Composer David Hamilton Photo: Supplied
Composer and choral conductor David Hamilton has been commissioned by major instrumental groups choirs throughout New Zealand, and his music is particularly popular with school choirs. Until 2001, Hamilton was Head of Music at Epsom Girls Grammar School (Auckland), and he is currently the Deputy Music Director of Auckland Choral. His works have been performed, published and recorded in a number of places around the world, with commissions from choirs in Japan, England, USA and Finland.
‘Philagree’ was one of my first commissions and was requested by Radio New Zealand for submission to the International Rostrum of Composers in 1981. The work references some of the repetitive and harmonic language of Ligeti, and also the beginnings of my interest in minimalism - notably in the section where a chord “borrowed” from a Bartok string quartet gradually shakes itself apart. Throughout the work the oboe provides the lyrical content and weaves in and around the often busy string figuration. – David Hamilton
