Piece in Celebration: Puke Ariki

About

This piece is essentially an extended fanfare. It opens with a single note gradually fanning out to a chord in the brass, and this idea returns at the climax of the piece. This material gives way to the first main melodic idea in the strings, against which the woodwind provide a repetitive and lively accompaniment. The middle section is softer and allows several of the woodwind instruments to take short solos against sustained string chords. A build up of energy leads back to the original brass idea, but this time set against insistent pitch in the woodwind and strings. The piece ends firmly in the tonic key of D major.

Piece in Celebration: Puke Ariki was written for, and won first prize in, a competition organised by the New Plymouth Orchestra to mark the opening of the city's new museum and library complex 'Puke Ariki'.