the Processional calls the wedding party to the altar. The Dance at the end paints a fiddler’s paradise of flying knees and elbows to jigs and reels as the whole village joins in the revelry.

The piece is dedicated to the composer’s fiancée Erica, and acknowledges with gratitude and appreciation the dedication and excellence of the members of the YPCO.

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• Thomas Goss: A Village Wedding 

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This work is an hommage to the piano-four hand waltzes and hungarian rhapsodies of Johannes Brahms (with tougue firmly in cheek, comme d’habitude).

• Davidson: After Brahms; computer-set 

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• Matthew Davidson: After Brahms 

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The title is taken from the seventeenth century Latin word Catena meaning a chain, row or series. This abstract is reflected in the composition of the piece; sections of each movement are built from short melodic motives, which once stated, keep recurring.


The first movement opens with a moment of quiet contemplation before the viola resolutely states the main theme and is followed in canon by each of the other instruments. The second movement is cyclic in structure, comprised of four sections (ABCA); the first is comparatively bright and sunny in mood, the second a quirky dance employing string glissandi, the third builds in intensity, employing clashing harmonies and fast tightly-knit motives and the fourth, a diminished iteration of the first section. The third movement is playful in character and begins with a call and response between all parts before turning into a lively dance in 7/8. The rhythmic interplay between groups of two and three quavers continues until the end of the piece.

Using the baroque concerto as a model, this work is designed to feature a baritone voice, of which bassoon, baritone saxophone, and even bass clarinet would work effectively as soloists. The key of B minor was chosen for its ease of playing and dark yet resonant qualities in the string ensemble. The first movement is a deviation from the traditional form of theme-and-variations, in which the theme is expressed with ever-accelerating note values while maintaining the same steady tempo. First, a somber statement in quarter-note octaves arcs across the landscape of strings, from basses and cellos to the first violins and back, then picked up and transformed by the cello solo with an edge of longing. The icy second statement of the theme in eighth notes allows the cello to push against the ensemble a little in the contrast of the solo string tone, while the warm triplets of the third statement give the ensemble a chance to work out. The brief cadenza that follows pushes the theme from quarter notes to eighths to triplets, finally settling on the 16th notes that drive the theme to a bustling conclusion.

The second movement relies on simplicity in its use of the ABA aria form. The cello’s gentle but indulgent melody floats over a cushion of pulsing chords. The strings introduce a countermelody in triplets that leads up to a solemn chordal statement, and then becomes a factor in the development of the original melody.

The concluding rondo blends both the modern and baroque concepts of the “hook,” a catchy phrase that sticks in the mind because of some unusual note. In this case, the snag is a diminished 5th, more common to the blues than to the baroque concerto. Here it is explored using all of the opportunities that the freedom of the rondo form allows, boldly stated at the beginning, punctuating episodes of development, sneaking in at times where it is least expected, then bringing the movement to a close with a feeling of unsettled finality.

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• Thomas Goss: Concerto in b minor 

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Double Bass Concerto in e minor was written as a showpiece for the more natural characteristics of the double bass, such as the warmth and solidity of plucked strings, the ease of harmonics, the resonance of open strings, and the extended 4-octave range. The double bass is a member of the viol family, with an inherently more delicate quality to its timbre than its modern orchestral cousins the violin, viola, and ‘cello. As a solo instrument, it offers an alternate view of virtuoso string playing; a low register dark with rich, complex broodings, a middle range filled with anticipation and veiled longing, and an unusually graceful and poetic high compass bereft of throaty tension or shrillness.

This concerto is written in the form of a rhapsody or capriccio, in one movement with an extended, freer exposition. Under alert tremolo, the bass opens with an impulsive statement that climbs three times from its rock-bottom open E string to its highest harmonics. The strings answer with a quiet, gentle elegy, soon transformed by the bass into a more yearning episode that ends on an unsettled note. A bravura melody leaps forth from this cloud, a folk-dance tune that gambols between soloist and orchestra, leading the music through restless changes of key and expectation. A heartfelt strain emerges, eventually guiding the music to a floating, dreamy musical landscape. Over pulsing strings, the bass ponders the themes of the concerto in tender detail throughout its range of pitch and color, suggesting a haven of peaceful beauty. The previous mood springs back to life in a boisterous answer, leading to a cadenza in which the bass’s ruminations are gruffer and more pointed than before. In the final coda the strings return to their elegy, then the bass takes the orchestra back to the beginning, reversing the sprawling gestures to drift down from the heights, fading to silence on a lingering octave E.

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Hammerheads is a double piano duet. It was composed in 2008 for four talented young Nelsonian pianists, Emily Deans, Jennie Verstappen, Natasha Ironside and Holly Tippler who played the piece several times during the year. These pianists are students of acclaimed teacher Mary Ayre who commissioned Hammerheads with funding from Creative New Zealand.

The work is in 5 sections contrasting slow with fast music and draws some of its pitch material from one chord in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Hammerheads presents ensemble challenges for the performers with tricky rhythmic patterns in the fast sections. Its harmonic language is based primarily on a six-note descending scale heard in the opening bars.

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• John Rimmer: Hammerheads 

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For experienced violinist with beginner string ensemble, this piece was written for The Stringed Instrument Company staff members to play at their 2008 Christmas party celebrations. Cath Mayo performed the violin solo.

• Scholes, C.: Knees Up Mambo; computer-set 

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For experienced cellist with beginner string ensemble, this piece was written for The Stringed Instrument Company staff members to play at their 2008 Christmas party celebrations.

• Scholes, C.: Knees Up Mambo; computer-set 

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Meditation was commissioned by Tessa Petersen and John Van Buskirk for performance in a concert celebrating the opening of the Chinese Gardens in Dunedin, New Zealand, 2008. The piece takes an ancient Chinese poem as its point of departure, a text that focuses on Nature and its relationship to humans. The music spontaneously expresses thoughts of Nature and beauty, using simple ideas based around modes, repeated ostinati, and a mixture of long melodic lines and shorter motifs. Various timbres on both instruments are explored, and the pianist plays on the strings of the instrument with mallets at the beginning and end of the piece. The piece is structured in 3 main sections: slow-faster-slow, and all sections are played without a break.

• Anthony Ritchie: Meditation - downloadable PDF 

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• Anthony Ritchie: Meditation - hardcopy score & part  Year: 2013 

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• Release: The Mozart Fellowship  Year: 2012 

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