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This song cycle for soprano and piano has texts by the composer in Maori and English.

“Awa Herea memorably evokes the physical appearance of symbolic significance of these braided rivers… cosmic weather-driven energy.” (Covell, Sydney Morning Herald).

“Its pace was shrewdly varied and the music encompassed a range of styles – from sung declamation to florid lyricism – without incongruity.” (Jack, Independent).

“The cycle displays all the characteristics of her [Gillian Whitehead’s] mature work. The vocal line is at once exultant and contemplative, the piano writing incisive or lulling; the formal shaping novel yet accessible. It is a memorable piece, filled with the energetic spirit of the natural world and finding through that spirit its own serenity.”

• Whitehead: Awa Herea; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Awa Herea; computer-set 

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• Whitehead: Awa Herea; facsimile 

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• NZIAF: Gillian Whitehead Portrait; part 2 

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• Waikohu: Mere Boynton and Friends 

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• Tracey Chadwell's Songbook  Year: 1995 

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• Ears Wide Open Taringa Areare Education Resource CD  Year: 2000 

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• John Rimmer: Fleeting Images  Year: 1993 

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This work commissioned by the City of Aberdeen is in one continuous movement comprising eleven sections. The orchestra has 3 roles – to accompany, to assist the quartet and to supply much of the musical argument – it is of equal importance to the quartet. At its first performance, this work was described as “astoundingly successful”.

• Cresswell: Concerto for Orchestra and String Quartet; computer set 

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• New Zealand New Music in Scotland 

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• Ryan: Concerto for tuba and orchestra; computer-set 

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• Ryan: Concerto for tuba and orchestra; computer-set 

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In 3 movements, this work was reviewed as follows, “There are proper tunes, there are pattems that can be traced, brass and percussion in abundance, and rhythms that dance light off the stage at you.” Christchurch Press 11-95. This work was commissioned and premiered by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.

• Norman: Concerto; computer-set 

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• Orchestra Works: Body and Norman 

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The concerto presented the composer with the added challenge of achieving a balanced sound-world between the guitar and the orchestra. Marshall specifically wanted full orchestral forces used, to move away from the usual guitar concerto scoring, involving reduced numbers and little brass.

This concerto attempts to explore the many aspects of the guitar’s character. The first movement begins with a cool, languid theme that gradually opens out into a slightly bluesy idea. The second main theme is romantic in feel, with a hint of Brahms. In the middle section various motifs struggle for supremacy before a seemingly new theme (derived from the opening) appears on solo guitar. This new theme has a driving, determined quality and gradually builds up to a climax. A cadenza follows and leads into a new version of the second theme, transformed by assymetric rhythms. The music drives towards a climax and then fades as the guitar’s opening melody is fragmented and dies, accompanied by celesta.

The slow second movement is intimate in mood, and opens with a long melody on the phrygian mode. The lyricism takes a sinister turn with the appearance of the piccolo and guitar, accompanied by basses. A relentless middle section follows, featuring a sonorous guitar theme that builds in intensity to a big climax. The guitar emerges from the wall of sound to close the movement quietly, briefly quoting from John Ritchie’s Clarinet Concertino.

The third movement opens with heavy, pounding chords and a brass melody that recalls ancient Maori melodic patterns. As the energy fades, the guitar takes up one of the opening rhythmic patterns and transforms it into a percussive idea. Temple blocks, bongos and drums are added before the piccolo and clarinet introduce the main theme of the Allegro section. The full orchestra presents a pop-style theme followed by the guitar playing a motif in changing metres. These themes are varied through the movement, producing different musical characters, such as the jazzy section in the middle. The coda attempts to bring together the various melodic strands, and finally resolves the bi-tonal tensions that pervade the work.

• Scholes: Islands II (2nd movement)  

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• Different Tracks  Year: 1993 

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First performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joseph Swenson with Christian Lindberg as soloist in St. Andrews 18 February 1998.

‘Kaea’: a wooden Maori war trumpet, somewhere between four and six feet in length with a diameter of about one inch at the blowing end widening to about eight inches at the bell. It was made of hollow sections of wood lashed together with a flax cord. Wedges of wood were glued to the bell to amplify and direct the sound. Inside the bell end it was fitted with a tongue or vibrating reed. The sound was loud and booming and was used to raise the alarm in times of danger or to terrify the enemy by shouting curses through it.

• Cresswell: Kaea; computer-set 

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• Cresswell: Kaea; computer-set 

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• Lyell Cresswell: The Voice Inside 

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Maui Tikitiki a Taranga (“Maui formed in the topknot of Taranga”) was a demi-god found in the tribal myths of the Māori people of New Zealand.

Maui, the fifth and youngest child, was born at the edge of the sea. His mother, Taranga, thought he was stillborn, and wrapped him in a tuft of her hair and set him adrift. He was cared for by the seaweed until a breeze blew him ashore, where he was saved and brought up by one of his great-ancestors.

Maui was a great prankster. In one of his mischievous moods he decided to put out all the fires in the world. To bring fire back, he had to find Mahuika, the goddess of fire. He was awestruck upon meeting her, but decided to play a trick on her by taking fire from her fingernails one at a time, until she realised his game and threw fire to the ground, catching everything alight. Maui changed himself into a hawk to escape the flames, which singed his feathers. He called upon his ancestor to send rain and drench the fire, depriving Mahuika of her powers.

Maui decided to defeat death by journeying to where the earth meets the sky, where lived his great-ancestress Hine nui te po (“Great Hine the Night”). He was accompanied by many birds, and told them his plan to enter the body of the sleeping Hine and so defeat death. The birds sat quietly trying not to laugh as Maui, in the form of a caterpillar, crawled towards Hine. Suddenly the fantail could be quiet no longer and laughed aloud, dancing about with delight. Hine awoke with a start, realised Maui’s trickery, and he was killed.

• Maria Grenfell: Maui Tikitiki a Taranga - hardcopy score 

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• Maria Grenfell: Maui Tikitiki a Taranga - downloadable PDF 

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• Maria Grenfell: Maui Tikitiki a Taranga - hire set 

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• Maria Grenfell: Maui tikitiki a Taranga; audio 

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• Grenfell: Four Works 

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• Grenfell: Maui Tikitiki a Taranga; cassette 

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• Norman/Grenfell/MacKenzie; cassette 

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