Search Music:

Bb Clarinet, string quartet

This work for clarinet quintet in three movements was written following time spent in the north of Scotland, during which I visited the remote and desolate places that my family left behind when they emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand in the 19th Century. Although the music is not intended to be strictly descriptive, the image underpinning the work is that of an infinite shore that stretches from the line of steep cliffs at Badbea overlooking the North Sea, around the world to the rocky southern shores of Aotearoa New Zealand. The work draws on the tonal colour and extremes of pitch that are possible in the clarinet, and the extraordinary platform of sound of the string quartet.

• Webster: An Infinite Shore; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $25.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Webster: An Infinite Shore; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $20.50
  • • Quantity:

• 5 Works by M Louise Webster 

  CD
  
  • Borrow

Anzacs Remembered is a setting of a verse from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon spoken each 6pm at RSA’s throughout Australia and New Zealand.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
- Laurence Binyon

• Rimmer: Anzacs Remembered; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Pdf - computer set
  

• Rimmer: Anzacs Remembered; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

• Rimmer: Anzacs Remembered; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $13.00
  • • Quantity:

• Rimmer: Anzacs Remembered; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $13.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

solo cor anglais, flute, horn in F, strings

In 2010, I co-wrote The Lover’s Knot with playwright Renee Liang as part of the 2010-2011 Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Composer Workshops, which led to a performance with actor Stuart Devenie and conductor Kenneth Young. Stuart played the role of Walter Bolton, the last man given the death penalty in New Zealand, in the hours before his execution.

Various instruments represent various characters in this story – clarinet for Bolton’s flighty paramour Florence, contrabassoon for the stench of death, and harmon-muted trombones for the justice system. Bolton’s ailing wife Beatrice is represented by extensive solos for the cor anglais. At the request of Lee Martelli, Education Manager of the APO, I excerpted one of these into a demonstration piece for an education concert.

• Ellis: Beatrice; hire set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

• Ellis: Beatrice; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $18.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Ellis: Beatrice; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $15.00
  • • Quantity:

The Auckland Primary Principals’ Association holds an annual music festival and over the years several of my choral works have been included in the event. In early 2010 I was approached by former student Pip Faulknor who, along with two other conductors, was keen to include something specifically about Auckland in their programmes, and asked if I had anything suitable. I suggested something new might be appropriate and a text was devised by Mary Cornish. The text talks of many of the features of Auckland, but is also a call for the people of the area to listen to, and respect, the children of Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland).

David Hamilton

• Hamilton: Listen Tamaki Makaurau; computer-set  Year: 2010 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

3 flutes, 3 clarinets, 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones, 3 trumpets, 2 trombones, euphonium, tuba, violoncello (optional), string bass, timpani, percussion I (high conga, low conga, medium tom, low tom), percussion II (high bongo, low bongo, high tom, medium tom), percussion III (tambourine, high woodblock, low woodblock), percussion IV (suspended cymbal, wind chimes, triangle) and percussion V - xylophone (medium sticks), with piano and SATB choir

Based on the simple idea: “If Lake Taupo was a piece of music, what would it sound like?”

This mass musical work, commissioned especially for the ERUPT Lake Taupo Festival 2010 through the SOUNZ Community Commission, takes its inspiration from the people and places of Taupo.

Featuring lyrics submitted by local writers, Moana Ataahua is a spectacular mix of symphonic, choral and percussive elements that erupts into an exciting finale.

• Youens: Moana Ataahua; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  

• Youens: Moana Ataahua; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $38.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

for picc, 3 fl, ob, 3 cl, bass cl, 2 alto sax, tenor sax, bar sax, 2 hn, 2 tpt, tbn, euph, tuba, timp, 3 perc.

“a politically inspired pilgrimage from from naivety to cynicism travelled through wittily twined and increasingly dour revisions of anthems with dwindling heraldic phrases.” – Marian Poole, Otago Daily Times

When writing Progress March I became increasingly distressed at the direction that the current leadership (NACT) in our country is taking us. The dissolution of elected representatives of Environment Canterbury (ECAN) and power to alter Water Conservation Orders by the government appointed commissioners – all for short-term commercial interests; potential mining of schedule 4 areas of our National parks; the mess that is the Auckland Supercity; continued attacks and underfunding of Radio New Zealand; and a litany of other abuses by our supposedly representative politicians have all saddened me. Progress March celebrates greed and misuse of power using original material as well as fragments of God Defend New Zealand, the Star Spangled Banner and Sumer is Icomen In, a 13th Century song celebrating the bucolic joys associated with the arrival of summer.

