Based on one of America's oldest square dances, Turkey in the Straw (1958) became a standard in the New Zealand repertoire and also further afield, having received over 800 performances. The work combines liveliness of character with deft craftsmanship - after a brief introduction with the turkey scratching in the straw, a set of free variants on the theme follows. A tail-end scrap of the melody becomes the basis of a fugue, which soon reactivates the variation mode leading to a brief finale.
John Ritchie was one of New Zealand’s senior composers. Throughout a long composing career, he elected to write in an accessible and traditional manner, often in stark contrast to much of the work being produced by his contemporaries in the style of the European avant garde. He created a body of work which, while less well-known than it deserves to be, is loved and enjoyed by performers and audiences alike for its deft craftsmanship and pleasing melodic grace.
