Elizabeth Marshall has long been a poet, but having her words set to music is a first.
Elizabeth Marshall has long been a poet, but having her words set to music is a first.
It’s a partnership with a 70-year age gap between the collaborators.
Nine short poems written by 92-year-old Elizabeth Marshall have been set to short tunes composed by 23-year-old Fergus Byett.
The poems focus on familiar figures in Aotearoa’s landscape, such as the ruru/morepork, inanga (a whitebait species) and kiwi.
Byett has composed musical accompaniments especially for Marshall’s work.
The project, a couple of years in gestation, is now ready for its Taupō Concert Band world premiere on Friday, October 13 at 6.30pm – a change from the midday concert’s usual lunchtime outing.
Fergus Byett has composed music for Elizabeth Marshall's poems about native species.
Byett was a natural choice to compose music for her work.
She has known him since he was 5 and has followed his musical progress from schooling locally in Taupō to a Bachelor in Music, and now masters, at Waikato University.
“Fergus is a talented musician and I feel he has a future ahead of him.
“The concept is not original – we have Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals to thank for the whole idea – but this one references New Zealand fauna and ecology.”
For his part, Byett found the poems a gift to work with.
“A lot of the composing I’ve done has been choral music, where you obviously have to work from a prescribed text, so having a set of poems as a starting point made me feel much more at home, and it made my job much easier.”
The pen portraits had a certain feel, Byett said.
“It becomes a question of how best to bring that character out of the music and out of the band.
“It’s also a pleasure to come back home and work with many of the same people I played music with when living in Taupō, along with some new faces.
“I’m looking forward to sharing these pieces with other people too; at this point, the music has been rattling around in my head for the last few years, so it’s nice to finally get it out and in front of an audience.”
The pieces will be presented as the second half of the concert band’s evening performance at St Andrew’s Anglican Church on October 13, with a lively first half including a short bracket referencing the Friday the 13th date.
Tickets for the 6.30pm concert (adults $10, children free) which include a halftime sweet nibble and drink, are available through TryBooking, as well as door sales on the night.
