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Since enjoying 2007 as the Ursula Bethell writer-in-residence at the English Department of the University of Canterbury, I had wanted to thank the University in kind by setting one of Ursula Bethell’s poems. On receiving an invitation from the Christchurch City Choir to compose a work to celebrate the choir’s 20th anniversary I immediately thought of Bethell’s ‘At the Lighting of the Lamps’, which carries the subtitle in brackets ‘(For Music)’. In the first three cantos of this she describes, in an extended musical metaphor, the setting of the sun over the Southern Alps, the beginnings of a symphony of light as lamps are lit across the Canterbury Plains, and the heavenly effects of ‘the music of the spheres’ as starlight illuminates the night sky.

Bethell, one of the pioneers of modern New Zealand poetry, was a long-time resident of Cashmere until her death in 1945 and recorded in verse many such sights, and associated reflections, from her elevated vantage point on the hills.

With the tragedy of the 2011 earthquakes and the postponement of many cultural activities, the Christchurch City Choir’s anniversary for celebration passed from the 20th to the 21st. As a result of the earthquakes, Ursula Bethell’s words have assumed new meaning – the lighting of the lamps can now symbolise hope, signs of a city and its surrounds in renewal: ‘from the deepening dark, sudden a new song springs…’.

I have dedicated this work to my muse, Alison, on the occasion of our thirtieth wedding anniversary.

- Philip Norman, 2012.

• Norman: At the Lighting of the Lamps; computer set 

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burlesques mécaniques is a rather extroverted collection of grotesque miniatures whose characters are not people or animals but dances. These dances have been mechanised, electrified, and often obscured by their own rhythmic impulse. Old forms and formulaic tropes are given new identities, freed from the confines of metric stability and the expectation that they be “danceable”. The essentially mechanical, artificial aspect of music (and of art in general?) is embodied in the piano, here a brittle, seedy protagonist whose string limbs hover and flail about it. Conflicting rhythms dominate the surface, oscillating between insistent repetition and mad, angular flourishes. The generally jerky, muscular rhythmic material is periodically frozen throughout the work, most strikingly in the ninth movement (chain). Here a string of rich, impressionistic chords briefly reveals an alternative, interior world which is then rudely dismissed in an almost haphazard finale.

• Taylor: burlesques mécaniques; computer set 

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• Taylor: burlesques mécaniques; computer set 

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This short work grew out of the middle movement. Originally composed for violin and strings, “Memorial” was first performed in a version for oboe and strings by the chamber orchestra of St Mary’s College, Auckland. It was suggested I might like to expand this into a larger work for oboe and strings, given there was a fine young oboe player in the school.

The completed concertino consists of a traditional three movement form: fast-slow-fast. The first movement has elements of Baroque period writing in it, including a short fugal section based on the opening melody. The second movement, “Memorial”, is a slow and poignant movement written at a time when New Zealand was experiencing a number of tragedies – the Pike River mining tragedy and the Christchurch earthquakes. The final movement, “Hoe-Down”, is a complete contrast, being a purely fun and rhythmic piece of writing suggesting the music of the old time western USA.

• Hamilton: Concertino for Oboe and Strings; computer set 

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• Hamilton: Concertino for Oboe and Strings; computer set 

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• Alex Taylor: constellations - hardcopy score 

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• Alex Taylor: constellations - downloadable PDF 

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For the last 28 months of his life, the composer Robert Schumann was confined to an insane asylum in Endenich, now a neighbourhood of Bonn. In Musicophilia – Tales of Music and the Brain, author Oliver Sacks includes this gripping anecdote of Schumann’s last days: “Auditory hallucinations now overwhelmed him, degenerating first into ‘angelic,’ then into ‘demonic’ music, and finally into a single, ‘terrible’ note, an A, which played ceaselessly day and night, with unbearable intensity.”

The line “so hilf Du mir, Herr Jesu Christ, in meinem letzten Leiden” (so help me, Lord Jesus Christ, in my last suffering) comes from a chorale harmonisation that Schumann composed at Endenich – some of the last music he ever wrote. This piece incorporates the chorale in both a quartet of horns and a quartet of cellos. There are also references to Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim, relating to Robert Schumann’s extensive use of musical ciphers and coded messages.

• Ellis: In meinem letzten Leiden (hire set); computer set 

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• Ellis: In meinem letzten Leiden; computer set 

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• Ellis: In meinem letzten Leiden; computer set 

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When I think of a piano trio, I immediately think of a transparent interplay of lines. This has something to do with the fact that the instruments that make up the modern piano trio are not particularly homogeneous, unlike say, a string quartet. It’s as if somebody had strewn some line drawings of simple three dimensional objects on a photographer’s lightbox, all on top of one another, resulting in an unexpected and strangely beautiful assemblage.

• Margetic: Lightbox; computer set 

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• Margetic: Lightbox; computer set 

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Mahuika for organ and orchestra was, like several of my pieces, given a title in its infancy. In the way that a child grows into her name over time, Mahuika has developed a particular character during the process of writing. The work is not programmatic, but the origins of its name have come to influence the work: Mahuika, a Maori fire goddess, is awakened into her full terrifying extreme, utilising the full range and capacity of both the Auckland Town Hall organ and the Auckland Philharmonia. Mahuika evokes the sense of a young teenage goddess full of ideas and vitality but without the opportunity to yet develop and explore them fully.

The work has the potential to mature into a full-scale organ symphony of around 30-40 minutes: if anyone is in a position to fund her to grow further please contact me to discuss.

• Chris Adams: Mahuika - hire set 

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• Chris Adams: Mahuika - hardcopy score 

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• Chris Adams: Mahuika - downloadable PDF 

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• Davidson: QUATRE MÉLODIES QUÉBÉCOISES; computer set 

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• Rachael Morgan: Refracted White - downloadable PDF 

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• Rachael Morgan: Refracted White - hardcopy score & parts 

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In others’ words:

“ONE TWO!” – Jono Sawyer, drum kit soloist.

“There’s a specific face that I make when trying not to lose my dignity and I am making that face now.” – Cordelia Black

“That was weird. Batman and Joker’s love child?” – Rueben Waine

What were you thinking [of the title]?! It’s just too silly for words.” – Eva Radich

“This thing is outrageous. Good on you!” – Adrian Hollay, recording engineer for Workshop 3

“I read that as ‘piece for organ, drunk and orchestra’.” – Justine Pierre

The composer blogs about this work here: http://www.robbie.co.nz/2012/03/03/orchan-orgestra/

• Robbie Ellis: Relish in Immature Bombast - hardcopy score 

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