Complete Works, Listed by Date - click links for .mp3 audio or score samples

An exotic setting of a surreal poem by Russell Haley.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: KIWI SLD-30 o/p

Pieces based on the principle of fixed register.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Waiteata Music Press

An irreverent setting of some highly unusual gravestone epigraphs.

Score: the composer

A work using greetings and identification signals of radio stations from around the world, as a metaphor for schizophrenia.

Recording: KIWI SLD-46

A "deconstruction/recomposition" of a fifteenth century carol for 3 soloists and choir on the
martyrdom of St Stephen. This dramatic work has become a standard text for study in schools through
New Zealand. It has been recorded by the New Zealand National Youth Choir.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Ode CD Manu 1412 (o/p); Kiwi Pacific SLD 56

The first of a series of six electroacoustic works based on Indonesian field recordings, in the case of this work, the evocative vocal and instrumental sounds of street hawkers. Music dari Jalan was awarded first prize at the 1976 Bourges Competition for electroacoustic music and in 1992 received the Disc d'or as one of the ten most highly acclaimed prize winners over 25 years.

Recording: Kiwi Pacific TC SLD 54; Harmonia Mundi LDC 278043(CD)

Settings of poems by NZ poet Bill Manhire, originally designed as an accompaniment to dance.

Recording: Portal Music CD 1004

A deconstruction of two 15th century English carols: Marvel Note Joseph and Ave, Plena Gracia.

Score: the composer

A collage of Indonesian birds, frogs and monkeys.

Recording: KIWI TC HLS-113; CD MANU 1380

A work using the sounds of Indonesian children's toys, most of which are
constructed from 'found objects' and discarded materials.

Recording: KIWI TC HLS-113; CD MANU 1380

A work inspired the awe-inspiring temples of Ellora, massive structures carved out of a naked rock face.

Score: the composer

A work using only natural harmonics.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Waiteata WTA001 (violin) (o/p); Under the Southern Cross CD Manu 1543/4 (cello)

A work using the sounds of Indonesian street hawkers playing musical instruments to attract children.

Recording: KIWI TC HLS-113; CD MANU 1380

Originally composed for Margaret Nielsen this set of short pieces for piano explores unconventional melodic
styles inspired by the melodic styles outside the Western "classical" tradition, including,
among others, bagpipe music, and the Chinese guqin zither. Score: Waiteata Music Press

Recording: Rattle CD RAT D006

A setting of some of Michelangelo's most personal texts for soprano and mezzo-soprano, in a
style that combines the theatricality of the Italian opera with the direct expressivity of folksong. It was originally
conceived as music-theatre, combining film and dance, performed by Michael Parmenter.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Waiteata Music Press
Film: the composer

In this, the composer's first exploration of musical transcription, Greek folk music, the sounds of a
Sumatran flute and an Indian street band music meet in a work of vibrant sonic fireworks.
Commissioned by the NZSO to celebrate the centenary of the University of Auckland.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: CD Rattle D009

A setting of a cycle of poems by nineteenth century Japanese poet Tachibana Akemi,
poems that are, by turns, amusing, reflective, profound.

Score: Waiteata Music Press

Although this orchestral work was commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of television in NZ this
sombre work draws attention to some of the darker aspects of the popular media, including of trivialisation of human
tragedy as mass entertainment, with particular reference to the war in Indo-China and its legacy.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Waiteata Music Press

A work using six different versions of the same popular Javanese
song as interpreted by street musicians recorded in Yogyakarta.

Recording: KIWI TC HLS-113; CD MANU 1380

Score: the composer

An exuberant, virtuoso exploration of rhythm for two stout-hearted and strong-fingered pianists.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Waiteata Music Press

Ever popular with audiences, this three movement string quartet juxtaposes transcriptions of music played by a Chinese jaw's harp, a Madagascan zither (valiha), and the music of a Bulgarian village band. Composed at the request of the Kronos Quartet.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Waiteata Music Press

A 'recontextualisation' of Chinese field recordings.

Score: the composer

A set of contrasted lullabies for SATB choir, inspired by the composer's researches into the vocal musics of
China's minority cultures. The texts are of "imaginary languages", invented by the composer.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Waiteata Music Press

A string quartet in which the four instruments play within the same register to create a psychodelic sonic effect. The middle section is inspired by the differing qualities of vibrato as found in traditional Korean music.

Score: the composer

A work extrapolated from a recording of a jew's harp player from
Lombok, Indonesia, the sound of which becomes a metaphor for death.

Recording: Ode CD MANU 1380

Transcriptions of Madagascan valiha (zither) and West African kora (harp).

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: CD Rattle D009

A collage of field recordings from places of worship in and around Wellington,
in a celebration of New Zealand's ethnic and cultural diversity.
Commissioned by West German Radio.

Recording: Portal Music CD 1004

An unusual work combining field recordings of fiddle music played by an Indonesian street-seller of candy-floss (in Indonesian, "arum manis", meaning "sweet aroma") with a string quartet. The listener is charmed by music which passes seamlessly between the tape and the live performers. Composed for the Kronos Quartet, this work was presented at the 1996 International Rostrum of Composers.