Chris Adams

• Adams, C.: Progress March; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $19.50
  • • Quantity:

• Adams, C.: Progress March; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $23.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Chris Adams: Progress March 

  Digital sound file - MP3
  

for string Orchestra, ideally at least 6.6.4.4.2 but can work with fewer: minimum would be 4.4.3.3.1

This work is an exploration of the possibilities of the string orchestra as a body of sound, the orchestra at times acting like one giant super-instrument composed of intricately superimposed layers. Old textures are continually swallowed up, recycled and transformed, playing out a finely balanced tension between static and active, supple and brittle, strong and fragile. From a fluid, tangled haze, individual voices periodically emerge to assert some kind of nostalgic lyricism, but each time they are ultimately subsumed, swallowed up in an eerie, ambivalent mass of sound. Stylistically the music is varied and eclectic, weaving together the intricate, spidery lines of Ligeti, the delicate chordal sonorities of Messiaen, the caustic anger of Shostakovich and even the brooding menace of Anthony Watson.

• Taylor: silk / gravel; computer-set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

• Taylor: silk / gravel; computer-set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $20.00
  • • Quantity:

• Taylor: silk / gravel; computer-set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $24.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Alex Taylor: silk / gravel; audio 

  Media on Demand | Embedded
  

This piece is the second work of mine which draws on the poetry of Bill Sewell (1951-2003), specifically his “Erebus” cycle. It follows on from “Breaking the Quiet” of 2008. Both works set texts relating to the crash of an Air New Zealand sight-seeing flight in the Antarctic on 28 November 1979. At the time it was the world’s fourth worst aviation disaster, killing 257 passengers and crew. Both pieces are beginning steps towards an opera based on that event, and more particularly on the aftermath – the royal commission and its conclusions.

“Erebus: a poem” by Bill Sewell was published in 1999. It is an extended poem in thirty-four sections, and covers not only the events of the crash, but also the aftermath and its effect on New Zealand society. “The Necessary Rain” is the sixteenth section of the poem, and as with “Breaking the Quiet” the poet draws attention to the fact that nobody was there to witness the crash, and nobody was there who could have warned the pilot of the imminent danger as the plane headed directly at Mount Erebus.

The ‘necessary rain’ of the title is the rain that always seems to accompany times of great loss and sadness. It “…does not discriminate but has a preference for death and death’s rituals”. The poem includes passing references to the Tangiwai rail tragedy (1953). and the sinking of the ferry Wahine (1968).

To Bill Sewell’s poem I have added the ‘Lux aeterna’ from the Requiem mass text. Light was a crucial factor in the crash on Erebus: the phenomenon of ‘whiteout’ created no visual distinction between the snow and the white clouds. The counterpoint of the contemporary words, with the traditional Latin and its plea for rest, seemed appropriate.
My thanks to Amanda Powell, Bill Sewell’s wife and literary executor, for permission to set this poetry.

“The Necessary Rain” was commissioned by Auckland Choral (music director Uwe Grodd). Its composition coincides with my own 30 years of singing in the choir, and the recent conclusion of fifteen years as deputy music director.

• Hamilton: The Necessary Rain; computer set 

  Vocal score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

• Hamilton: The Necessary Rain; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Borrow

for 2 Lyric Sopranos, 2 Dramatic Mezzo-Sopranos, 1 Lyric Contralto, 1 Tenor Buffo, 1 Basso Buffo, and small chamber orchestra (Cl in Bb, Bsn, Tpt in C, Bs Tbn, vln, cb, and Perc (1-2): wind chimes, triangle, sleigh bells, cowbell, tam-tam, vibraslap, wood block, glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba, tubular bells, snare drum, bass drum, and celesta)

ACT ONE / THE GARDEN PARTY: Synopsis: Laura is helping her mother, Mrs. Sheridan, in the preparations for a garden party, when it is discovered that a death has transpired at a nearby working-class neighbourhood. Laura is in favour of cancelling the party, but other members of her family are not. After the party is over, Laura is instructed by her mother to visit the bereaved family, which results in an enormous personal change – or does it?

ACT TWO / THE SINGING LESSON: Synopsis: Miss Meadows has been engaged, but now it appears to be over. How will she survive the embarrassment when this fact is discovered at the small school where she teaches? Or will it ever be discovered?

ACT THREE / THE DOLL’S HOUSE: Synopsis: The arrival of a new doll’s house at the home of Kezia & Isabel creates quite a stir amongst their friends at school. However, Kezia & Isabel’s desire to invite the Kelvey children (who are of a lower social class) to see the new house, causes friction between them and their Aunt Beryl).

• Davidson: The Singing Lesson; (hire set) computer set 

  Score and parts | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  • Hire

• Davidson: The Singing Lesson; computer set 

  Full score | Hardcopy - computer set
  
  $75.00
  • • Quantity:
  • Borrow

• Davidson: The Singing Lesson; computer set 

  Full score | Pdf - computer set
  
  $63.50
  • • Quantity:

• Matthew Davidson: The Singing Lesson; MIDI Realisation 

  CD
  
  • Borrow