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Anthony Ritchie  

24 Preludes

Duration: 49' 00" Year: 2002
preludes for solo piano

Score Sample
Audio Sample
  • Programme Note

    It is impossible not to feel inspired when playing some of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues, Chopin’s 24 Preludes, Debussy’s two books of preludes, or Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. As a composer I wanted to make a small mark of respect to these greats with some dedications. I have also taken a cue from Bach and Shostakovich and included contrapuntal forms within these preludes. While not wanting to restrict myself to the form of a fugue, there are several preludes which are close in spirit to fugues: Nos.17 and 19 for instance, are what I would call my ‘prelugues’. There is also a passacaglia (No.16) which owes a debt to Shostakovich. I have conceived these pieces as a unified whole. Within them I have attempted to cover a whole variety of characters and moods, from the improvisational and experimental to the lyrical and gentle, from the wild and gestural to the calm and peaceful, from the quirky and ‘black’ to the light and sunny, from the depressive to the resolved. The extensive technical planning and preparation behind these pieces has been fun for me as the composer, but in the end it is the sound and musical expression that matters. I would like to think this voyage of discovery has led to something new and interesting to listen to.

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David Griffiths  

3 Franks

Duration: 55' 00" Year: 2005
three short operas based on Franks Sargeson Stories

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Philip Norman  

A Christmas Carol

Duration: 1h 40' 00" Year: 2001
ballet music for orchestra

  • Instrumentation
    2222;2221;timp,2perc,keyboards;strs
  • Programme Note

    Our version of A Christmas Carol began as a glint in Russell Kerr’s eye. I remember a phone call from Russell in late 1988: “Philip – I think I’ve got an idea for a ballet that might work…”.

    Two years later, A Christmas Carol opened in the Theatre Royal, Christchurch in a polished production by Southern Ballet, with Russell himself in the demanding dual roles of Scrooge and choreographer.

    The success of the Southern Ballet’s presentation led to an unexpected invitation from Angela Gorton, then General Manager of Canterbury Opera.

    “Would it be possible to convert the ballet into an opera?” Angela asked. “You’ve got to be joking” I remember thinking. “Yes, of course, no problems” I replied.

    The temporary bout of insanity continued. I chose to write the libretto, as well as taking on the challenge of converting what was an electronic tape score into a 500-page manuscript for live orchestra and singers.

    Thankfully, as it transpired, much of the original electronic score translated fairly readily into the different medium. At most, keys and speeds were altered, and occasional phrases tweaked to suit the range and breath requirements of the human performers. This left under half the ballet requiring either substantial revision or fresh material.

    1993 disappeared in a blur of notes, rhyming couplets and spectral apparitions. One memory remains clear, and that is the thrill of seeing my labours brought to life in a gratifying premiere season of the opera by Canterbury Opera.

    Someone once said ‘being a composer in New Zealand must be like being a bullfighter in Finland”. Certainly conventional wisdom has it that while a first performance of a new work is relatively easy to secure, opportunities for subsequent performances are as rare as a happy Wagnerian heroine.

    Thus it was with relish and gratitude that I leapt upon the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s invitation to turn my opera score back into a ballet. This time, it was to be for humans to play, and a full orchestra no less. Oh joy oh bliss.

    And it has given me the opportunity to use the wonderful line – I spent most of 2001 decomposing.

    I feel enormously privileged to have the opportunity to work once again with Russell, Kristian, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and, of course, Charles Dickens.

    Philip Norman
    Composer
    “A Christmas Carol”

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Philip Norman  

A Factory Opera

Duration: 30' 00" Year: 2002
a chamber opera for 6 principals, SATB chorus and 2 pianos

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Victoria Kelly  

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Duration: 1h 00' 00" Year: 2000
music for theatre production

  • Instrumentation
    electronic media and assorted instruments (including cello, piano)
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Michael Bell  

A NZ Journal: Songs for Solo Voices

Duration: 45' 00" Year: 2009
12 poems by NZ poets, 3 poems for each voice: S, A, T & B

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Annea Lockwood  

A Sound Map of Danube

Duration: 2h 47' 00" Year: 2005
5.1 sound installation

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Victoria Kelly  

A Way of Life

Duration: 1h 00' 00" Year: 2001
music for theatre production

  • Instrumentation
    solo cello, solo violin, folk drums, guitar, string quartet, saxophone
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Warwick Blair  

Accordian

Duration: 51' 00" Year: 2004
for harp, piano, marimba, percussion (3), bass guitar, keyboard, and tape

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Gillian Whitehead  

Alice

Duration: 36' 00" Year: 2002
an eight movement monodrama for mezzo-soprano and orchestra

Score Sample
Score Sample
  • Instrumentation
    3343, 3310, harp, timp., 3 perc., strings, mezzo-soprano
  • Programme Note

    In 1909 Alice Adcock, a lively and adventurous young woman from Manchester, was on her way to New Zealand. She was 23, and had recently developed TB, for which there was then no cure. Somehow she persuaded her widowed father to let her travel alone to the other side of the world in case a healthy climate would save her life. (It worked – she lived for another 50 years). The family kept her entertaining letter describing shipboard life, and a few postcards from her have also survived, but most of what we know about her time in New Zealand comes from her father’s letters to her, of which he kept copies, or from family tradition. On her arrival in New Zealand, Alice went into service, travelling widely, much to the consternation of her father. As housekeeper (and the only woman) on a farm in Makarora (a remote settlement on Lake Wanaka) she became pregnant to an unknown man, but was ‘rescued’ by marriage to a local farmer, Charles Pipson, shortly before the birth of her daughter. In 1911, her beloved father died; in 1912, Alice and Charles had a son and the following year, pregnant again, Alice took her children back to England to visit her family. Tragically, while she was away, her husband died suddenly of typhoid fever. Alice hurried back to Makarora to claim her inheritance, but left the two babies with her brother Sam and his wife (who were shortly to emigrate to New Zealand) and took only her eldest child, the illegitimate one, with her. This outraged her sisters-in-law, who saw it as an insult to their dead brother; they sent her away from the farm empty-handed. Once again she had to take a housekeeping job, this time in the North Island. In 1914, Alice and her brother’s family met up again, and Alice began a new life. (Fleur Adcock – abridged) The music of Alice is text-driven, ranging between a language at times extremely simple, as was the basic musical language of the settlers, and at times quite complex, evoking a storm at sea, or the unease of the settlers in a new environment, or Alice’s reaction to the problems which beset her. The piece is held together by various referential motifs. The initial idea, which perhaps suggests the instability of the sea, is also present in the bell-like sounds marking Charles’ death, music associated with a storm at sea is later associated with mental stress, while music suggestive of the movement of shipboard lice later underlies Alice’s traumatic encounter with her sisters-in-law.

    There are eight sections, which often merge into one another: 1. in a letter to her father, Alice describes shipboard life; 2. in New Zealand, she compares her past life and hopes for the future; 3. a dialogue between father and daughter, expressed through their letters; 4. in Makarora, Alice discovers she is pregnant; 5. Alice hears of her father’s death; 6. in England, she learns of her husband’s death; 7. back in Makarora, Alice is turned away by her sisters-in-law; 8. turning her back on the South Island, Alice looks forward to her new life with her brother’s family in the north.

    While writing this piece, I was drawn again and again into the thought that, although this is a true story, set in a particular place at a certain time, it has the resonances of a universal myth, known to all of us who live here. Our forebears, or we ourselves, have crossed the seas to begin a new life, with unforeseen and unimaginable difficulties and felicities, whether ten years, a century or a millennium or so ago.

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