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This piece was composed in close collaboration with Andrew Sparling whose facility in using quarter-tone fingerings made it possible to experiment with these to produce music which exploits their timbral and colouristic qualities. It was stimulated by a return visit, following a seven-year absence, to New Zealand in 2002. Imagery of the sea is strong within its musical/poetic discourse and the piece is broadly structured over a cycle of seven ‘intensity waves’. The title is shared by an earlier work […and… 11] for 12 players (composed for Lontano in 2002). The link between these contrasting works is the morphology of the wave, encapsulated as a sonic envelope of aspirate (a) – resonant (n) – explosive (d), along with the extremes of space that are characterised in the music by extreme contrasts in dynamic, register and motion. Sparling has performed and recorded the piece in a number of different realisations. In April it was performed by Australian player Richard Haynes at the TURA International Festival in Perth and broadcast by ABC.

• Ker: [...and...1]; computer-set 

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• diffracted terrains: Chamber Music of Dorothy Ker  Year: 2007 

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a furred tail upon nothingness for solo oboe was written for Slovene oboe player Matej Sarc and forms part of the cycle ‘Canto 2’ for wind quintet. The entire cycle was premiered at the 2010 Slowind Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia by the Slovene wind quintet Slowind.

• Hall: a furred tail upon nothingness; computer set 

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• Hall: a furred tail upon nothingness; computer set 

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• Biddington: A Little Trio for Recorders; computer set  Year: 2008 

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• Biddington: A Little Trio for Recorders; computer-set  Year: 2008 

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• Biddington: A Little Trio for Recorders; computer set  Year: 2008 

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• Eric Biddington: A Song of Enchantment  Year: 2008 

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• Biddington: A New Zealand Fable; computer set  Year: 2007 

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• A New Zealand Fable - Eric Biddington  Year: 2008 

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Background

The Moriori were the indigenous people (tchakat henu) of Rekohu, now known as the Chatham Islands, in modern times part of New Zealand. The Moriori migrated there from New Zealand some time between 1400 and 1600. They share common ancestry with the Maori, and are Polynesians, but their own distinct culture developed over the period of 400 years of isolation. Their first contact with the outside world was in 1791, when a British ship stumbled upon the islands. They lived in relative peace with both Europeans and Maori until 1835 when the islands were invaded by Taranaki Maori tribes. A fifth of the population of Moriori were slaughtered, and the rest taken into slavery. Over the next 30 years of slavery the population sharply declined, and eventually the last full-blooded Moriori, Tommy Soloman, died in 1933.

Before contact with the outside world, the Moriori had adapted to their harsh environment, and eked out a subsistence living based mainly around fish, seals, and birds. A unique feature of their culture was a taboo against the killing of another human. According to their ancient traditions, a chief named Nunuku stopped warring parties from fighting to the death, as he realized this was counter-productive to survival of the small population on the islands. men still fought, but only until blood was drawn – then they stopped.

When the Taranaki tribes commandeered a British ship to the Chathams in 1835, the Moriori at first welcomed them. The Maori initially ignored them, as they explored the islands. Concerned by a possible theta, the Moriori held a large gathering, discussing whether or not they should fight the Maori (who they greatly outnumbered). The older chiefs prevailed, citing Nunuku’s law of non-violence. The Maori, on the other hand, did not hold back: they massacred 300 Moriori (men, women and children) and held a large cannibal feast in accordance with their tikanga, or fighting customs. The treatment of the survivors was horrendous. The Moriori continued to be treated poorly, being regarded by most Europeans as an inferior race, low in intellect, lazy, and degenerate; of course the Europeans were seeing only the sad remnants of an oppressed people. In addition to these in justices, the land courts of the 1870s awarded the vast majority of the land to the Maori, and not to the Moriori.

It was not until late in the 20th century that the true story of the Moriori became better known, thanks largely to Michael King’s book Moriori: A People Rediscovered (1989). The marae on the Chatham Islands has been restored, and in 2005, relatives of Moriori submitted a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal.

A Survivor from Rekohu was inspired by the story of the Moriori and commissioned by Alexa Still, for flute, piccolo and Maori flute. It is based around the life of a Moriori named Koche who witnessed the 1835 massacre, survived years of slavery under the Maori chief Matioro, and made many attempts to escape from captivity.

