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Larry Pruden Collected Edition
Larry Pruden (1925-1982)
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Larry Carrol Pruden was born in New Plymouth on 28 July 1925 and brought up there. He began learning the piano at about age 8, became a church organist at 13, and joined the music staff of New Plymouth Boys’ High School in 1940 as a piano teacher.
His first known musical composition dates from 1938; at this stage his musical mentor was his uncle, the well-known blind organist and composer Joseph Papesch. Apart from contact with Douglas Lilburn at Cambridge Music Schools from 1947, he was self-taught in composition until granted a bursary for study in England.
In London from 1951-54, he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied composition, conducting and percussion. In 1952 he joined Benjamin Frankel’s composition class along with the New Zealand composers David Farquhar, Edwin Carr and Robert Burch. Whilst there, he also met and married his wife Penny.
Returning to New Zealand in 1955, he settled in Wellington and was employed in various capacities by NZ Broadcasting until 1975, when he moved to Dunedin to take up the position of Mozart Fellow at Otago University. Throughout this time he was also involved in tutoring composition at summer music schools, conducting, writing programme notes and introducing radio programmes. From 1977 until his death on 1 October 1982 he freelanced as a composer and conductor in Wellington.
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The Project
Promethean Editions is to publish the complete works of Larry Pruden in a series of ten volumes under the Larry Pruden Collected Edition imprint.
Pruden, who died in 1982, is best-known for his works for orchestra and strings, including the overture Taranaki, Dances of Brittany for string orchestra, and the String Trio. His output runs to some 60 completed works, including music for piano, chamber ensemble and orchestra, incidental music for theatre and film and even radio advertising jingles.
The series will be released over a seven-year period, and it is planned that the first volume (Works for Piano Solo) will be published later in 2002. Promethean Editions is also to take over the administration of the hire library of Pruden’s orchestral works.
Advisory Panel
Publisher: Ross Hendy (Promethean Editions)
Series Editor: Dr. Robert Hoskins (Massey University)
Music Editor: Thomas Liggett (Promethean Editions)
Penny Pruden (Larry Pruden Estate)
Jack Body (Victoria University)
Scilla Askew (Centre for New Zealand Music)
Kate Mead (Concert FM)
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Provisional List of Works
Volume 1 – Works for Piano Solo
• Capriccio (1951)
• Looking for a Lost Guinea-Pig at Daybreak (1977)
• Waltz for solo piano: "Waves of the Pacific" (1938)
• [Prelude] (1939)
• Preludette [‘theme by C. Czerny from Sarabande’] (?1939)
• Royal New Zealand Air Force March (1939)
Volume 2 – Occasional Music for Brass
• 2XP 10th Anniversary Fanfare (1962) – 3tpts / 3tbns
• Fanfare (1965) – 3hns / 3tpts / cym
• Fanfare for New Plymouth (196?) 3tpts /3tbns / timp
• A New Year’s Fanfare (nd.) – 3hns / 3tpts / tbn / tb / timp bells cymbals
• [Salute for Brass] (nd.) – 2hns / 3tpts / 2tbns / tb / timp perc
Volume 3 – Instrumental / Chamber Ensemble
• Adagio (1940) – vn / pn
• Prelude [‘O for the lost voice’] (1941) – vn / pn
• Flight of the Albatross – vn / pn
• String Trio (1953-55) – vn / va / vc
• Russell Square (1956) – cl / pn / db / (ds)
• Cambridge Medley (nd.) – glock / xyl / sd / cym + bd
Volume 4 – Chamber Orchestra
• Evening Music for a Summer School (1949) – 1040 1000 perc pn 44241
• Summer Nocturnes (?1952) – 1010 1000 perc pn 11110
• Santa Lucia (arr. LP) (1980) – 1010 1000 perc, vn solo, str
Volume 5 – String Orchestra
• Childrens’ Suite (1948)
• Solioquy for Strings (?1952)
• Dances of Brittany (1956)
• Birthday Disguises (1968)
• Night Song (1974)
• Prelude No.2 from Book I of ‘Das Wohltemperierte Clavier’ (J.S.Bach arr. LP) (197?)
Volume 6 – Orchestra I
• Overture: ‘The Antipodes’ (1950) – 2230 2200 timp perc str
• Harbour Nocturne (1956) – 2020 1100 timp perc pn str
• March: ‘Lambton Quay’ (1959) – 2020 1100 timp perc str
• Westland: A Back-Country Overture (1961) – 2222 2200 timp perc str
• Akaroa (1974) – 1(1)121 1000 perc str
• Taranaki (1976) – (1)2222 4330 timp 2perc pn str
• ‘1218’: An un-solemn overture after Tchaikovsky (1977) – 2(1)211 4(?)31 timp perc pn str
Volume 7 – Orchestra II (incomplete / occasional works)
• Captain Cook {incomplete} (nd) – 3222 4331 timp perc hp pn str
• ‘God Save the Queen’ for ‘Albert Herring’ (1966) – 1(1)111 1000 perc str
• [Iranian National Anthem] (1974) – (2)0222 4230 timp perc str
• ‘God Save the Queen’ (?1976) – 2110 0000 str
Volume 8 – Brass Band / Wind Ensemble
• March ‘Lambton Quay’ (?1957) – brass band
• ‘In dulci jubilo’ {incomplete} (?196?) – brass band
• Haast Highway (1975) – brass band
• Festival/Taranaki Salute (1958) – wind band
Volume 9 – Incidental Music for Theatre and Film
• Hamlet (Shakespeare) [Prelude and 6 Fanfares] (1941) – 3 vn / 2 cl / bdr : 3 cornets
• The Ivory Door (A.A.Milne) (1947) – 2120 0200 timp pn 21011
• Still Life (Noel Coward) (1952) – 1010 1000 perc pn 11110
• The Pied Piper (Peter Harcourt) (1957) – 1010 1000 perc pn unison voices str
• Legend of Birds (1960) – 1111 1000 hp
• Rotorua Legend (1961) – 1111 1000 timp perc hp
• Karoro – the Big Gull (1978) – 1111 1000 perc pn
• Royal Albatross (1979) – 01(1)00 0100 perc 11220
• NZ Falcon – Bird of Prey (1980) – 0(1)010 perc 11110
Volume 10 – Miscellaneous Works
(organ music / vocal music / signature tunes)
• Music for the Bride’s Entrance (1952) – org
• ‘Scottish’ Symphony (coda of Finale) (Mendelssohn arr. LP) (197?) – org
• ‘The Radiant Morn’ (1940) – SAT / org
• 'Comradeship, Valour and Wisdom' (arr. LP) (?1940-41) – unis. voices / pn
• Motet(?) [‘Author of Life Divine’] (1943) – SATB / org
• Carol [‘Love is Come Again’] (196?) – 2-part mixed voices / org
• 'Singers and Strings' (195?) – 2vn / va / vc / db
• ‘Watch TV on Telehire’ (196?) – SSAA / xyl
• ‘Drive a new Holden’ (?1961) – TTBB
• Rejoice in the Black Sheep (196?) – 2vn / va / vc
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