The Unusual Silence is a concert of remembrance of WW1, a specially curated programme sung by the Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir featuring songs of loss and tragedy, but also of hope and the strength of the human spirit.
It will be performed at Waiapu Cathedral as part of the Harcourt's Hawke's Bay Arts Festival on Sunday, October 1.
"This specially commissioned work, The Unusual Silence, has enjoyed a wonderful working relationship between composer and conductor as the piece evolved," says Dr Karen Grylls, who is the Artistic Director and Conductor of Voices New Zealand.
Victoria Kelly, composer of The Unusual Silence, says the title references silence and the transience of sound. "The piece explores the silence that descends when battles stop; the unspoken relief, hope and desolation that is left resonating in the spaces between bursts of sound; the silence that so many soldiers maintained when they came home," she says.
Kelly has chosen text from 1915 newspapers, from the letters and poems written by New Zealanders at the front to their loved ones back home and telegrams that reported the deaths of soldiers.