Music on the wing

Press, 7 October 1987, Page 22

Music on the wing

The first performance of a new composition by the Christchurch composer, John Ritchie, will be given in Wellington on Saturday. The Orpheus Choir and R.N.Z.A.F. Band, conducted by Peter Godfrey, will perform the work. The tenor soloist is Philip Hornblow.

“Wings of the Morning” was commissioned by the Air Force to mark its fiftieth anniversary this year.

The composer chose Biblical words for the chorus to sing which he says seem to assume the existence of flying machines. Ezekiel’s reference to creatures sparkling “like the colour of burnished brass” to, wings oeing "joined one to an-

other” to “when living creatures were lifted up, the wheels were lifted up” are examples. The extended tenor solo in the middle of the work is a setting of a sonnet called “High Flight’ by a young Canadian Spitfire pilot killed in 1941. “It captures the youthful exultation of airborne life, alone in a small cockpit,” Professor Ritchie says. “Wings of the Morning” is for a large chorus and full military band. A further performance is scheduled for later in the month. Professor Ritchie has had a busy year. His concert overture, “Papanui Road,” was completed and performed by the

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in April. An anthem, "Grant Us Thy Peace,” was published in England in May. He is working on an extended choral work for the Upper Hutt Choral Society for performance next year. Professor Ritchie was the head of music at the University of Canterbury until his retirement in 1985. He had been on the staff at the university since 1946. He has conducted several choirs in Christchurch and founded the John Ritchie String Orchestra and the Christchurch Civic Orchestra which eventually became the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.