The Unusual Silence, Voices NZ Chamber Choir, with a commission by NZ composer Victoria Kelly and TTBB ensemble from Dilworth, Westlake and St. Kentigern Schools

Abstract

The concert takes its name from this new commission and places this exciting new work along with choral works by Eric Whitacre, Jenny McLeod, Healey Willlan, Samuel Barber and the haunting setting of In Flanders Fields by Stephen Chatman for men’s voices. The specially commissioned work, The Unusual Silence, has enjoyed a wonderful working relationship between composer and conductor as the piece has evolved. Visits to Auckland Museum to explore the collection of artefacts from WW1 was both inspiring and very moving. Victoria dedicates the work to her dear friend Hamish Macalister and has chosen texts from 1915 newspapers and letters from those at war sent home to their loved ones. The letters were from New Zealanders at the front, who fought for our land, sent to their loved ones back home. Some of the texts were poems from New Zealand soldiers and telegrams, which reported the deaths of the soldiers. The Unusual Silence has four movements: The Census, The Frightful Monotony, The Glorious Sunset and The Unburied Dead. It is composed for Chamber Choir and a men’s chorus, which will be sung by the tenors and basses of Voices New Zealand.