Sub Navigation

Search Music:

Search for music by typing a word or phrase in the box below or by selecting one or more categories from the list on the side.

Or search for products by selecting an option below, and typing a word or phrase in the box above

  • Scores
  • CDs and DVDs
  • Downloads
  • Education Resources

Anthony Young  

Concertino for Orchestra

Duration: 10' 00" Year: 2005, r. 2010

  • Instrumentation
    22*22; 4331; timp., perc. (2 or 3), hp; strings
  • Programme Note

    This piece is affectionately known as ‘Bugs’ or ‘the Bug piece’ to me, and that is what it is about: the wonderful creepy crawlies native to New Zealand. Motivation for writing this piece came from two sources. As part of my residency with the Auckland Philharmonia in 2004, I was required to write a piece for a concert specifically at children and families. Naturally, it needed simple structures, lots of energy and a bit of fun.

    The second motivation with regard to a specific programme was a love for all native New Zealand fauna, and not just beautiful birds. So much music has been written with bird song or in celebration of New Zealand’s landscape. But nothing to my knowledge had been written about the humble creatures which often inspire revulsion rather than awe. Despite their not so cuddly appearance, native insects and invertebrates are just as fascinating and unique to these islands of ours as any other endemic wildlife.

    The first movement is Giant Weta. Often the most notorious for exciting disgust, these magnificent insects are quite amazing, but all to often fall prey to introduced mammals.

    The second movement is titled Giant Snails. Native giant snails are enormous, and often live in kauri trees, or feed on giant earthworms on the forest floor.

    The Nelson Cave Spider is a extremely unique creature. Like so many other creatures and plant life of New Zealand, it is a relic of ancient times and preserved by New Zealand’s isolation.

    Finally, perhaps the most unusual of all is the Peripatus, sometimes known as the velvet worm, a blue centipede-like creature that crawls through undergrowth in search of prey.

  • Availability

David Hamilton  

Kaimanawa wild horses

 Year: 2009
for piano

Leonie Holmes  

Silver Whispers

Duration: 21' 00" Year: 2004
for SATB choir, flute, 2 pianists and 3 percussionists

  • Instrumentation
    Flute doubles alto flute; piano doubles celeste. Percussion includes: two glockenspiels, xylophone, maracas, bongos, guiro, vibraphone, large gong (or tam tam), rainstick, sandpaper block, suspended cymbal, 3 temple blocks, woodblock, bass drum,
  • Programme Note

    This group of pieces for choir and instrumental ensemble grew out of a short choral fanfare entitled Silver Whisper’, commissioned by Auckland Choral in 2000. The original fanfare is now the last piece in a suite of five movements.

    The texts are based around the celebration of life in its many manifestations, exploring aspects of spring and the wonders of nature, ranging from the scuttle of insects to the unearthly song of whales, and concluding with a song of praise to the Creator. A small ensemble of flute, three percussionists, and two pianos (one doubling celesta) gives a flexible group with which to provide atmospheric and varied shades of accompaniment to the singers.

  • Availability

Pepe Becker  

Two Tui

Duration: 04' 00" Year: 2006
for solo flute

  • Programme Note

    This piece was inspired by the calls of two tui – one who started visiting the banksia tree in my garden in about August 2005, and another who hangs out near the NZ School of Music at Victoria University in Wellington. I have enjoyed some good banter with both of these birds, each of which has its own unique, consistent song, which varies subtly on occasion.

  • Availability