Choral music
Five songs of Hildegard von Bingen
For SATB choir
Texts in Latin by Hildegard von Bingen
The first performance of Five songs of Hildegard von Bingen was given by the Sydney Philharmonia Motet Choir conducted Charles Colman in the Great Hall, University of Sydney on 16 November 1982.
About the work
I took words, but not her music, from the Abbess Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th century woman who was poet and hymn-writer, musician and composer, theologian, mystic writer and naturalist. I was drawn particularly to the imagery which, unlike most biblical imagery, draws on nature.
The 5 movements are:
- Spiritus sanctus, vivificans vita
- O coruscans lux stellarum
- Laus trinitatis
- O nobilissima viriditas, and
- Caritas abundant in omnia.
Score
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Lord’s Prayer
For voices, with or without piano accompaniment
This setting of the Lord’s Prayer was written for and sung at Whangarei Girls’ High School assemblies.
Score
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ soon.
Low tide, Aramoana
For large SATB choir and small brass ensemble
Text by Cilla McQueen
Low tide, Aramoana was commissioned by the Auckland Choral Society, and first performed by them conducted by Ray Wilson, in the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Auckland on 2 August 1982.
About the work
Low tide, Aramoana is a setting of a poem by Cilla McQueen, and is used with her kind permission.
The piece is an evocation of an estuary at the turn of the tide. The poem itself describes Aramoana at the mouth of Otago harbour which was significant at the time because of the threat of the aluminium smelter that, because of the strength of local protest, was in fact not built. For me, however, it was the estuary where the Ruakaka River meets the sea south of Whangarei that was significant.
Instrumentation
The work is scored for STAB choir with divisi, and 3 trumpets, 2 trombones and timpani.
The score is notated in C; trumpets may be in C or B flat. Trumpet 1, trombones and timpani form a central ensemble. Trumpets 2 and 3, as well as forming part of the central ensemble, take up initial and final positions remote but equidistant from the central ensemble, but with access to it.
Instrumental lines that are bracketed and asterisked may be omitted — the lines here only give and sustain the vocal pitches.
Score
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Lullaby of loss
For SSAATB choir
Text by Jenny Bornholdt
The first performance of Lullaby of loss was given on 30 May 2010 by Baroque Voices, who also commissioned the work, at St Mary of the Angels, Wellington.
About the work
This lullaby is the lament of a woman, who has been irrevocably separated from her new-born child.
Score
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Missa Brevis
For SATB choir
Text of Latin mass
The first complete performance of Missa Brevis was given by the Leonine Consort in Sydney in 1965.
About the work
I have always had an affinity with the music of the 16th century. For 3 years I sang in Peter Godfrey’s choir at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Auckland, where the repertoire included Byrd’s 4-part mass. This experience meant that the writing of this work came naturally.
Written while I was studying in Wellington, it was one of the first of my works that I heard performed — the Victoria University Choir conducted by Robert Oliver sang selected movements. Its first complete performance — in an otherwise ‘all Bach’ concert given by the Leonine Consort — was broadcast on television.
Scores and recordings
The score was first published by Musica Dei Gloriae Wellington in 1978, but is now out of print. In 1996 it was re-published by Waiteata Music Press.
Missa Brevis was released on a Waiteata Music Press CD of my works.
Composer portrait: Gillian Whitehead — CD
RNZ Concert recorded Missa Brevis in 2011.
Review
‘Gillian Whitehead’s Missa Brevis easily rose to the challenge of justifying its presence, [showing] rare understanding of how to write for concerted voices; everything she calculated on paper worked in practice in this tenderly beautiful performance’.
— Roger Covell, Sydney Morning Herald, 1965
Moments
For SATB choir
4 poems by Cilla McQueen
Moments was commissioned by Jack Speirs for the Southern Consort based in Dunedin but is yet to receive its first performance.
About the work
Moments is a setting of 4 poems from Cilla McQueen’s 1988 collection called Benzina. They are: Silence, Moments, The Angel and Hooper’s Inlet.
Score
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.