 |
Sheet Music: ScoreUn poilu Australien / music by Elliott Gyger ; words by Jacques Playoust.by Elliott Gyger (2015)
|
Product details
Jacques Playoust was born in Flanders in 1884, and emigrated to Australia with his family at the age of five. When World War I broke out, he returned to France to fight in the French army. Where the young Australian volunteers enlisted in the service of a mother country most of them had never seen, Jacques was in a very real sense defending his homeland.
In this work the mezzo-soprano sings extracts
from Jacques' letters to his French relatives, written in French,
while the bass sings extracts from those written to his younger
siblings in Australia. While these are mostly in English, here
too Jacques lapses into French, at which points the two voices
sing together. The extracts are arranged chronologically,
sketching out a trajectory from initial patriotic enthusiasm,
through disillusionment and trauma, to moments of despair. The
music draws on two sources: the French national anthem (La
Marseillaise), and a popular World War I song, Australia
Will Be There. Both are used mostly in heavily disguised
form, coming to the surface only rarely.
Published by: Australian Music Centre — 1 facsimile score (52p. -- B4 (portrait))
Difficulty: Advanced
Duration: 18 min.
First performance by Halcyon at Halcyon: War Letters (Ku-Ring-Gai Town Hall) on 7 Nov 2015
Typeset edition.
ISMN: 979-0-720162-64-5
Related products
This work is also available in the following products:
CD: War letters : new music commemorating WWI / Halcyon.
- Browse other works for Duos: Mezzo-soprano, bass with chamber ensemble
- Browse other works by Elliott Gyger
User reviews
Be the first to share your thoughts, opinions and insights about this item.
To post a comment please login