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.
Sunrise Pieces
3 pieces for beginning pianists
These short pieces were written specifically for Sunrise, an album of works for young pianists. They were first performed by Mary Barber on 30 March 2008.
About the music
The 3 pieces are called:
- What’s the taniwha’s story
- Sad song on a rainy day, and
- Pukeko.
They can be played separately or as a group.
Score and recording
All 3 pieces were published in 2008 by the Sunrise Music Trust in Sunrise — music from New Zealand for young pianists. Mary Barber recorded the pieces for a CD that accompanies the book.
F/Wh/Fugue
For mezzo-soprano, male voices, piano and bassoon
Text by Claire Beynon
F/Wh/Fugue was first performed on 8 October 2008 by Ana Good (mezzo), Joyce Whitehead (piano) and Ben Hoadley (bassoon) with a male voice ensemble from Dunedin’s St Paul’s Cathedral Choir led by David Burchall.
About the work
F/Wh/Fugue evolved during a 6-day journey by 10 artists to Dusky and Doubtful Sounds in Fiordland, and particularly to the Camelot River, which drains into Gaer Arm in Doubtful Sound. Both the journey and the performance were part of a fundraising drive by the Caselberg Trust, to complete the purchase of the Broad Bay house, that belonged to John and Anna Caselberg, for use as an artists’ residency.
Instrumentation
Resonant ceramic vessels, modelled on the steep sides of the fiords and made by Katherine Glenday and decorated by Claire Beynon, can be incorporated into the performance. At the first performance they were played by Claire Beynon and Greg O’Brien.
Score
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Three windows on the weather
For spoken voice, piano and bassoon
3 poems by Greg O’Brien
The first performance was given by Greg O’Brien (voice), Emma Sayers (piano) and Ben Hoadley (bassoon) at St Paul’s Cathedral on 8 October 2008 during the Otago Arts Festival.
About the work
Three windows on the weather was written after a 6-day visit to Dusky and Doubtful Sounds in Fiordland in October 2007. 10 artists — poets, visual artists, a composer and a film-maker — travelled on the Breaksea Girl to create work as a fundraiser for the Caselberg Trust, who are restoring the Broad Bay, Dunedin house of Anna and John Caselberg for use as an artist’s residence.
The work sets 3 poems: Henry in Fiordland, Wet Jacket Arm and Shift in the Wind.
The first section concerns Richard Henry, who was possibly New Zealand’s first conservationist. He rescued kakapo and other endangered birds, creating a sanctuary on Resolution Island, until, several years later, he saw a stoat swimming nearby, and realised the sanctuary was compromised. ‘Wet Jacket Arm’, makes reference to the threatened biodiversity of the Fiordland region, and the last poem ‘Shift in the Wind’ refers to a gale we experienced one night on the Breaksea Girl.
Wet Jacket Arm can be performed on its own.
Scores and recordings
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Three windows in the weather — SOUNZ
A recording by Ben Hoadley, Emma Sayers and Greg O’Brien has been released twice.
Moon, Tides and Shoreline — book and CD
Listen to this work online.
Camelot
For mezzo-soprano, piano and bassoon
Poems by Glenn Colquhoun
The first performance of Camelot was given by Janet Roddick (soprano), Emma Sayers (piano) and Ben Hoadley (bassoon) at St Paul’s Cathedral, Dunedin on 16 October 2008.
About the work
Camelot, a collaboration between Glenn Colquhoun and me, is a response to a visit by 10 artists on the Breaksea Girl, skippered by Lance Shaw and Ruth Dalley, to Dusky and Doubtful Sounds in Fiordland, and particularly to a trip up Camelot, the river that flows into Gaer Arm in Doubtful Sound.
Glenn’s poems, cryptic and spare, relate to old Chinese poetic forms, and the cycle traces the poet’s travelling up the river, and, changed by what he learns, his return to the open water. The titles of the poems draw on imagery very apparent on this journey.
One thing that was made very apparent on that journey was the extent of the degradation of the environment, because of the depredations of deer, goats, rats, possums and other pests, which have made the forest a silent place, where biodiversity is acutely threatened.
Both the performances and the journey to the sounds were devised as a fundraiser by the Caselberg Trust, which is raising money to purchase the Broad Bay house of Anna and John Caselberg, for use as an artist’s residence.
Camelot is dedicated to Ruth Dalley and Lance Shaw.
Score and recordings
Borrow the score from SOUNZ, or borrow or buy a recording.
Matariki
For solo mezzo-soprano
Text by the composer in te reo Māori
The first performance was given by mezzo-soprano Ana Good at the Waitaha Matariki celebration in the Dunedin Art Gallery in June 2008.
About the work
Matariki was written for a double celebration — to mark Matariki, the Māori mid-winter festival, and Ana’s birthday.
Scores and recordings
Buy or borrow the score from SOUNZ.
Hear an online performance and my introduction recorded at a concert of my works by the Auckland Chamber Orchestra.
Fragments from Roxburgh
For viola
About the work
I wrote this short piece to celebrate Elizabeth Kerr’s 60th birthday, and Gillian Ansell played it at a party in April 2008, to mark the occasion.
Score and recording
Buy or borrow the score rom SOUNZ.
Fragments from Roxburgh — SOUNZ
Victoria Jaenecke performed the work in 2019.