Kia maumahara — we remember. A concert honouring those servicemen and women who gave their lives for us. Giving voice to memory, sacrifice, and reflection. Through music that speaks of loss, courage, and hope, the choir invites the audience to pause, reflect, and remember. These are voices from the past that continue to resonate, reminding us that remembrance is a living act, carried forward through song.

The Poems:
In Flanders Fields, John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

We Shall keep the Faith, Moina Belle Michael

Oh! You who sleep in “Flanders Fields,”
Sleep sweet—to rise anew!
We caught the Torch you threw
And, holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

For The Fallen, Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit.
Fallen in the cause of the free
Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At The going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

A Song of Remembrance

David Hamilton

In 2017 David Hamilton was invited by conductor Kim Bulluss to conduct three of his pieces on one of the nights of the annual A.P.P.A Music Festival. This festival brought together hundreds of primary school children from across Auckland, in groupings of schools, to sing under different conductors. The night David conducted, also featured a bagpipe player and drummer, so he offered to write something new for 2018 to utilize the same performers.
Being the centenary of the end of World war 1, a text suited to the occasion seemed appropriate- especially given the concert would be within days of November 11, Armistice Day.
Moina Michael (1868-1944) was an American professor and humanitarian who conceived the idea of using poppies as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in World War 1. Her motivation was a desire to find financial and occupational support for wounded ex-servicemen after the end of the war. She was inspired by the well-known poem by John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields”, and wrote this poem which she called “We Shall Keep the Faith”. In the poem she picks up on the first lines of the McCrae poem.

To the Michael poem, David has added an anonymous short text which appears frequently in on-line searches for poems about Armistice Day. It has been inserted into the Michael poem as a refrain.

This SATB version of the work was made for the Aotearoa NZ Choral Academy and conducted by Rowan Johnston on Anzac Day 2024 in Christchurch.

In Flanders Fields

Alexander Tilley

The poem In Flanders Fields, in its many musical setting, has become a traditional part of worldwide
Remembrance Services since World War One. Originally published in Punch magazine in 1915, it
was written by Canadian medical officer John McCrae during the second Battle of Yrpes in Belgium.
This version is one of twenty four choral compositions by Canadian composer, educator and conductor Alexander Tilley and features in his 1985 publication Songs for the School.

ANZACS: A Generation Lost in Legend

Janet Jennings

ANZACS – A Generation Lost in Legend is the first large-scale setting of New Zealand war poetry. The composer compiled the text from poems written during World War I. Poems written subsequent to World War I were also compiled. This work gives voice to the ANZAC soldiers who served during the war. It has been the composer’s intention in setting this poetry to music to create the world of the texts for the performers and their audiences.

The composition and preparation of the work was partially funded by Creative New Zealand as a WW100 Project for initial performances in Australia (Newcastle University and St James’ Church, Sydney) and in New Zealand as Auckland Cathedral’s ANZAC event, April 2017.

1. Memories of Gallipoli: Text: from ANZAC – The Legend by Mike Subritzky.

 The text tells a story beginning retrospectively, remembering the horror that was Gallipoli. The work begins in the quietness. This is before the assault of battle noise. The purerehua (bull-roarer) suggests the wind on the empty mountainside. It is joined by the keening violin and organ. There are echoes of birdsong or maybe a shepherd piping. These melodic and rhythmic patterns recur throughout the work as an expression of the youthful naivety of the soldiers. Organ and brass shatter the quietness. They prepare for the impact of battle noise. Solo voices emerge out of the choral textures. They arise for those calls for Mother. Military marching beats on the snare drum transform into pizzicato violin and small woodblock – a fragile heartbeat. The heart beat stops and we are left with the dead on Lone Pine Ridge and Sari Bair. And back to quietness again

2. They Came from Alexandra: Text: from ANZAC – The Legend by Mike Subritzky

This movement describes the young NZ soldiers being rounded up and sent off to war. This is set as a cheerful march. It features brass and snare drum. Polyphonic lines should give us the sense of the historical process of mustering boys to fight. 

