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Ōwheo

for 2 sopranos, SATB choir, strings, taonga puoro and organ. By Anthony Ritchie. Opus 206

Programme Note

Ōwheo was commissioned by The University of Otago as part of their 150th anniversary celebrations, for a premiere on June 2, 2019, in The Dunedin Town Hall. The text was written specially for the occasion by Dunedin poet, Sue Wootton, and takes as its main focus the Water of Leith, or Ōwheo, which flows through the university campus.

Listen to the first performance on the SOUNZ website.audio link

Each rill contains
its every upstream rill
and all it was
propels its going
The current
singing to the Clock Tower
from the weirs
is more than it appears
and utters it: (Each rill contains / its every upstream rill)
karakia
to the summit's wind
the moon, the stars,
the cap cloud
streaming over Cargill
Each rill contains
its every upstream rill
and all it was
propels its going
so that to cross Owheo
on the footbridge
is to cross
a long kōrero (Each rill contains / its every upstream rill)
a source and seeking - both -
whose strands
and trails
and traces
whisper, babble,
call,
is to cross
the future (Each rill contains / its every upstream rill)
and to cross a fugue
against forgetting
is to cross
dawn chorus
evening roost, the ruru
beaded moss, five-finger,
broadleaf, fern,
the summit's wind,
the moon, the stars,
the cloud cap streaming over Cargill
Each rill contains
its every upstream rill
and all it was
propels its going

Buy the right to download a single pdf containing the full score, and parts, online, and permission to print it as required for one organisation: NZ$25.00

The taonga puoro can be improvised. There is no written part. Some ideas are offered in the full score.

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