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In 1995 I was approached by the NZSO to write an overture to commemorate the recent death of New Zealand’s most famous war hero, Sir Charles Upham. Upham was famous for having won the Victoria Cross twice for bravery during World War II. He was, however, extremely modest when it came to discussing his achievements. Some years before his death it was suggested to Upham that he have a state funeral; he simply replied, “A bugle will do”. This comment seemed like a good starting point for my piece.

There are no bugles in the orchestra, but the opening section depicting the horrors of battle contains plenty of brass. Sub-titled Maleme and Ruweisat Ridge, the music is fast and furious, built from several motifs, and includes the opening rhythm for the most well known Maori haka (war dance), Kamate, kamate. The music builds to a climax, and the scene changes to a bleak Colditz Castle, where Upham was imprisoned during the war. While in prison he dreams of rural NZ, and the farm near Kaikoura called ‘Landsdowne’, where he eventually settled after the war. This brief pastoral section links into a coda celebrating the outbreak of peace. Motifs from earlier in the piece return but changed into brighter modes. ’

A Bugle Will Do was first performed by the NZSO in 1996 under Andrew Sewell, and was subsequently performed in the USA.

• Ritchie, A.: A Bugle will Do; computer-set 

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Commissioned by the Christchurch Youth Orchestra and premiered by them, it has subsequently been played by the Auckland Philharmonia, in Australia and in the USA by the Eugene Symphony Orchestra. It is full of pounding rhythms and a vital sense of action and movement as befits a work which takes the Haka as its inspiration.

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• Farr: He Tango mo Elena; computer-set 

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• Elena  Year: 2002 

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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; cassette  Year: 1994 

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

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Translation of title: ‘The winds of Kaiaua’

In Maori mythology, Kaiaua was a child of Tahwiri, the great god of the wind. The winds of Kaiaua are the nor’-westers that frequently sweep across the Canterbury plains. This piece describes an old Maori legend about a chief who disliked the hot nor’-westers so much that he instructed a tohunga (or priest) to perform a chant, making the mountains bigger and stopping the winds coming. However, this caused the plains to become too damp and miserable for the people to live there. The chief prayed for the return of the winds, and eventually they do indeed return, forcing their way over the Southern Alps. The music for this one-movement piece is directly programmatic, owing something to the composer’s experience as Composer-in-schools (1987), where childrens’ imagination very readily turns sounds into images. Consequently, a theme from Ritchie’s own youth (from age 13) is used in the piece, to depict the march of the wind at the end.

• Ritchie A.: Te Hau-a-kaiaua; facsimile 

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Tū-mata-uenga “God of War, Spirit of Man” was inspired by the Maori story of creation. In summary, the story starts in the beginning when the world between Rangi-nui, the Sky Father, Papa-tua-nuku, the Earth Mother, was cramped and dark. Their children could not grow in this environment and were forced to take action to survive and Rangi and Papa were forced apart – creating the world, as we know it today. I have portrayed the part of the story where Tū-mata-uenga struggles to tear Rangi from Papa. Tū-mata-uenga…leapt at the task, hacking wildly at the sinews that bound Earth and Sky, making them bleed. It is with this act that the sacred red clay, or ochre, was made. But even Tū, the fiercest of the sons, could not sever Rangi from his lover Papa.

There are two distinct themes alternating throughout the work. To represent the ‘God of War’ there are two dominant motives; the semitone, which is used to portray his frustration from his incapability to separate his parents. Secondly, I have used militant rhythmic passages to emphasise the act of war. The second theme is more angular. It reflects another side of Tū-mata-uenga, the more complex ‘Spirit of Man’. It leaps and slides around the dissonant augmented 4th interval. Gradually, another more legato melodic line is infused with the angular theme that takes the piece into a calmer section, which has an almost triumphant melodic line.

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• NZSO National Youth Orchestra 2005  Year: 2005 

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• Vector Wellington Orchestra: Celebrate Wellington  Year: 2005 

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