The theme of Beethoven's Choral Symphony of universal brotherhood has sealed its status as the anthem of choice for major world events and was chosen for the Odes to Joy concert tour of New Zealand as part of the REAL New Zealand Festival, the cultural celebration running alongside the Rugby World Cup 2011 tournament.

The initial challenge for Farr when writing Kaitiaki was to set words to music in a commission that appeared in a programme that was dominated by Beethoven's Choral Symphony. It was at a time when patriotism was rife in terms of the rugby festival. 

From the Composer

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is one of the most loved pieces of music ever and my brief was to write a piece that sat comfortably next to it in concert. We approached New Zealand living legend Witi Ihimaera to write the libretto and he responded with a vibrant, patriotic and passionate set of words in English and Te Reo Maori. 

When I write vocal pieces, the words are my starting point. I try to find the rhythms from the natural pace of the syllables first and then translate that into musical language. Witi gave me such punchy, vibrant words that it was a fairly easy task. The challenge, however, was to find a musical context to showcase the vocals without mimicking Beethoven or letting patriotism turn into sentimentality.

The percussion section is usually my favoured part of the orchestra. The project was fairly restricted as the sheer mass of performers on the stage meant that there was very little room for large percussion instruments. I ended up deciding on the glockenspiel, crotales and tubular bells as they took up the least amount of footprint space.

Kaitiaki is an expression of the love I have for where I live - its land, its people, its multicultural society, and all it feeds me as an artist.

The work was also played at the opening of the All Blacks games throughout the RWC 2011.