Eventually he did escape, permanently, on a ship to the USA where he told his story to an American lawyer. His whereabouts after this are unknown. The music recalls three main passages from Koche’s life:

his childhood on Rekohu in the days before the invasion
the massacre of 1835
slavery and escape

These are framed by four little melodies (variations on a theme) played on different Maori instruments, acting as meditations on the events. They are each labelled ‘Kopi Grove’, after the sacred place on Rekohu where chiefs would meet and ceremonies were held.

• Ritchie, A.: A Survivor from Rekohu; computer-set 

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• Ritchie, A.: A Survivor from Rekohu; computer-set 

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• Anthony Ritchie: A Survivor from Rekohu 

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• Anthony Ritchie: Octopus  Year: 2011 

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This short work for solo flute was written in 2007 and is dedicated to my Grandmother, Mary Kingma (1917 – 2005). It was inspired by (but is not necessarily a direct depiction of) part of a poem that she wrote (published by New Zealand Art Press in the anthology New Beginnings in 1986), the last line of which I have used as the title.

They are waiting for me, the sparrows.
And so I throw the crumbs and watch.
So busy, so quick, so hungry.
After a while only the green of the grass is left.

Ben Hoadley

• Hoadley: After a while only the green of the grass is left; facsimile 

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Much of the surface of this piece inhabits an area on the brink of silence. This is an extremely unsafe area for the performer, because he or she constantly risks losing the sound altogether. It is hoped that the soft dynamic levels focus the listener’s attention on the microscopic shifts in timbre, pitch and loudness that are the central material of the composition. Below the surface, rather than employing an overall unifying structure/process, several processes are active simultaneously, and much of the composition is the result of these processes tearing at each other while competing for priorty. There is an “organic” process of growth, that conditions the placement of events in time, as well as the pitch and timbral relationships between these events. Superimposed on this structure is a spectral analysis of the title of the piece, taken from Ezra Pound’s “Cantos”, which also impacts on the placement of events and their internal shape, effectively “damaging” the underlying organic organisation. The third main layer relates to pitch organisation and is based on an analysis of Edgard Varese’s “Density 21.5”. This layer is of particular importance for the “grace note” figures that abound, figures which exist “outside” the main body of the composition, but give important structural clues relating to both the first and second processes mentioned above. “And, out of nothing, a breathing, hot breath on my ankles” was written for, and is dedicated to Ales Kacjan.

• Hall: and, out of nothing, a breathing, hot breath on my ankles; facsimile 

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• Hall: and, out of nothing, a breathing, hot breath on my ankles; facsimile 

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• Neville Hall: Selected Works 

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The title Anxome is a contraction of the word “manxome”, from the phrase in Lewis Carroll’s The Jabberwocky: “long time his manxome foe he sought”. The piece is descriptive of a state of mind: at times anxious and shy, but also playful and cheeky. It was premiered in The Committee’s ‘Lightshift’ concert. Andrew Uren performed it from a high balcony, behind the audience, who were in the dark.

• Willis: Anxome; computer-set 

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• Willis: Anxome; computer-set 

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• Gardner: Are the people happy on your planet, Gina?; computer set 

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• Gardner: Are the people happy on your planet, Gina?; computer set 

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Badb (pronounced ‘badhv’ where ‘dh’ is a voiced fricative, as in ‘these’) was one of a trio of war-goddesses from Irish legend. She assumed variously the guises of a beautiful woman, an old hag, and a carrion crow. Her manifestation in the latter form was an omen of death. Before a battle she would appear in anticipation of the carnage, and as the battle took place, would flit around the heads of the warriors. Afterwards, she would feed on the corpses strewn across the fields. Like the other two battle-furies, Macha and the M’rr’gan, Badb was both sinister and sexual; she prophesied the end of the world, the fall of the gods and an endless reign of chaos. There are three distinct types of material in this piece, portraying the three juxtaposed personalities of Badb: the sinuous, seductive syrensong of sing-flute representing the mysterious, beautiful femme fatale who befriended the Irish warrior C’ Chulainn, then lured him to his death; the unearthly shrieks and battle-cries of the old hag, which were said to arouse fear and dread in the living; and the hideous crow, pecking at the flesh of the slain with bloodied maw. Much of the piano’s harmonic structure is derived and interpolated from chords representing the crow in Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux, while the notes B, A and D feature prominently through the piece.

• Norris: Badb; computer-set 

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• Norris: Badb; computer-set 

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• Taurangi - New Zealand Music for flute and piano  Year: 2004 

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