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.
Tūmanako — journey through an unknown landscape
Five pieces for piano
Tūmanako was written as part of SOUNZtender, a silent auction which raised money for SOUNZ. Diedre Irons gave the first performance at The New Zealand International Piano Festival on 8 April 2011.
About the work
Helen Kominik won the auction for my piece which she dedicated to her grandchildren, Kate and Tom Fraser. Tūmanako, which means ‘hope’ in Māori and was the name of the house in which Helen grew up. I wrote the piece shortly after I’d been travelling by car through Yunnan, China and made a link between the journey through a landscape where you know nothing beyond the immediate surroundings, and moving through the landscape of the score.
Score and recordings
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ
A CD including Tūmanako is available from all good record stores, or borrow it from SOUNZ. It’s also available as an MP3.
Tūmanako has been recorded twice as part of SOUNZ’s Resound project.
RNZ Concert’s recording from 2018 is available online.
Song without words for Kai
For piano
About the work
This short piece was written to celebrate the birth of Kai, the son of Ryoko Tabuchi and Cameron Mewburn.
Score
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Mata-au
for clarinet
Robert Carew commissioned Mata-au for Anna McGregor to play, to celebrate his partner Scilla Askew’s contribution to New Zealand music and mark her departure from the role of Executive Director of SOUNZ. Anna McGregor gave the first public performance on 16 March 2010 at St Andrew’s on The Terrace as part of the New Zealand Music for Woodwind concert series.
About the work
Mata-au is the original name of Central Otago’s Clutha river, which I saw from the Plischke house in Alexandra when I was artist-in-residence for the Henderson Arts Trust in 2009-2010.
Mata-au refers to the river’s characteristic whirlpools, caused by layered currents moving at different speeds, which resemble facial moko, or the wake of a giant waka, and the piece has its origins in Māori chant.
Instrumentation
Anna McGregor has prepared a score detailing fingerings for the extended techniques.
Score and recordings
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
RNZ Concert recorded the premiere performance.
Peter Scholes performed it in 2017 during a ‘composer portrait’ concert where I was asked to introduce the works.
Gillian Whitehead introduces her works — video
Review
‘Whitehead’s 2010 Mata-au is a masterpiece. If American poet Wallace Stevens found 13 ways of looking at a blackbird, then this clarinet solo does the same, and more, for water. The marvellous Peter Scholes captured it to the last drop, from luminescent shallows to the gnarliest of rapids.’
— William Dart, New Zealand Herald, 4 July 2017
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.
Central landscapes
For chamber orchestra
The first performance of Central landscapes was given by the Central Otago Regional Orchestra (CORO), conducted by Aart Brusse in Cromwell, Central Otago on 12 December 2009.
About the work
I had written a set of pieces for piano to celebrate the birthday of Barbara Henderson while I was living in Alexandra in Central Otago as artist-in-residence for the Henderson Arts Trust, and subsequently arranged them for CORO, which at the time was low in numbers, so the scoring was rather idiosyncratic — an extravagance of flutes, no violas, and so on.
There are 5 movements, based on surroundings of the property where I lived for over a year — Hoar frost with fire siren, Taking a line for a walk, Landscape with quail, Outlines through rising mist, and River talk.
Instrumentation
After the first performance I rearranged the score for a more traditional ensemble, but am happy that parts be reassigned — for example, Aart Brusse rearranged some of the score to suit CORO.
Central landscapes is scored for 2 piccolos, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, timpani, xylophone and strings.
Scores
Buy or borrow the score, or hire the parts from SOUNZ.
Central Landscapes
5 pieces for piano
About the work
I wrote this set of pieces, for pianists of intermediate ability, during 2009 while I was living in Alexandra in Central Otago as artist-in-residence for the Henderson Arts Trust.
Barbara Henderson, who lived in the Plischke-designed house before it became an artist’s residence, would visit her studio in the garden most weeks. So I wrote these pieces for her birthday, and they were played by my sister Joyce at Central Stories in Alexandra at Barbara’s birthday celebration.
There are 5 movements, which can be played separately or in this order:
- Hoar frost with fire siren
- Taking a line for a walk
- Landscape with quail
- Outlines through rising mist, and
- River talk.
Central Landscapes is dedicated to Barbara Henderson.
I subsequently arranged the pieces for the Central Regional Otago Orchestra.
Central Landscapes for chamber orchestra
Scores and recordings
All 5 pieces were published by the Sunrise Music Trust in Take Flight — music from New Zealand for intermediate pianists. Gillian Bibby recorded the pieces for a CD that accompanies the book.