Search Music:

• Buchanan: Carnival of New Zealand Creatures; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

Portrait of FH was commissioned by The Southern Sinfonia and written as part of a presentation about the life of great NZ artist, Frances Hodgkins. It reflects on aspects of the artist’s life, ranging from her early days in NZ in the late 19th century through to the ‘flowering of her career’ in the 1940s, when she was one of the leading modernist painters of her generation.

The work opens with the Frances doodling at the piano (an instrument she played), improvising a theme, which then gets woven into the fabric of the piece. The orchestra enters with a flourish, and both the Prelude and ‘Water- colours’ are optimistic and lively in tone.

In ‘Water-colours’ I took as a cue Frances’ statement “I made the paint dance,” and a waltz feel pervades the piece. ‘Oils’, by contrast, is somber in tone, with a sense of loneliness and also reflects the hardships of war. ‘Gouaches’ is strange and colourful in sound, and becomes heroic in tone towards the end, before an unresolved ending, in which the piano returns again.

All movements are connected by the use of a musical motif, F-B which, when using the traditional German note names, spell F-H. This motif, representing Frances, also relates to the whimsical, poignant self-portraits she painted.

This work was the brainchild of art collector and curator Marshall Seifert, and it is to Marshall that I dedicate the music.

• Two Pieces by Anthony Ritchie 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

Curnow requested this work from Lilburn in 1952 for a poetry reading at Auckland University College. The event took place on the evening of 9 August that year, and involved a substantial amount of poetry (twenty-two poems in total) read by the poets involved. (Actually the works of eight poets were represented: Baxter read “Canto at Twenty-seven” by Louis Johnson).

Lilburn’s music was premiered by Antonia Braidwood (violin) and Donald Bowick (piano). One movement was supposed to precede each reading, providing the audience with the composer’s musical impressions of the work and personality of each poet. In the event, however, the order was reversed, which led to some confusion for the audience and some displeasure for the composer. Typical of New Zealand composition of the time, there was no fee to be had for the work. Lilburn even had to pay his way to Auckland for the rehearsals. On his return to Wellington, Lilburn shelved and forgot about the work. It was not until a chance meeting at his doctor’s surgery in 1988/89 that he was reminded of its existence by Lady Dorothea Turner, who had reviewed the first performance. At that point Lilburn contacted the violinist Dean Major to ask if he would be interested in performing it. After some negotiation the composer also determined that he would write a narration to go along with the music in lieu of the twenty-two poems, and (most surprisingly) volunteered to read this himself.

Salutes to Seven Poets was recorded by Concert FM on 5 September 1989, by Major (violin), with Rae de Lisle (piano). As if to make up for thirty-eight years of neglect of the work, this recording received a Mobil Award in 1990.

(Note by Nancy November).

• Lilburn: Salutes to Seven Poets; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $16.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Waiteata Collection of New Zealand Music Vol. 9 - Douglas Lilburn: Salutes to Poets  Year: 2006 

  CD
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Douglas Lilburn: Violin and Piano Works  Year: 2011 

  CD
  
  $30.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Norman: The Castaway Sailor; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

• Music by Philip Norman and Anthony Ritchie 

  Cassette
  
  • Borrow

• Norman: The Castaway Sailor; cassette  Year: 1998 

  Cassette
  
  • Borrow

Commissioned in 1985 by the Wellington Regional Orchestra (now the Vector Wellington Orchestra) for a family concert under Sir William Southgate, as part of the 1986 New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in Wellington, The Emperor and the Nightingale has subsequently been performed by a number of New Zealand regional and youth orchestras.

• McLeod: The Emperor and the Nightingale; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Pdf - computer set
  

• McLeod: The Emperor and the Nightingale; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

• McLeod: The Emperor and the Nightingale; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $42.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• McLeod: The Emperor and the Nightingale; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $42.00
  • • Quantity:

• Jenny McLeod: The Emperor and the Nightingale 

  CD
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Whitehead: Wulf; facsimile 

  Full score | Pdf - facsimile
  

• Whitehead: Wulf; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow