Local musicians and singers are joining forces to bring to life songs written by New Zealanders between 1914 and 1918 for a concert series and exhibition at ANZAC Hall, Featherston in March and April.
The Farewell Zealandia project is the brainchild of Upper Hutt-based music historian David Dell and social historian and curator Tony Rasmussen, who worked on Aratoi's Featherston Military Camp exhibition.
The songs were written by family members and soldiers themselves, says Dell. These were unknown New Zealanders who, amidst the pain and worry of the War sat down and expressed something of what was going on for them.
Dell had plenty of material to draw on as he’s been collecting New Zealand sheet music for 30 years and founded the Musical Heritage New Zealand Trust to manage the archive that now holds around 10,000 pieces of music by New Zealanders, dating from colonial times to the present day. The collection is recognised as the world's largest holding of NZ sheet music, music books and music memorabilia.
Tony and I ploughed through over 500 pieces that were written by New Zealanders during WW1 and individually came up with a very similar short list, he says.
Many of the songs were not even dated and we only had initials and a surname to go on, so it took a lot of digging around, says Rasmussen. The Papers Past and Cenotaph websites were key resources in the search for information. The resulting exhibition features illustrated panels telling the stories of 19 songs, next to which are bespoke Edwardian-style ‘listening boxes, designed by an Ashhurst engineer, so that visitors can listen along while reading.
The Featherston concert series kicks off on 27 March with a performance by an 11-piece salon orchestra similar to what would have been played during silent movies. Two subsequent concerts, on 10 April and 24 April, will feature a trio of piano, violin and cello.
Dell says live recordings will be made of the Sunday concerts, with a view to producing two CDS. The music, most of which was never recorded in its day and played only on the piano, was also recently recorded by Radio New Zealand in Auckland.
'Farewell Zealandia: Forgotten Kiwi Songs of World War One' Featherston ANZAC Hall, 4 March - 25 April. Open 10am till 3pm daily. Tickets from Wairarapa i-Sites. David Dell: [email protected].
Caption: Tony Rasmussen (left) and David Dell try out some tunes at Featherston’s ANZAC Hall ahead of the Farewell Zealandia exhibition and concert series.