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2220;2221;timp,2perc (xylo, bell tree, cymbals, gong, bass drum, triangle, tambourine, woodblocks, guiro, snare drum, vibraphone);strs.

This work for narrator, tenor and symphony orchestra highlights the impact on nature of man’s questionable progress. This idea is taken directly from Hone Tuwhare’s poem The Sea! To The Mountains! To The River which is the text for the soloist. Evolution is one continuous movement interspersed with nine vocal sections.

• Hulford: Evolution; facsimile 

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• Hulford: Evolution; facsimile 

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The Ballad of Settler McGee was commissioned by Concert FM in 1990, New Zealand’s sesqui-centennial year, for closing concert of the World Youth Festival in Christchurch, September 2nd, 1990.

The work was originally written for the combined forces of the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra, the New Zealand Youth Choir, the National Youth Concert Band, the New Zealand National Youth Pipe Band, the New Zealand Youth Jazz Orchestra, the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Brass Band, and a competition-wimming Maori ensemble and rock band, all conducted by John Hopkins.

Though Settler McGee is a fictitious character, his ballad is based on the life of an early pioneering figure. Of Celtic origin, this settler emigrated to New Zealand, through Hobart, in the early 1830s. He lived with and married into a Maori tribe, was present at the sighing of the Treaty of Waitangi, and fought in several early wars. He played a prominent part in negotiating the ensuing peace and in promoting understanding between the Maori and Pakeha people. With deliberate symbolism, our Settler McGee died on the day New Zealand gained Dominion status.

This arrangement and revision of The Ballad of Settler McGee for concert band was commissioned by the Christchurch Youth Symphonic Band, conductor Mark Hodgkinson, with funding provided by Creative New Zealand and completed in 1996. It was premiered by the Auckland Wind Orchestra, conducted by Peter Thomas, on 8 August 1998 in the Aotea Centre, Auckland, as the winning entry in the 1998 Sky City Community Trust Auckland Wind Orchestra Composer’s award.

• Norman: The Ballad of Settler McGee; computer-set 

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3334, 4331, hp, pf, timp, perc. 3 players (resaresa (rainstick), 7 roto-toms, xylophone, vibraphone, claves, metal chimes, tamtam,bass drum,tapped stones, 5 suspended cymbals, flax bundle, 5 woodblocks, guiro) strs.

In his 1974 collection ‘The lives of a Cell’, Lewis Thomas wrote a memorable essay devoted to the spectrum of sound made by all living creatures. He believes that as well as producing sounds in every possible way to send messages to their own kind, all creatures have the urge to make some kind of music. The rhythmic sounds emitted by all creatures might, Lewis suggests ‘be the recapitulation of something else – an earliest memory, a score for the transformation of inanimate random matter in chaos into the improbable ordered dance of living forms.’ It was this essay, together with my fascination in the rediscovery of the part of Auckland I knew as a young child, that have shaped this piece.

The basis of the piece is the twelve possible three-note groups which function to form molecular structures – harmonic, textural, gestural, melodic – some simple, some complex, often symmetrical. The piece could be regarded as part of a classical tradition, in that it focuses primarily on balance of pitch and orchestration rather than on gesture or programmatic elements, and places the instrumental writing well within the range of the instruments rather than exploiting their extremes.

The improbable ordered dance is in a single movement and begins with a ghostly chant-like melody over a drone; this recurs in different forms several times during the piece. A transition section based on transformed sounds of nocturnal birds leads to a metrically free ‘dawn chorus’. The following chorale-like passages and the rapid sections that follow are part of a restless upward-moving continuum which can never settle nor ever finish. The later sections of the piece recycle, combine and finally dissipate the earlier material.

• Whitehead: the improbable ordered dance; computer 

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• Gillian Whitehead: the improbable ordered dance; audio 

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• Premieres: Poynton, Ritchie, Whitehead 

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• Gillian Whitehead: Various Works 

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• Whitehead: Bright Silence 

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picc2222; 4231; 3 timp, 2 perc inc. bass drm, cymb, trngl, glock, xylo, marimba, drum kit with tom toms, log drum, tam tam; strs

In New Zealand there has been a reluctance on the part of pakeha men to move to music. Perhaps it is our Victorian background that makes us feel silly and self-conscious when dancing. We pefer to sit back and be still, like the Tuatara.

In this piece, the old reptile (Tuatara) shakes off his passive past and moves to some more contemporary-sounding dance rhythms. The work is in a continuous movement, divided into several sections. It opens with an ironical glance at the atonal past before flicking it away, like a fly. A jaunty ‘Tuatara’ theme is played on clarinet over bass ostinati, leading to a more vibrant and lively theme. While the first section is earthy and physical in character, the second is a fantasy, full of ethereal images. The initial delicate waltz theme develops and grows into a more menacing idea, before fading back into the ‘Tuatara’ theme. The rest of the piece comprises various dances that adopt certain styles: jazz, folky, rock. A gypsy-like theme combines with a version of ‘God Defend NZ’ in a section where pakeha men are on their feet! The finale uses log drum and Pacific Island rhythms to bring the piece to an exciting conclusion.

• Ritchie A.: The Tuatara Dances; facsimile 

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• Anthony Ritchie: Tuatara Dances 

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(2)22(2)2(2)2(1);4331;3perc,timp,pf,hp;strs.

A commission for 1986, the Year of Peace, this work for tenor and orchestra takes its text from the writings of conscientious objector Archibald Baxter. The work is named after a novel by the pacifist Ian Hamilton which takes its title from a line of T S Eliot. Recorded by New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

• Blake: Till Human Voices Wake Us; facsimile 

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• Works for Orchestra: Young, Harris, Blake, Ritchie 

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• Blake: Music by Christopher Blake; cassette 

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• New Zealand Composers  Year: 1995 

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