Score: the composer
Recording: Sounz Fine Vol.

A joyful setting incorporating hand-clapping and stamping.

Score: the composer

These arrangements for voice and piano of old-fashioned popular songs such as Silver Threads among the Gold,
All through the Night, Two Little Girls in Blue and Genevieve indulge in unabashed bittersweet sentiment.

Score: the composer

A setting of a semi-erotic text from the Songs of Songs.

Score: the composer

Commissioned by ConcertFM for Douglas Lilburn's 80th birthday, this work moves
from a restless first section into a state of transcendental calm.

Score: the composer

A heart-felt meditation on the tragedy of the Bosnian war. The three movements
are titled Remembering....Imperfectly, Totentanz, and Lachrymae.

Score: Waiteata Music Press
Recording: Trust CD MMT 2010

A radical composition for orchestra totally based on transcription and quotation, this work examines the West's fascination with pulse in music, and associated ideas of "primitivism". Quotes from Beethoven, Berlioz and Stravinsky intermingle and cross-pollinate, while the overall musical structure is underpinned by an extended transcription of the dynamic fire dance of the Baining people of Papua New Guinea. Commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.

Score: Massey University Music (PME03)
Recording: CD Rattle D009

Commissioned by the 3rd Hibiki Hall Festival, Japan, this reflective work explores
the moods of a garden - At dawn, In rain and At night.

Score: the composer

A work combining two musical traditions. The Indonesian musician plays a gamelan metalophone (gender), sings a macapat poem, and plays a drum, while the string quartet draws out this material into a more familiar sound world. This work was written for the NZ String Quartet with soloist Joko Susilo, and premiered at the 1996 Wellington International Festival of the Arts.

Score: the composer
Recording: Pulse CD Rattle D009

An opera in three acts based on the life of Rewi Alley, a New Zealander who lived in
China for sixty years. Produced at the 2000 NZ International Festival of Arts.

Score: the composer

A setting of a poem by Lou Harrison.
(Also available in an arrangement for speaking pianist).

Score: the composer

A setting of a poem by Lou Harrison.

Score: the composer

Score: the composer
Recording: Portal Music CD 1004

A light-hearted tribute to the African beat of Bert Kaempfert, commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia.

Score: the composer

A music-theatre work especially written for Wellington pianist Dan Poynton. Although referring obliquely to
religious symbolism, the work focuses on the physical and mental stress that pianists submit themselves to.

Score: the composer

Commissioned for the 29th international viola congress, Wellington.

Score: the composer

A campy setting of three old-fashioned popular songs: Sweet Genevieve, Little Brown Jug and Silver Threads among the Gold
Commissioned by the Marten Altena Ensemble.

Score: the composer

Exotic arrangements of Daisy Bell, All through the Night, and Little Brown Jug.

Score: the composer

An energetic flury, ideal as an encore. In its original version is was designed for
three string quartets, and commissioned for the 2002 NZ International Festival of Arts.

These dances are extracted from a larger work, Songs and Dances of Death & Desire, conceived as a tribute to the life and personality of Carmen Rupe, Maori transvestite, high-club owner, exotic dancer, drag queen, Wellington mayoral candidate, etc.
This suite of cabaret dances (intended to be danced by a young male Maori, representing Carmen Rupe), comprise 'character pieces' based on quotation and pastiche, a process of assuming new personae, donning masks, musically speaking. Just as the dancer adopts various characters, the guitarist transforms his instrument variously into a flamenco guitar, an African mbira (thumb piano), an Arabic tar (long-necked lute), a Hawaiian slide guitar, and an electronic disco machine.

Score: the composer

A setting utilizing extended vocal techniques and a recording of early English riddles.

Score: the composer

A four movement work inspired by the passionate religious songs heard in the Holy Week processions in Southern Spain. Commissioned by the NZ String Quartet. The original version for four musicians requires the cellist to double on the accordion, but the revised version is for five musicians.

Score: the composer

Tributes to John Lee Hooker and Mary Lou Williams, especially written for Dutch pianist Marcel Worms.

Score: the composer

This work provides an exotic orchestral setting for a vocalist singing traditional Javanese songs (tembang). Originally sung by Budi Putra, this work was commissioned by the Atlas Ensemble, ensemble in residence at the 2004 Holland Festival. The original instrumentation for Western instruments combined with Chinese and Middle Eastern instruments has been rearranged for small orchestra of purely Western instruments.

Score: the composer

Transcriptions of famous blues musicians Big Joe Turner, John lee Hooker and Mary Lou Williams.

Score: the composer

A setting of dark and powerful poems by women - including Marina Tsetayeva and Edith Södergran - translated into Maori and sung in an authentic Maori style. Written for Hera Black-Taute and the New Music Works ensemble, Santa Cruz.

Score: the composer

A dialogue between an organ and native New Zealand birdsong.

Score: the composer
Recording: Atoll Records

An expansion of the work listed above with the inclusion of transcriptions of a solo blues singer and
two chain gang chants recorded in penitentiaries of the Southern US by Allan Lomax.

Score: the composer

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