This short piece is full of character and vitality. The composer indicates that it is to be played fast and roughly. However, the performer should still take note of every dynamic nuance and remain true to all the articulation markings. This is the key to a successful performance!
Ritual is one of the eight short pieces comprising Poems of Spring (four of the other pieces are published in Firestarters 1 (PE068), which were composed while I was a third-year student at the University of Canterbury, and first performed there by myself in 1982. They were inspired by two major events in my life at that time: first, the ructions caused by the 1981 Springbok rugby tour which I found myself caught up in; and second, a love affair which ended in grief. Ritual owes a debt to Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps, attempting to evoke the earthy, sexual energy of spring through its vigorous rhythms.
