Bonk for Metal and Orchestra (2007) download mp3
solo percussion, 2 2 2 2 - 2 2 0 0 - 2 perc - strings [dur 11 min]
Commissioned by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for Bruce McKinnon
Requiem Concerto (2007)
solo violin, soprano, soprano, mezzo, treble, 1 1 1 1 - 1 0 0 0 - hp - strings [dur 30 min]
Thirteen Ways of Looking at Seven (words by Pico Iyer)
Strings and narrator [dur 13 min]
The Tattooist (2007) soundtrack to the movie
Blue Rock (2006)
1 1 1 1 - 1 0 0 0 - pf, 1 perc - strings [dur 12 min]
Antikythera (2006)
flute, 2 bass clarinets, contrabass [dur 8 min]
Quid Pro Quo Clarice (2006)
String orchestra [dur 9 min]
Fifty Ways of Saying Fabulous (2005) soundtrack
Rakiura
Unaccompanied flute [dur 14 min]
Commissioned Dr. Alexa Still
The Clown's Birthday (words by Margaret Mahy)
Narrator,girl,clown, 2 2 2 2 - 4 2 3 1 - timp - 2 perc - strings [dur 60 min]
Commissioned by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
The Tale of the Bird Catcher (Libretto by Catharina van Bohemen)
2 sop, tenor, baritone, bass, 1 0 3 1 – 0 0 0 0 – 2 perc – 1 1 1 1 1 [dur 50 min]
Commissioned by Class Act Opera. Piano score available
The exploits of an impresario who extracts an elixir from birdlife to sell to opera singers. He is eventually
consumed by the forest and the singers learn to be self-reliant.
The Birth of Light (1999)
1 0 2 0 – 0 0 0 0 – harp, marimba – female choir – 2 2 1 1 1 [dur 14 min]
Weta (1997)
violin, viola, cello
Commissioned by the New Zealand Festival of Chamber Music
Takapuna 1996 (2 2 2 2 - 2 2 0 0 - tmp - stngs) 8'
Commissioned by the Auckland Sinfonietta
Fanfare 1996 (2 2 2 2 - 4 3 2 1 - tmp - hp - pf - 3perc - stngs) 3'
Commissioned by the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts
A Midsummer Night's Dream 1995 (2 vln vla vc - ssx asx tsx bsx - pf - 2 perc)
Full length ballet
Commissioned by The Royal New Zealand Ballet
Symphonic Legends 1996 (2 2 2 2 - 4 2 3 1 - timp - 2 perc - harp - strings - narrator)
Four 15' pieces for orchestra and narrator. Celtic,Greek, Japanese and Maori story. Auckland Philharmonia have performed it many times.
Terry and the Violin Case (1 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 0 - perc - strings - actors)
Crazy story about Terry who learns the violin but in the process outwits the bank robbers.
Garage Sale (2 2 2 2 - 4 3 2 1 - 3perc - narrator - stngs)
In these times of socio-economic stress garage sales provide short term employment for industrious couples. Recycling is stretched to it's limit in the search for the ultimate bargain.....
Snapshot for Orchestra (2 2 2 2 - 2 2 0 0 - tmp - stngs)
Commissioned by St Matthews Chamber Orchestra
Islands II for solo clarinet and MIDI controlled signal processing
Commissioned by CadeNZa
Islands III for clarinet and piano
Commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand
Wireless for solo clarinet
Island I for Wind Quintet (fl ob cl bsn hn)
Five Baxter Songs for Tenor voice and piano
Sonata for Marimba
Commissioned by Gareth Farr
Sonata for Flute and Piano
Commissioned by Amanda Hollins & Richard Mapp
Film Scores
The Tattooist
50 Ways of Saying Fabulous
The Lunatics' Ball (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra)
Memory and Desire (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra)
Desperate Remedies (Auckland Philharmonia)
Hinekaro Goes on a Picnic and Blows Up Another Obelisk (Auckland Philharmonia)
TV Drama
The Call Up (Auckland Sinfonietta)
Trifecta
Radio Dramas
The Saint
Rakiura
The Tree
The Eye of the Queen
His composition "Wireless for Solo Clarinet" was premiered in Rotterdam in the final round of the International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition in 1987.
His composition Islands II represented New Zealand in the 1993 UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers.
Four of his compositions, including two premieres, were played in the 1996 International Festival of the Arts.
Bonk
28 May 2008
NZSO, Michael Fowler Centre, reviewed by Garth Wilshere
The concert had opened with Peter Scholes’s Bonk: Concerto for Metal and Orchestra. which had masterly soloist Bruce McKinnon centre stage at front playing an imaginative array of percussion instruments. The piece was well structured and coherent, making a journey from the subtle tinkling beginning to a satisfying resounding conclusion.
“I do not like world premieres. Or rather, I like listening to them very much, but forming and expressing an opinion on new music within minutes of a single hearing is in many respects absurd.