3. Raising Recruits: Text from an autograph book belonging to Maggie Dean Alexander.
A neighbour named Thomas Barkla signed the poem. He later became Maggie’s brother-in-law.

As a piece, both text and music, this movement provides a light touch similar to a comedy scene in a Shakespeare play. However, just as we all know Macbeth’s body is about to be discovered while the porter makes his obscene jokes, we know that the young soldier’s confidence is misplaced here. The piece is arranged as a rag, popular in 1914 when the poem was written. It features syncopated ragtime rhythms and familiar ragtime patterns of accompaniment. These elements are played on the organ rather than the piano. The singer is in role –
he is the young soldier leaving his friend, Phillis. 

4. For the Empire: this text was also found in Maggie Dean Alexander’s autograph book. It was signed by F C Dunlop – Trooper – 9th Reinforcements. He was a neighbour of the Saunders.

In this first verse, the tenors and basses are willing to sacrifice themselves. They do this for what they believe is the good of their country and empire.
The sopranos and altos sing a canonic lament as they wait for the return of the young men.

All musicians combine for the last verse which is set as a hymn. We cannot relate to the patriotic fervour expressed in the text. However, we aim to take ourselves and our audience back to 1914, when the text was written. 

5a. They Sailed Away at Dawn –further text from Mike Subritzky’s ANZAC – The Legend

This movement continues the narrative begun in the 2nd movement (the mustering of the soldiers) and therefore echoes musical material from the 2nd movement. But in this movement the polyphony disintegrates into musical chaos, with the tuba adding the resonance of the ship’s horn. 

5b. Stretcher-Bearer: The text is Stretcher-Bearer! by Donald H. Lea, Otaki small-holder and, Cambridge University graduate, who served in the Otago Infantry Regiment. He was gassed and wounded in 1916. His physical recovery took seven years. His wife says that he never recovered mentally from the trauma of his war experiences. 

This movement plunges us into the reality of battle. Told from the point of view of a stretcher-bearer (solo tenor) who tended to the wounded and dying. The Medical Corps were undermanned and under-supplied. Drinking water was scarce, rescuers faced the ever-present danger of gunfire and shrapnel. The solo bass portrays a soldier the stretcher-bearer attempts, unsuccessfully, to rescue.

6. A Generation Lost in Legend: Text: from ANZAC – The Legend by Mike Subritzky.

This movement is a simple chordal commemoration of those who died
during the Gallipoli campaign. 

The movement concludes with the well known plainsong hymn: 
Conditur alme siderum (Creator of the stars of night)
Aeterna lux credentium, (Thy people’s everlasting light,)
Christe, redemptor omnium, (Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,)
Exaudi preces supplicum, (And hear Thy servants when they call.) 

7. December Dreamtime: Text by Mike Subritzky.

The final movement is a setting of a poem by Mike Subrizky. It is set as a rousing hymn, as the text clearly demands, but the poem suggests that the chances of achieving peace on earth and goodwill to all people are remote. 

Lest We Forget

Angela Edmeades Smith

Lest we Forget was composed in 2017 to commemorate the upcoming centenary of the end of WWI, and to honour all of our ANZACS who served in so many ways during the war (including Angela’s own grandfather who was a gunner in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force from 1916 – 1918).  Originally voiced for SSAA and sung by Bel Suono choir from Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, she was delighted to rework it into SATB format for the Wellington Youth Choir and their Huakina concert in 2024.

This piece utilises the text “In Flanders Fields” by Major John McCrae (1915), along with two stanzas from “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon (1914) – including the Ode of Remembrance that is so much a part of our Anzac Day commemorations.  Angela says she incorporated elements of the Last Post into the cornet part (albeit with modifications and in a somber minor key) which weaves in and around the text, and intentionally echoed military rhythms in the piano accompaniment to be reminiscent of a side drum. The cornet played in this performance by Bill Stoneham.