An early large-scale work by one of New Zealand's most prolific composers, The Hanging Bulb (1989) is a weighty journey consisting of four sections performed as one continuous movement. The work expresses particular emotional and psychological states of mind, encapsulated in the title, which is an image of despair in both the art world and the everyday life. Ritchie employs the octatonic scale, bi-modal effects and thickly layered chords to maintain tension throughout the work.