Revelations was commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for its 1998 subscription series. It was subsequently recorded by the NZSO onto the album A Bugle Will Do: Symphony No.3 and Other Works by Anthony Ritchie (ACD741), which was a finalist in the 2012 New Zealand Music Awards.
What happens to us after we die? This fundamental question has haunted the human imagination for thousands of years. Many recorded accounts of 'near-death' experiences from all over the world provide evidence that human consciousness remains active in the time immediately following death. These independent accounts describe similar events: the person (or 'spirit') floating above their dead body, the appearance of a great light, being told to go back, and so on.
In 1959, Gina Baxter-Leipolot underwent an emergency operation, was in a coma for three days, and was not expected to recover. During this time she had a 'near-death' experience in which she believed she was drifting above a Mediterranean coastline. She heard music, such as the 'velvet sound of violins, by a sound like mandolins' and 'a humming sound, building up in force like thunder'. Gina remembered the music after she recovered from the coma and 12 years later she wrote the music down in a basic form, with the help of a retired music examiner, John Chew. She called the music Revelations. This orchestral score is based loosely on Gina's Revelations and fragments of her music appear throughout.
"This is a highly impressive work on every level and one that deserves far greater dissemination"
