NEW ZEALAND YOUTH CHOIR – EUROPEAN TOUR 2016
Notes and Texts
Anon
Te Lucis Ante Terminum + karanga
Te lucis ante terminum is an old Latin hymn at Compline in the book of the Latin liturgical
rites of the Catholic Church. In this performance the hymn is melded with a karanga, the
summons which is a cultural protocol of the New Zealand Māori people. It is an exchange of
calls that forms part of the powhiri, a Māori welcoming ceremony.
Andrew Baldwin
Petite Mass Op.6
Andrew Baldwin, an alumnus of the New Zealand Youth Choir, is a graduate of the Royal
College of Music, London and the New Zealand School of Music. His work has been widely
commissioned, performed and recorded throughout New Zealand by professional ensembles
1. Kyrie 2. Gloria 3. Sanctus
Johannes Brahms
Neckereien Op 31 No 2
Brahms composed ‘Neckereien’ Op 31 in 1863 and it was published by Breitkopf and Härtel
the following year in a set of three Quartets. The librettist, Josef Wenzig (1807 - 1876), was
a Czech educator and writer and a number of his poems were set by Smetana and Brahms.
Hoagy Carmichael
The Nearness of You (arr. Kirby Shaw)
‘The Nearness of You’, words by Ned Washington, was written in 1938 and featured in the
Paramount film Romance in the Dark starring John Barrymore. The first big-selling version
was the release by the Glenn Miller Orchestra with vocals by Ray Eberle in 1940.
Peter Cornelius
Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht Op.11 No 1
Drei Chorgesänge, Op 11, for mixed choir were composed in 1871 and belong to Cornelius‘s
finest music in any genre. The words of ‘Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht’ are by Heinrich
Heine. The choruses share a common theme – the transitoriness of earthly pleasures and
life itself.
Claude Debussy
Trois Chanson de Charles d’Orleans
The Trois chansons by Claude Debussy are from a 1908 collection, although two of the three
works were written earlier. The texts are by Charles d'Orléans, prince and poet, who was
imprisoned in England after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. ‘Dieu! qu'il la fait’ is a
shimmering love song; in ‘Quant j'ai ouy’ a languorous melody for soloist meanders above
quick percussive-like vocal accompaniment, and the energetic ‘Yver’ scolds winter for its
cruelty.
1. Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder
2. Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin
3. Yver, vous n’estes qu’un villain
David Griffiths
Beata Virgo
David Griffiths, born in Auckland in 1950, graduated from the University of Auckland in 1971
and went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music, London. He is currently Senior
Lecturer in Music at the University of Waikato, Hamilton. Beata Virgo for 12-part choir has
been performed all over the world and is one of the composer’s best-known works.
David Hamilton
Angele Dei
David Hamilton was born in Napier, New Zealand and is a founding alumnus of the New
Zealand Youth Choir. He was head of music at a school in Auckland until 2001 but now
spends much of his time on composing. His music is increasingly being performed by choirs
around the world. ‘Angele Dei’ is a text traditionally attributed to St Anselm (c 1033 - 1109)
and it is a brief prayer to a guardian angel.
David Hamilton
Ave verum corpus
This short setting was commissioned by the New Zealand Youth Choir for the choir’s 2016
international tour to Europe and in particular its performance as part of mass at Notre Dame
Cathedral in Paris. The music is in eight parts throughout, beginning with an unfolding
texture starting in the lowest voices. Much of the music features full rich harmonies suited to
an expansive acoustic. The opening music returns at the words “Miserere mei” before a final
cadential Amen.
Matthew Harris
Shakespeare Songs
Mr. Harris's highly popular choral works have been commissioned and premiered by leading
choruses. His Shakespeare Songs are settings of 14 lyrics from the bard’s plays completed
in 1995.
1. When That I Was and a Little Tiny Boy (Twelfth Night)
2. When Daffodils Begin to Peer (The Winter’s Tale)
3. It Was a Lover and His Lass (As You Like It)
4. I Shall No More to Sea (The Tempest)
5. O Mistress Mine (Twelfth Night)
6. Tell Me Where is Fancy Bred? (The Merchant of Venice)
Traditional
This Little Light of Mine (arr Moses Hogan)
Moses George Hogan (1957 - 2003) was an American composer and arranger of choral
music being best known for his settings of African-American spirituals. Hogan was a pianist,
conductor and arranger of international renown. His works are celebrated and performed by
high school, college, church, community, and professional choirs today. His most famous
work is The Oxford Book of Spirituals created in 2002.
Zdeněk Lukáš (1928 – 2007)
No man is an island, Op.287
Zdenek Lukáš was one of the most prolific Czech composers having composed over 330
works. He graduated from college and initially worked as a teacher. From 1953 to 1963 was
a musical editor and program director at the National Broadcasting Company in Pilsen and
conductor of Cecka písen, which under his direction became one of the most famous choirs
in the country. No Man is an Island of 1997 is a setting of John Donne’s poem.
