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Contributor


Dorothy Buchanan

Composer

Born: 1945

Biography

Dorothy Quita Buchanan (born 1945) grew up one of six sisters in a musical family in Christchurch. Following an education in catholic schools she graduated MusB (Hons) in composition from Canterbury University in 1967. For the next decade she worked as a freelance composer, pianist, violinist (Christchurch Symphony Orchestra) and teacher.

In 1976 she was New Zealand's first composer-in-schools and in 1979 became both president of the Composers' Association of New Zealand and the first woman to join the Musicians' Union. In the same year she founded the Christchurch Music Workshops. In 1980 she co-founded the music publishing co-operative Nota Bene which has published works by several New Zealand composers and also has a hire library of New Zealand music suitable for schools and community use. Dorothy has been a guest lecturer, musical director, adjudicator, advisor to teacher support services and an assessor on QEII Arts council (later Creative New Zealand) panels. She was for seven years on the artistic directorate of the Smokefree Women's Composing Festival.

Organisations as diverse as school choirs, string quartets, dance and theatre companies and symphony orchestras have commissioned songs, operas, incidental music and film and television scores. Her work for the New Zealand Film Archive from 1984 carried on the family tradition begun by her maternal grandmother Molly Clarke, who played piano for silent movies on the West Coast in the early 1920s. Dorothy's arrangement of the original score for the classic silent film La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc is considered the finest rendering ever. Many of her works are settings for voice of text by New Zealand poets including Lauris Edmond, Fleur Adcock and Janet Frame. She has collaborated with New Zealand writers to produce major operas like the Clio Legacy (Witi Ihimaera) and Woman at the Store and The Mansfield Stories, both from the short stories of Katherine Mansfield. Fragments and Letters, based on her friendship with singer Malcolm McNeill, won the Philip Neill Memorial Prize from the University of Otago in 1995.

Awards include a CANZ Outstanding Achievement Award, the Vernon Griffiths Memorial Award for Outstanding Musical Leadership and a Suffrage Medal. In 2001 she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for a lifetime's involvement in music.

Though she often finds the beginnings of an idea arriving in the most mundane places, like the supermarket, Dorothy's inspiration continues to spring from the land, light and sounds of Aotearoa: “bird song, flax in summer, a line of hills.”


Composed (175)

