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Triptych (War Letters)

By Diana Blom

$80.00 Sale

For soprano, mezzo-soprano and bass voices, viola, marimba/percussion and piano.

Triptych (War Letters) begins with letters written by Frank Nestor Robinson, my great uncle, to one of his sisters, Ellie, my grandmother, as he left from New Zealand to fight in Gallipoli, 1915. They tell of why he enlisted – a duty call and friends were enlisting - waiting around for action, then in Egypt, the realisation from news brought back by the wounded, that where he and his fellow soldiers are to be sent, Gallipoli, is a field of fierce fighting and death and he will either be one of the lucky or unlucky ones. He was one of the unlucky ones. The middle part of the triptych is a December 1969 excerpt from the war diary of David Wilkins who served with Australian forces in Vietnam. He and his troop are not getting a Christmas break, fed up, and about to embark on a 7 week operation. And the third part is excerpts of Andrew Hastie’s emails (modern war letters) sent home while serving for Australia in Afghanistan, 2009. They move between descriptions of events and personal thoughts. Threaded throughout the work are three musical associations – the rolling compound metre of British/Australian nursery song, a rhythmic motive from a traditional Vietnamese musical genre, and the 7 beat grouping of an Afghan festival music. (Diana Blom)

Recorded on War Letters (Wirr 074) by Halcyon is available online

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ISMN 9790720231471
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