Sarah McCallum
The Moon’s Glow Once Lit
This piece, both words and music, was written by Sarah McCullum inspired by a photograph
taken by her father of Murrays Bay beach where she grew up on the North Shore of
Auckland. The photograph depicts a beautiful sunrise that is glowing red on the water with a
puhutakawa tree (New Zealand’s iconic Kiwi Christmas tree with its crimson flowers),
appearing to overlook the sea longingly. The poem describes the pohitakawa and the sea as
lovers, calling to one another. Sarah McCallum is an alumna of the New Zealand Youth
Choir.
Felix Mendelssohn
Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe WoO 26
Text: Anon
A sacred anthem for double choir written in 1846.
Trad. arr. Douglas Mews
Two New Zealand Folk Songs of the Sea
Douglas Mews was born at St Johns in Newfoundland in 1918 and studied in London.
Following World War II he became a Professor and examiner at Trinity College of Music. He
moved to New Zealand in 1969, joining the staff of the Music Department at the University of
Auckland where, in 1974, he was made Associate Professor of Music. He died in New
Zealand in 1993.
1. Come all you tonguers
2.
Blood red roses
Peter Phillips
Ecce vicit Leo
Peter Philips (c1561–1628) was a composer working in the early seventeenth century. Apart
from William Byrd, he was the most published composer of the age and became well known
and highly regarded. The anthem Ecce vicit Leo comes from the collection Cantiones Sacrae
of 1613, a collection of thirty double-choir motets.
John Rimmer
Alleluia
John Rimmer, born in Auckland, studied in New Zealand and became a Doctor of Music in
1972 from the University of Toronto. He worked as a lecturer at North Shore Teachers
College in Auckland from 1970–74 and at the University of Auckland from 1974–99, where
he was awarded a chair in music in 1995. His works have been performed internationally in
Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America.
Mark Rosser
Lumina
Lumina was written in 2004 for the Auckland choir, Viva Voce. The words are by the Rev.
Traditional
I’m Gonna Sing (arr Van Ryckeghem)
R. Murray Schafer
Epitaph for Moonlight
Raymond Murray Schafer, born in 1933, is a Canadian composer, writer, music educator
and environmentalist. The text of the work is made up of words invented by a Grade 7 class
when, in 1966, he asked pupils for suitable synonyms that would express in sound the
concept of "moonlight". It is a free composition in which the singers must improvise from
given indications of pitch, intensity and duration to produce luminous effects that are
evocative of moonlight reflecting on water.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Three Shakespeare Songs
In 1951 the British Federation of Music Festivals, of which Vaughan Williams was president,
held its annual National Competitive Festival during the Festival of Britain. Vaughan
Williams's associate composer, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, tried to persuade him to compose a
new test piece but he was reluctant to write one so Armstrong Gibbs gave up on the idea.
Armstrong Gibbs relates that “Soon afterwards I was stricken down with some illness and
was in bed when a fat envelope was brought up. Inside was the manuscript of the Three
Shakespeare Songs dedicated to me and the briefest of notes which ran: ‘Dear Armstrong.
Here are three Shakespeare settings. Do what you like with them... Yours ever R.V.W.’ ”
1. Full Fathom Five
2. The Cloud Capp’d Towers
3. 3. Over Hill, Over Dale
Te Whānau Wehi
Te Iwi E
Ngapo Wehi, leader of the Wehi Whānau (Family), is a prominent figure in Māori arts and
music in New Zealand with special interests in education and tourism. The tribal affiliations
of the whānau are with Tuhoe, Te Whakatohea, Nga Puhi, Te Whānau-a-Apanui and Ngati
Kahu. Te Wehi Whānau have written a number of waiata for the New Zealand Youth Choir.
Tuirina Wehi
Waerenga-a-Hika (arr Robert Wiremu)
Waerenga-a-Hika is a waiata-a-ringa (action song) written for Te Manu Huia. The siege at
Waerenga-a-Hika lasted for seven days in November 1865 at the Pai Marire settlement,
near modern day Gisborne. Pai Marire casualties included 100 dead and 100 wounded; the
militia 11 dead and 20 injured. No memorial stands for the fallen Pai Marire. This waiata
reminds descendants of the valour and sacrifice of those lost at Waerenga-a-Hika.
Eric Whitacre
Little Man in a Hurry
Eric Whitacre is a Grammy-winning American composer, conductor and speaker, known for
his choral, orchestral and wind ensemble music. Full of colourful contrasts, this final
movement from The City and the Sea collection ‘Little Man in a Hurry’ dances with fun and
humour! The rhythmic wordplay and deconstructed syllables of the E E Cummings poem
hurtle ever faster to the final sudden ‘stop’ for an extraordinary concert finale.
Traditional Māori Chant
Ko ngā waka ēnei
These are the great boats in which our ancestors came from Hawaiki to Aotearoa (New
Zealand): Tainui, Te Arawa, Tokomaru, Takitimu, Aotea, Mataatua and Kurahaupo. And I
stand, a descendant and part of the rich heritage of those ancestors, here on the land,
remembering the way that the men, women and children rowed to get to this place.