A Christmas Carol

for voice and piano, 2m


A Festive Song - Burnside High School

for voice, processional choir, answering choir, and school orchestra, 5m


A Garland of Haiku

for SSA choir, 10m


A Going Concern

music for a TVNZ production, 1m


A Hymn to the Virgin

for soprano and piano, 3m


A Matter of Timing

for SATB choir, string quartet, female narrator and mezzo-soprano, 8m


A Song of Music

for SATB choir, 4m


A Suite of Melodies: Themes for Friends

for cello and organ (or piano), 18m


An Ocean Between Us

for mezzo-soprano and piano quartet, 25m


Anna

for piano, 3m


As Joseph Was A-Walking

for voices and piano, 4m


Autograph - David

for cello, 1m


Autograph - Jane Purdue

for flute, 1m


Autograph - Melissa Leighton

for tenor voice, 2m


Autograph - Richard Foreman

for clarinet, 2m


Autograph - Timothy Purdue

for soprano saxophone, 1m


Birdsong Soliloquy

for flute, 2m


Birthday Music

for solo piano


Bush Cinderella

for clarinet, cello and piano, 1h 10m


Carnival of New Zealand Creatures

for narrator, singer, flute, clarinet, cello, guitar and percussion, 20m


Cashmere High School Song

for SSATB choir with keyboard accompaniment, 3m


Cello Duet

for two cellos, 3m


Champagne And Roses

for piano, 2m


Christmas Music

for wind quintet, string quintet, piano and guitar, 15m


Clarinets Apart

ensemble pieces for clarinets


Colours

for chamber orchestra, 9m


Concertino

for cornet/trumpet and school orchestra


Confluence

for full orchestra, 9m


Dayton Ohio 1903

for SATB and piano, 3m


Duo Concertante

for violin, cello and chamber orchestra, 18m


Echoes and Reflections

for mixed chamber quartet, 18m


Elsie Rose

for piano, 2m


Family Affair

incidental music for a TVNZ production, 45m


Fanfare

for two trumpets, 3m


Fanfare 1982

for 3 trumpets, trombone, timpani and organ, 2m


Film Music

for clarinet, cello, and piano, 1h 40m


Five Pieces

for bassoon, 12m


Five Songs from No Ordinary Sun

for baritone, flute and piano, 15m


Five Songs from No Ordinary Sun

for mezzo-soprano, flute and piano, 15m


Five Songs of Love and the Land

for soprano (or mezzo), clarinet and SATB choir, 19m


Five Vignettes of Women

for flute and SSA choir, 18m


Five Witchy Poo Songs

for voice(s) and piano, 6m


Flute Song for the Birds

for flute, 5m


Four Duos

for violin and cello, 13m


Four English Folk Song Settings

for TTBB choir and piano, 8m


Four John Fletcher Songs

for SSA choir and harpsichord or piano, 13m


Four Songs for the Pudkin Family Story

for voices and piano, 6m


Fragments and Letters

for voice, clarinet and cello, 18m


Frances of Fielding

piano music for silent film, 10m


From the Spring

for violin and piano, 2m


Fugue for the Forties

for flute and horn, 4m


Go Lovely Rose

for soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano, 3m


Greenleaf

opera for 8 singers and 5 players, 43m


Greeting Song

for voice(s) and orchestra, 2m


Hamlet

music for film, 1h 28m


He Gives Us All His Love

for 8-part choir and piano, 2m


Herod

for SATB choir, 22m


Hine e Hine

for voice and piano, 3m


Hine e Hine

for SATB choir and piano, 2m


Hine e Hine

for SATB choir (with soloist), piano, and school orchestra, 3m


Hine e Hine

arranged for SSA choir and piano


Hinemoa and Tutanekai

for piano, 10m


Hinemoa and Tutanekai - a suite for Youth Orchestra

for youth orchestra with girls' choir, 10m


I Also Have My Song to Sing

for rock group or children's choir, 3m


I Also Have My Song to Sing

for SSA choir, flute and piano


I Also Have My Song to Sing

for vocal duo and ensemble, 3m


In Position

for cello, 8m


It Began with a Pony

salon opera in one act, 41m


Janaya

for piano, 3m 30s


Just Looking

music for dance, 24m


Kate de Goldi

for piano, 3m


La Passion du Jeanne D'Arc

for soprano, mezzo-soprano, SSA choir and organ, 1h 27m


Late Song

for flute, clarinet, piano and narrator, 8m


Layers of Time

for cello, SSA choir, piano and small orchestra


Lullay, My Liking

for soprano solo, semi-chorus and full chorus


Magnificat

for mezzo-soprano, choir, flute and brass ensemble, 37m


Margaret Mahy Storybook Theatre

26 songs for the TVNZ series


Marian College School Song

for SSA choir or solo voices and piano, 3m


Mary Magdalene and the Birds

for mezzo-soprano and clarinet, 15m


Mary Rose

for piano, 3m


Mass in English

for SSA choir, 10m


Mass of St Peter of the Way

for unison choir and keyboard, 10m


Meditation (for DGC)

for clarinet and piano, 4m


Millennium Peace Song

for soloist, SSA and SATB choirs and piano, 5m


Millennium Peace Song

for voice and piano (or guitar accompaniment), 5m


Miss Brill

opera in one act, 25m


Moonshine Valley

for female and mixed choirs and orchestra


More Witchy Poo Songs

for voice(s) and piano, 5m


Morgan

for piano, 3m


Motet to the Virgin

for SSA choir, 3m


Music for Treasures: Nga Taonga

music to accompany silent film, 50m


Nine Colour Sketches For Four

for flute, soprano saxophone, violin and piano, 21m


Nostalgic: Step By Step

for E flat clarinet and piano, 2m


Oedipus Rex

for TTBB choir, SATB choir and quartet, 25m


Of Women's Voices

for women's choir and orchestra


Oracles and Miracles

music for a radio drama, 3m


Our Father (The Lord's Prayer)

