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This was a commissioned work for accordion orchestra premiered at the Royal Festival Hall, London, February 1993, with the composer conducting. Its New Zealand premiere was in July 1993 with Auckland’s youth orchestra, ‘Orchestra Nova’, re-arranged for symphony orchestra.

The miniature overture is similar to a pocket containing many treasures, little “goodies” collect over a period of time. It consists of several snippets of the melodies and rhythms from the composer’s other compositions.
A Pocket Overture was awarded first prize in the Merican ATB (Accordion Teachers Guild) 31st annual compeition for original composition in July 1993.

• Daverne: A Pocket Overture; computer-set 

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• Sinclair: Concert Overture - "Land of the Kea"; computer-set 

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• A Musical Six - Instrumental and orchestral works 

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Concert Waltz was originally composed, as a commissioned work, for Kevin Friedrich, one of New Zealand’s leading accordionists. It was premiered by him, in Auckland, June 1993, with String Silhouette, an all female string ensemble, as guests at the New Zealand Accordion Championships.

• Daverne: Concert Waltz; computer-set 

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• Gary Daverne: Rhapsody  Year: 2007 

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• Bolley: Concerto for orchestra; facsimile 

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• Bolley: Concerto for orchestra; facsimile 

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• Hamilton: Excursion for Orchestra; computer-set 

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• Hamilton: Excursion for Orchestra; computer-set 

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The Flute Concerto was composed for flautist Alexa Still in 1993 while Ritchie was Composer-in-Residence with the Southern Sinfonia. Unlike the Symphony “Boum”, written in the same year, this Concerto is a generally happy and open-sounding work, and reflects aspects of Alexa Still’s personality as well as her playing. She first performed the concerto on September 4th, 1993 in The Glenroy Auditorium, and subsequently recorded it with The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

The first movement is energetic in style, with a bubbling first theme. This is contrasted by a darker and slower second theme, exploring the lower register of the flute. The music accelerates back to the main theme before heading into a percussive middle section. The flute then presents a lyrical idea that is related to earlier themes, and this leads to a cadenza. A brief recapitulation drives the music to a forceful ending.

The slow second movement is lyrical and improvisational in style, and begins with a solo for bass clarinet. A warm and gentle theme appears, followed by a short cadenza for flute. The orchestra returns with a fuller version of the theme, but it soon fades into anxious repeated chords on the oboes and bassoon while the flute plays nervous, flickering gestures. As the tension dissolves the clarinet introduces a laconic theme, interspersed with little cadenzas on the flute. The music builds to a climax where the main theme returns in a contrapuntal version, again fading into the anxious chords. A brief and mysterious coda contains references back to the opening cadenza, and the movement ends unresolved.

The third movement is like a sequence of dances with different characters, bound together by a buffeting crotchet rhythm. After a flourish from the orchestra, the flute introduces a sprightly theme, followed by a quirky, subsidiary idea. The buffeting rhythm from the start is transformed into a pop-styled ostinato pattern, and the flute plays a lyrical melody above it. This theme was inspired by the composer attending a performance by The Muttonbirds, a well-known NZ rock group. The quirky theme returns in a more subdued setting, the music slows, and unexpectedly becomes a dreamy and child-like waltz. This distraction is swept away by a loud chord, and the main theme returns with renewed purpose, leading to an exciting conclusion in which all the elements of the movement are combined.

The Flute Concerto was recorded by Alexa Still and the NZSO in 1996, on the Koch CD 3-7345-2-H1, entitled ‘Kiwi Flute’. The second movement of the concerto was published in a special version for piano and flute by the Centre for NZ Music, in their 1998 publication Little Dancings: A Selection of flute music by New Zealand Composers.

• Ritchie: Flute Concerto (hire set); computer set 

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• Ritchie A.: Flute Concerto; facsimile 

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• Ritchie, A.: Flute Concerto; computer-set  Year: 2009 

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• Orchestra Reading Panel 1 

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• Kiwi Flute  Year: 1995 

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• Remember Parihaka - orchestral music by Anthony Ritchie  Year: 2009 

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The starting point for this piece was a curiosity in the metal doors that covered the entrances to cells imbedded in the cliffs near Andersons Bay inlet, in Dunedin. A friend informed me that during the 19th century Maori prisoners were kept there at night, and worked on the Dunedin Harbour land reclamation during the day. Some of these prisoners were brought down to Dunedin from Taranaki in the North Island, as a result of the conflict in 1881 at Parihaka.

Upon reading Dick Smith’s book Ask that Mountain – The story of Parihaka I learned of one of the most shocking incidents in our country’s history. The land wars of the 1860s provoked a new approach from Maori to the protection of their lands. Te Whiti, Tohu and their followers at Parihaka combated the Pakeha land grab by organising passive resistance through a variety of means. In response to unauthorised land confiscation Te Whiti ordered the ploughing of fields, building of fences and planting, all of which impeded the surveyors who wished to carve up the land for settlers. Many were arrested, offering no struggle, and soon prisons around the country were full. Despite the many injustices Te Whiti maintained his policy of passive resistance to the end. In November 1881, government troops entered Parihaka with guns and artillery. They were greeted by Maori women and children chanting songs, but no armed struggle. Te Whiti and Tohu were taken away, the Pa was broken up, and hundreds sent away to prison. Despite a press blackout, two reporters were smuggled into the Pa, one commenting that “it was one of the saddest and most painful spectacles I have witnessed”.

