Anthony Damian Ritchie (born 18 September 1960) is a New Zealand
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
and academic. He has been a freelance composer accepting commissions for works and in 2018 he became professor of composition at
The University of Otago after 18 years of teaching composition. Since 2020 he has been head of Otago's School of Performing Arts, a three-year position. His works number over two hundred, and include
symphonies,
opera
Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
s,
concerto
A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The ...
s, choral works,
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...
and solo works.
Early life
Ritchie was born in Christchurch in 1960.
He is the son of
John Ritchie, who was a professor teaching composition and orchestration at the
University of Canterbury.
His mother was a soprano soloist and he began learning the piano at the age of nine, showing early aptitude for improvisation.
Education
Ritchie began composing when still at school, attending
St Bede's College in Christchurch.
He completed his BMus with honours in 1981 at the
University of Canterbury.
He studied the influence of folk music on some of Béla Bartók's works in Hungary in 1983, as well as composition with
Attila Bozay and Zsolt Serei.
He completed his Ph.D. on the music of
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...
in 1987.
Career
In 1987 Ritchie was Composer-in-Schools in Christchurch and in 1988–1989
Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago.
He then became a freelance composer accepting a number of commissions.
These included ''Theme and Variations - the search'' which premiered in June 1998 in Dunedin, ''From the Southern Marches'' commissioned by George Griffiths of Otago Heritage Books and premiered in March 1998, ''Revelation'' commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and performed in Christchurch and Wellington in 1998, a guitar concerto commissioned by the
Auckland Philharmonia and played by guitarist Matthew Marshall, and dances ''Shoal Dance'' and ''Leaf.''
He has written for many other performers including
Michael Houstoun and
Wilma Smith.
Over the years Ritchie has collaborated with a number of writers such as
Stuart Hoar,
Keri Hulme and librettist
Jeremy Commons. ''Star Fire'' (1995), written with Hoar, was Ritchie's first opera. It was futuristic with a sci-fi theme for primary and intermediate age school children, commissioned by Class Act Opera in Auckland who performed opera in schools. It also had environmental and Māori themes. A further collaboration with Hoar produced ''Quartet'' (2004), a comic operetta examining the lives of classical musicians on tour in New Zealand. The production included a string quartet on stage. He worked with novelist
Keri Hulme on an opera ''Ahua'' (2000), the story of the
Ngāi Tahu
Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, is the principal Māori people, Māori (tribe) of the South Island. Its (tribal area) is the largest in New Zealand, and extends from the White Bluffs / Te Parinui o Whiti (southeast of Blenheim, New Zealand, Blenhe ...
ancestor Moki. It was commissioned by the Christchurch City Choir. In 2004 he collaborated with Jeremy Commons on ''
The God Boy'' an opera based on the novel by
Ian Cross.
It was performed by Opera Otago for the Otago Festival of the Arts.
Ritchie set works by Dunedin poet Elena Poletti to create ''Lullabies'' (2015) which were originally commissioned and performed by the Auckland Choral society.
Ritchie, while not a
gamelan
Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...
player, was attracted to the sounds of gamelan and used gamelan scales in his symphony ''Boum'' (1993) and in his piano piece ''24 Preludes'' (2002).
''24 Preludes'' display many different musical influences: neo-Romantic composers, a range of time signatures, contrapuntal and harmonic styles, harpsichord and organ techniques, gamelan and celesta. Ritchie was also trying out the use of the mathematical concept of the
magic square
In mathematics, especially History of mathematics, historical and recreational mathematics, a square array of numbers, usually positive integers, is called a magic square if the sums of the numbers in each row, each column, and both main diago ...
also used by composers
Peter Maxwell Davies and
Gillian Whitehead. The preludes were written when Ritchie took some time off from his freelance work to explore different approaches to composition.
Ritchie's oratorio ''Gallipoli to the Somme'' which commemorated the one hundred year anniversary of the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...
was based on the book of the same name by
Alexander Aitken
Alexander Craig "Alec" Aitken (1 April 1895 – 3 November 1967) was one of New Zealand's most eminent mathematicians. In a 1935 paper he introduced the concept of generalized least squares, along with now standard vector/matrix notation ...
, who was a soldier in the Otago battalion and later professor of mathematics at
Edinburgh University
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...
. The oratorio had its premiere in Dunedin in 2016.
Its European premiere, with
Anna Leese
Anna Leese (born 7 March 1981) is a New Zealand born soprano opera singer.
Early life
Leese was born in Napier, New Zealand. She sang in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir. She attended the University of O ...
as a soloist, was at the
Sheldonian Theatre
The Sheldonian Theatre, in the centre of Oxford, England, was built from 1664 to 1669 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, List of Wardens of All Souls College, Oxford, Wa ...
, Oxford in June 2018. It was voted New Zealand's most popular piece of classical music in
RNZ Concert's Settling the Score poll in 2020.
In 2018, after 18 years of teaching composition, Ritchie became professor of composition in the Department of Music, Theatre and Performing Arts at the University of Otago. In 2020 he became head of the School of Performing Arts, a three-year position.
Award and honours
Ritchie received a Trust Fund award from the
Composers Association of New Zealand in 1998 in recognition of his achievements in composition.
Selected works
*Concertino for Piano and Strings, op. 8 (1982)
*Piano Concerto, op. 9 (1982)
*Flute Concerto, op. 56 (1993)
*Symphony No. 1, ''Boum'', op. 59 (1993)
*Viola Concerto, op. 64 (1994–95)
*''Star Fire,'' opera, op. 68 (1995)
*Cartoon: Fantasy for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra, op. 70 (1996; revised in 2002 for release as "Oboe Sonata", op. 70b)
*Guitar Concerto, op. 79 (1997)
*''From the Southern Marches'', op. 81 (1998)
*Double Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Cello, op. 93 (1999)
*Symphony No. 2, ''The Widening Gyre'', op. 95 (1999)
*''Ahua'', opera, op. 96 (2000)
*''24 Preludes'', for piano, op. 101 (2002)
*''Quartet'', opera, op. 108 (2004)
*''The God Boy,'' opera, op. 111 (2004)
*"Clouds" for trombone with brass band or wind band, op. 114 (2005)
*Symphony No. 3, ''Janus'', op. 150 (2010)
*Violin Concerto, op. 165 (2012)
*Symphony No. 4, ''Stations'', op. 171 (2013)
*''Gallipoli to the Somme'', op. 191 (2016)
*Symphony No. 5, ''Childhood'', op. 200 (2020)
*Symphony 6, op. 212 (2021)
References
External links
Brief biography of composerPhoto of Anthony Ritchie and Dorothy Buchanan on Te Ara
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Anthony
1960 births
Living people
New Zealand classical composers
New Zealand male classical composers
Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni
University of Canterbury alumni
Academic staff of the University of Otago