for SATB choir and piano, 3m


Our Song

for voices and orchestra, 4m


Owed to R

for saxophone quartet


Owed to R

for string quartet, 11m


Pacific Bolero

for violin, cello and piano


Peace Fanfare

for chamber orchestra, 4m


Peace Song

for voice(s) and piano, 3m


Peace Song

for soprano and cello, 3m


Piano Song For Jonathan

for piano, 2m


Prayer (Our Father)

for choir and orchestra, 3m


Prayer (Our Father)

for unison voices and piano (with violin obbligato), 3m


Prayer from Arawata Bill

for two solo voices, SSA choir and piano


Precious Child (a christmas carol)

for SSA choir and piano, 2m


Queen of Rivers

for clarinet, doubling soprano saxophone, 7m


Reo Karanga

for mezzo-soprano, 2m


Reo Karanga - The Calling Voice

for five voices, 2m


Richmond's Song

for violin and piano, 3m


Roadshow

road safety musical, 1h


Romantic and Sea Girt

music for a film, 17m


Rosebud

for piano, 1m


Scottish Folk Song Settings

for piper and string orchestra, 10m


Shaduf

for double SATB choir, 4m


Sinfonietta (in five movements)

for ocarina and orchestra, 25m


Six Choruses from Oedipus Rex

for mezzo-soprano and organ, 23m


Sneers and Delusions

for voice(s), piano, lute and hand-drum, 15m


Soliloquy

for clarinet, 2m


Soliloquy for Two

for clarinet and piano, 3m 30s


Soliloquy for Two

for cello and piano


Sonata

for violin and piano, 12m


Song for David

for voice, piano and clarinet, 3m


Song for James (You're My Home)

for voice and keyboard


Song for the Year of the Child

for voices and orchestra, 3m


Song from Ecclesiastes

for double SATB choir, narrator, and soloists, 6m


Song Without Words

for piano duet, 3m


Song Without Words

for piano trio, 2m


Songs of Birth and Daughters

for SSA choir, 12m


Songs of Wind and Moon

for soprano or tenor and string orchestra, 10m


Sophie's Song

for voice and piano, 1m


Spring

for solo soprano or treble, 2m


Stella Matutina

for SSA choir, 5m


String Quartet

for string orchestra, 7m


The Adventures Of Algy

incidental music for a silent film, 1h 7m


The Ancient of Days

for mezzo-soprano and piano, 2m


The Birds Began to Sing

for unaccompanied SATB and SSA choirs, 5m


The Blossom of the Branches

for SAB choir and piano


The Blossom of the Branches

for mezzo-soprano and piano, 12m


The Call of the River

for mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, SATB choir, narrators and ensemble, 30m


The Canticle of St Francis

for women's choir and piano, 6m


The Clio Legacy

for female narrator, mezzo-soprano, SSA chorus, Maori women's chorus and orchestra, 55m


The Daughters of the Late Colonel

opera in one act, 33m


The Ghosts of Denniston

for chamber orchestra, 4m


The Lord's My Shepherd (In memory of Jane Keating)

for 2-part women's choir with optional descant and piano, 3m


The Lord's My Shepherd (In memory of Jane Keating)

for 2-part women's choir and chamber orchestra


The Lost Tune

for chamber ensemble, 5m


The Man Who Sold Goldfinches

for (mezzo-)soprano and cello


The Mercy Motto

for SSA choir, 1m


The Mother Of Christ

for soprano and piano, 3m


The Poems of Lauris Edmond

for spoken voice, clarinet, guitar and cello


The Tempest

incidental music for the play by Shakespeare, 1h


The Woman at the Store

opera in one act, 25m


Theme and Three Variations

for 3 violins and piano, 11m


There Were Four and Twenty of Them Singing

for violin, cello and piano


Three

for violin and piano, 6m


Three Arawata Bill Songs

for SATB choir and piano, 5m


Three Jacques Prevert Settings

for flute, violin, double bass, piano and narrator, 8m


Three Sketches for Wind Octet

for wind octet, 9m


Trio Sound

for violin, cello and piano, 17m


Two Folk Melodies

for saxophone ensemble


Waltz for Clare

for piano, 3m


Wedding Song

for voice and piano, 3m


Wellington College School Song

for unison voices and orchestra, 4m


Whispering into the Wind

for voice and piano, 3m