Music
Search this list of all my publicly available works using the search box, or the category and year lists. Information about each work includes where to buy, borrow or listen to it.
Pao
For soprano, clarinet and piano
Whakatau-kī translated from Māori by Margaret Orbell
Pao was commissioned by the Northumberland-based Syrinx Trio, with financial assistance from Northern Arts. They gave the first performance in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1981.
About the work
Pao is the name given by Māori to 2-lined epigrammatic songs which comment on a wide range of subjects such as love, war, politics or religion, often topical, often improvised.
Most of the songs set here were collected in 1864 from Māori prisoners captured during the land wars in the Waikato area south of Auckland. The couplets are not connected in any way except for the central group, set for unaccompanied voice, concerning Pikeri, a character famous at the time for his escapades evading the police; in this instance, enforced separation during a love affair is charted.
The central section, Pikeri can be performed separately.
About the text
Margaret Orbell’s English translations of these pao, published in her Māori Poetry, an introductory anthology (Heinemann, 1978), are used with her kind permission.
Score
Pikeri was published in Kowhai an album of songs by New Zealand women composers. It is now out of print.
Buy or borrow the score of Pao from SOUNZ.
Pikeri
For solo voice
Whakatau-kī translated from Māori by Margaret Orbell
About the work
Pikeri is the middle section of a larger work, Pao for soprano, clarinet and piano, but can stand alone.
Scores and recording
Pikeri was published in 1993 in Kowhai, an album of songs by New Zealand women composers in celebration of 100 years of women’s suffrage. This is now out of print.
Buy or borrow the scores of Pao and Pikeri, or borrow Kowhai, from SOUNZ. They also have audio of a performance of Pikeri.
RNZ Concert recorded Pikeri in 1995.
Requiem
For mezzo-soprano and organ
Text: Latin
Requiem was to have been performed in 5 cathedrals around Britain during the summer of 1982 with a company of 5 dancers. The dance component was cancelled and so the work received a performance by Elizabeth Lamb (mezzo) only in Carlisle Cathedral.
About the work
Requiem was originally intended for 5 dancers and organ — the soprano was added at my request. I initially delayed beginning work on the piece, since my sister was expecting a baby, and a requiem did not seem an appropriate preoccupation. The successful birth was however followed by 2 close family deaths and it was these which provided me with the emotional impetus to proceed with the composition.
It was subsequently presented with a solo dancer, Bronwyn Judge, at the 1987 Sonic Circus in Wellington. The singer on that occasion was Glenys Taylor and the organist Douglas Mews. It has been performed several times since and recorded.
Scores and recordings
Requiem was published by Waiteata Music Press in 2001.
Lullaby for Matthew
For piano
I wrote this lullaby to celebrate the birth of my nephew, Matthew, and it is dedicated to my sister Joyce, and Matthew. It was premiered by pianist, David Guerin in Germany in 1982.
About the work
This work for solo piano has been described by Fred Blanks of the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘a haunting gem for a modern baby.’
In Music in New Zealand Gillian Bibby wrote, ‘In a simple arch structure of 8-bar phrases, [Lullaby for Matthew] progresses in variations from naive simplicity to what could almost amount to a nightmare in the centre, then back to slumbering innocence once again.’
Lullaby for Matthew is suitable for intermediate pianists, about Grade 5.
Scores and recordings
Lullaby for Matthew was published by SOUNZ in First XV, an album of piano works for intermediate pianists. This is now out of print.
You can buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
The work was recorded by Dan Poynton in 1997 on an award-winning CD.
SOUNZ released a promotional recording in 1996, and Burnside High School included it in a CD of works suitable for Royal Schools piano exams.
New Zealand colours: alternative piano works for Royal Schools music exams — CD
This work has also been the subject of some education resources.
Tamatea Tutahi
For piano
Tamatea Tutahi was commissioned by Sally Mays with funding from APRA and the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. Sally gave the first performance at the Radio Theatre in Auckland on 26 May 1980.
About the work
Tamatea Tutahi was written while I was composer-in-residence for Northern Arts, United Kingdom.
Score and recordings
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
RNZ Concert recorded this work at its Auckland premiere and again 2013.
Hotspur
Monodrama for soprano, 2 clarinets, violin and viola (1 player), cello and percussion
Text by Fleur Adcock
Hotspur was commissioned by Gemini with funding from the British Council. They premiered the work in Darlington, United Kingdom with Margaret Field (soprano), conducted by Peter Wiegold. Gretchen Albrecht designed 5 banners for the performance which are now in the Sarjeant Gallery in Wanganui.
About the work
Hotspur was written while I was composer-in-residence for Northern Arts, United Kingdom. It was completed at Great Bavington in Northumberland in October 1980, while Fleur and I were both fellows of the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
The piece is the lament of Elizabeth Mortimer, wife of Henry Percy, the 14th century north of England warrior known as ‘Hotspur’.
While writing it in Northumberland, not so far from the site of the battle of Otterburn, I was very aware of the harsh quality of life in those border regions in Hotspur’s day, when skirmishing and rieving was the way of survival in a wild and exposed, though beautiful landscape, with a climate sometimes benign, but often treacherous. Something of this has influenced the music.
Although the piece is not simple technically, the text called for certain simplicity. The vocal line had to be direct, and could not depart very far from the idea of the ballad except in the reflective middle movement, and in the recurring prophetic sections. The instrumental sections sometimes accompany, sometimes comment on, sometimes reinforce the expression of the text. They also often contrast suggestions of movement and stillness, or of sounds of battle and sounds of nature.
There are 5 sections in Hotspur:
- Elizabeth sings of her husband
- The siege of Newcastle
- Carrying Hotspur’s child, she reflects as she waits on the evening of the battle of Otterburn
- The battle of Otterburn
- The death of Hotspur
Scores and recordings
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
There is a recording on Volume 32 of the Anthology of Australian Music on Disc.
Anthology of Australian Music: dramatic vocal music — CD
SOUNZ also has an archival recording.