Remember Parihaka attempts to sum up my thoughts and feelings about the events at Parihaka. The slow opening is peaceful, like a sun rise, with melodic fragments that slowly unfold into a fuller, more passionate statement. Flutes and oboes announce a chant-like theme, based on an actual song composed at the time of the incident. This ‘Maori’ theme alternates with a more European-sounding theme on solo violin, accompanied by an Irish drum, the bowron. At the heart of the piece the various melodic ideas come together over a grinding, relentless bass, building to a climax. In the short postlude, the peace of the opening is suggested, but now it is tinged with sadness, and a slightly uneasy feeling.

Remember Parihaka was first performed in 1994, under the baton of John Hopkins.

• Ritchie, A.: Remember Parihaka (hire set); computer set 

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• Ritchie, A.: Remember Parihaka; computer-set 

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• Ritchie, A.: Remember Parihaka; computer-set 

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• Ritchie A.: Remember Parihaka; cassette  Year: 1994 

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• Remember Parihaka - orchestral music by Anthony Ritchie  Year: 2009 

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The titles of the five movements give the outline of a Serenade in the most literal and traditional meaning of the word. The Flourish aims to capture the lady’s attention; through the Romance, Dance, and Aria the suitor presses his cause, and in the Finale the couple celebrate a successful outcome. I wouldn’t, however, suggest that this story line be taken too literally! The music, I hope, speaks for itself. The Aria gives the double-bass a chance to shine as a soloist, and the Finale refers back to earlier material, then skips for joy, and finally relaxes into a tranquil ‘apotheosis’. This Serenade was commissioned by Denis and Verna Adam to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary. The first performance was given by the NZ Chamber Orchestra in September 1993.

• Farquhar: Serenade for Strings; facsimile 

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• Farquhar: Serenade for Strings; facsimile 

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• Farquhar: Serenade for Strings; facsimile 

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• David Farquhar: Auras  Year: 1997 

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These pieces originated in a production of Shakespeare’s play undertaken in 1993 by Epsom Girls and Auckland Grammar Schools. I was asked to provide music for several scenes. As this production set the play in early twentieth century Sicily (with all of its Mafia overtones!) some of the music took on a distinctly Mediterranean flavour. The three pieces in this suite were used with important pieces of the action in the play. The first piece is the processional which was sung by the monks, the text being taken from the Latin ‘Te Deum’. The second piece was a setting of the ‘Ave Maria’ sung during the wedding scene. The third piece was played by a small band on-stage during the ball scene, and suggests a lively tarantella.

• Hamilton: Suite from Romeo and Juliet; computer-set 

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• Hamilton: Suite from Romeo and Juliet; computer-set 

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The title of this symphony comes from the ominous tam tam stroke that opens the first movement, a mysterious sound heard by two of E M Forster’s characters in A Passage to India when they investigate the Marabar Caves. This is a sound which symbolises the mysteries of life and death, although Ritchie warns us not to take it all too literally. “The echo is only a starting point to a general theme of human struggle. The listener can interpret the music in his or her own way.”

The first movement opens sonorously in the tonality of G, pulsating chords leading us inevitably to the first main theme, a theme that Ritchie himself characterises as a “muscular, Brucknerian theme”, although the momentum that it engages owes more to Shostakovich. A sinuous saxophone theme is very significant in the central section, as is the lengthy oboe theme in the moderato section. The second movement opens with the sharp, bright sounds of oboes and clarinets accompanied by Cook Islands log drums. The log drum punctuates the movement’s textures and creates a sense of propulsion. A light-hearted dance introduced by string quartet offers an opportunity for a change of mood. The third movement is a lament for the victims of the Bosnian wars.

The highly evocative scoring of the opening pages was inpsired by the wailing of a Maori karanga, while tolling bells imbue this elegy with a special sense of tragedy. The symphony ends with a ‘grand dance’ which shows Ritchie has not been untouched by rock music. Several themes are brought together in an ecstatic coda, after which the music slowly unwinds over a reiterated pedal note. The opening of the first movement returns, and the final sound we hear is a single stroke on the tam tam.

Symphony No.1 ‘Boum’ was completed while Ritchie was Composer-in-residence with the Dunedin Sinfonia in 1993, and first performed the following year, under the baton of Sir William Southgate. It has received numerous performances, and was recorded for radio by the NZSO, in 1998, Auckland Philharmonia in 1996, Dunedin Sinfonia in 1994.

• Ritchie A: Symphony No. 1 - 'Boum'; facsimile 

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• Ritchie A.: Symphony - Boum; facsimile 

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• Anthony Ritchie: Symphony "Boum" 

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• Anthony Ritchie: Symphonies 1 and 2  Year: 2007 

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