David Hamilton
David Hamilton writes choral music built for real voices: school, youth and community choirs as much as the concert stage. His settings favour clear text, luminous harmony and the full colour range of the choral instrument, as in his Ecce beatam lucem.
A New Zealand composer with a large catalogue of choral works, he is drawn to Latin and sacred texts, nature imagery and pieces that sing well without losing craft. Ecce beatam lucem reimagines a text famous from Striggio’s forty-part setting as contemporary choral writing sensitive to blend, line and light. Beyond the choir he has written orchestral scores, concertante works and chamber music, yet the centre of the output remains vocal: practical, widely performed repertoire that still aims for beauty of sonority and careful word-setting.
David Hamilton is featured on the following titles
Dracula
Not only a world premiere, but the first opera commercially presented with a digital orchestra: David Stanhope’s Dracula, with two companion works.
David Hamilton also appears on
Mozart Unexpurgated
The Song Company sings Mozart’s scatological canons and songs, with fortepianist Geoffrey Lancaster improvising the accompaniments and taking two irreverent solo turns.