Four Duos for two violins
by Anthony Ritchie, for two violins, Opus 34b
Programme Note
1 Dance
2 Tired
3 Strut
4 Alone
6 minutes
Four Duos was composed in 1988 while Anthony was Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago.
They show some influence of the Bartok violin duos with lively rhythmic
changes and acerbic harmonies in the opening Dance and Strut.
The other two movements are more reflective and are expressions
of solitude.
The pieces were gifted to Tessa Petersen while she was
a student at the University of Otago, and much later, after she returned to Otago to become Senior Lecturer in Violin there, she recorded them with Justine Cormack for the CD
Father and Son: Music by John and Anthony Ritchie, Ode/Manu Records, 2016.
They are now available on Bandcamp as well as on CD.