Auckland Choral at Missa Pacifica

On Sunday, Auckland Choral's 150th birthday celebrations come to their peak with the premiere of David Hamilton's Missa Pacifica, an hour-long opus bringing together two soloists, two choirs - youth and adult - and an orchestra.

Two years in the writing, Hamilton took the commission as "very much writing for the big traditional choral society group which does oratorio as its backbone, but I was keen to complement it with some texts from the New Zealand, Pacific and Asian areas".

You will hear log drums alongside the xylophone, sizzle cymbal and sleigh bells emanating from the five-strong percussion section and the work also opens with a karanga-like greeting from the soprano soloist, but Hamilton was always determined to avoid the spelling of "Pasifika" in his title.

"I didn't want the trendy associations of that word, and the work is certainly not a catalogue of traditional styles."

A firm believer in the value of community music-making, Hamilton would like to see Missa Pacifica have a life beyond Sunday. "I did not want a work that was text-heavy with the audience sitting and following their programmes all evening."

It is the choice of texts that cements the piece's multiculturalism. Determined to find poetry that reflected the words of the Latin Mass at the core of the piece, it turned out that Joy Cowley's Haere Mai Te Wairau Tapu complemented the Kyrie quite nicely, while Patricia Grace's Whisper to me, a lullaby, complemented the Benedictus.

Outing by the Singaporean poet Edwin Thumboo, "a poem about text and languages coming together, sums up what lies behind this whole work", Hamilton adds. Kate Spence and Morag Atchison will sing the Thumboo poem while "the choir's Dona nobis pacem gradually intrudes on the solo parts, eventually taking over the poem by the end of the movement, which is exactly what I wanted to happen".

Hamilton's experience - he sang in Auckland Choral for 27 years - shows throughout the 243-page score. "Part of the composer's craft is tailoring your music to performers and audiences. I am very aware of what this choir can do and can't do and what our audience is. In many ways it is audience friendly. There's a noisy jubilant ending, nice tunes along the way, but also a few testing moments."

It is this choral savvy that has garnered Hamilton a global reputation in this area. He has won international awards in Italy and the United States while the Finnish publishing house Sulasol handle more than 20 of his titles.

"You're always up against the fact that you're from the bottom of the South Pacific and always fighting that circular argument that you won't get published unless you're in demand and you won't be in demand until you're published," Hamilton laughs.

A force during the 80s and 90s as a music teacher, the man behind the triumphs of Epsom Girls Grammar's Opus choir, Hamilton's life is now freer, tutoring in composition at several Auckland schools.

Understandably, he is pleased that young voices are involved in Missa Pacifica.

"It is so valuable that kids have the chance to take part in that big choral experience. In the school situation you are singing endless three-minute pieces and you never get the chance to feel you're part of a bigger whole."

On Sunday, it is the youth choir you'll hear bursting forth with the traditional Tongan hymn Eiki'alo'ofa e, against a backdrop of percussion. Earlier, in the Maori E hara I te, violins and violas strum their instruments like guitars.

Hamilton sees Missa Pacifica as a watershed in his compositional career and is finding himself drawn towards a leaner style, so it may be some time before the Auckland Town Hall resounds to a Hamilton work on this scale. And there is a bonus with Leonard Bernstein's infectious Chichester Psalms on the same programme - a most generous birthday offering from Auckland Choral.

What: Auckland Choral, Missa Pacifica
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Sunday, 3pm