Orchestral works - click links for .mp3 audio or .pdf score samples

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 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

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

Score: the composer

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

Score: the composer

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

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

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