The best you can really wish for Peter Scholes's new piece, Bonk, is many, many more performances so that a whole body of opinions may gradually emerge.
Bonk is a concerto and the soloist is a percussionist, but, take note, this is a concerto not for percussion but for metal: lids and springs therefore, as well as more conventional chimes and cymbals. The kaleidoscope of sound was spectacular and the tantalising shifts of rhythm were very pleasing. Bruce McKinnon did a wonderful job of marshalling his ironmongery to produce a very satisfying, genuinely musical performance.”
Timothy Jones
Christchurch Press
Peter Scholes' Requiem Concerto returned Atanassov as soloist along with a quartet of singers (Patricia Wright, Morag Atchison and Carmel Carroll, joined by treble Wilson Downes).
Every musician on stage gave unsparingly to this new work, a score which revealed that few of our composers can come up with as evocative a turn of phrase as can Scholes.
The composer's own moving words, commemorating the loss of his wife and son, provided a very real anchor, beautifully rendered by the singers; however, the instrumental music underneath them flowed through an often bewildering succession of styles.
Each idea had a real character and often one would gladly have heard more. The opening, with Atanassov's soaring violin line, could have been extended into unfettered song; a scurry of minimalist neoclassical (with the text The joy of hope prevails) might have prevailed for longer.
Testing rhythmic intricacies for smallish ensembles and high-pitched passages for violins did not always come across in this performance and, indeed, the most effective parts, thanks to first-rate singing, lay in the transparent vocal writing.
Requiem Concerto was a thought-provoking work”
William Dart
NZ Herald
"Scholes is an international quality clarinet player and a composer with an individual approach, and the combination made for some ear-tickling sounds."
John Button
The Dominion
"A superb original score by Peter Scholes"
Ann Hunt
The Dominion
"Nothing is sacred to Scholes' musical wit, no idiom can rest easy when he might at any time hijack a serious style and integrate it in a way that defies classification"
Ivan Patterson
The Dominion
“.. a musical commission of unprecedented importance in New Zealand Theatre.”
Jennifer Shennan
The Evening Post
“.. a beautifully crafted divertissement that makes much of instrumental colours and rhythmic contrast - it stands proudly on its considerable merits”
John Button
The Dominion
“Peter Scholes is the principal clarinet in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and on the evidence of Islands for Solo Clarinet he is a most interesting composer.
In three sections, and with the assistance of a computer controlled Yamaha multi-effect processor that added timbral qualities, reverberation, overtones and repeats, Islands proved a most evocative piece. Moving between the bass, B flat and E flat instruments, Scholes wove a fascinating web of sound that seemed absolutely at one with the subject”
John Button
The Dominion
“Peter Scholes, as well as being a first rate clarinetist, is a composer whose writing almost always has musical integrity and originality.
At this concert, Devonport Festival event, he gave the premiere of his latest work, a wind quintet specially commissioned for the festival.
Composed for the professional players with whom he is associated, Scholes has entitled his music Islands for Wind Quintet.
Performed with technical skill and ensemble excellence, it at once established itself as a very lively and exciting composition.
There are five movements in a work lasting about 22 minutes. They vary a lot and most end in a wry twist in the tail.
Flute, soon joined by bassoon, sets the cheerful mood of the first island.
In the sustained playing of the second, each instrument has its individuality. The third has an austerity which increases in the slow solemn fourth, and the fifth, probably the hardest to write, is an island of bustling activity.”
L.C.M. Saunders
New Zealand Herald
“For his commissioned fanfare for this concert, continuing the celebrity programmes of the Philharmonia’s International series, Peter Scholes chose the title Funfair for Orchestra.
Witty as the writing of Scholes usually is, it had the nature of a prelude rather than a fanfare, packing into only three or four minutes satirical glimpses of commercial music, and ending with a bright flourish.
....Peter Scholes...had a night of distinction in this programme.”
L.C.M. Saunders
New Zealand Herald
“...Peter Scholes Funfair looked to Lilburn”
W. Dart
New Zealand Listener
“..resounding applause for the Kiwi...”
Linley Bilby
Auckland Star
“Scholes played his own composition Wireless for Clarinet. Highly original, its three vivo movements made compelling listening, exploiting almost the whole range of scale and tonal colour of the clarinet in depicting the harnessing of radio waves”
L.C.M.Saunders
New Zealand Herald
“A composer of wit, style and resourcefulness”
W. Dart
New Zealand Listener
“Garage Sale is a comic masterpiece - parodying the Joe Average New Zealander doing something USEFUL with his Saturday mornings with a suburban garage crawl to collect cheap and useless junk from others like him. Before you guffaw, check that the laugh isn’t on you too!”
Tania Anderson
Inner City News
“Brilliant Auckland clarinetist Peter Scholes was responsible for Garage Sale and the opening number SOLOS. Garage Sale was an unusual blend of comedy, drama, social comment and brilliant musicianship.”
Eldon Ormsby
Palmerston North
“...Scholes’ lively and inventive music.”
Patrick Smith
Auckland Star