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As Long as Time

for SATB a cappella. Anthony Ritchie Opus 47

These four songs explore different states of mind in a quirky and emotional manner. They are reasonably challenging without being too difficult.

Programme Note

This work was commissioned by The Southern Consort of Voices in 1991, with funding from Creative NZ. It sets three NZ poems to music, with a fourth song being wordless:

Timepiece enters the mind of a woman struggling to break free of suburban neurosis and the tyranny of time, where her life seems to be standing still. Poem by Cilla McQueen.
Before the Fall alludes to lost childhood innocence. Poem by Rachel McAlpine
I lie, I watch the ceiling is a wordless meditation
We could just disappear depicts the future as an endless tunnel of the mind. Poem by Sam Hunt

In 2001 Auckland choir Viva Voce recorded this work on their CD entitled 'Snapshots - A Cappella Choral Favourites' (contact: songanddance@xtra.co.nz) under conducter John Rosser.

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