Work

Programme Note

“Today, New Zealand Forests are quiet but in 1770 Joseph Banks wrote thus about Queen Charlotte Sound: ‘This morn I was awkd by the singing of the birds ashore……the numbers of them were certainly very great……’ He would be shocked at the silence that greets the dawn there now.” The Lost world of the Moa – Worthy and Holdaway. "Aotearoa’s multitude of birds performed that symphony each dawn for over sixty million years. It was a glorious riot of sound with its own special meaning for it was in confirmation of the health of a wondrous and unique ecosystem. To my regret, I arrived in New Zealand in the late twentieth century to find most of the orchestra seats empty. Walking through the ancient forest…….I heard nothing but the whisper of leaves blowing in the wind. It was like the rustle of the last curtain fall on an orchestra that will be no more.’ Tim Flannery – Future Eaters

Text Note:

Spoken text consists of the latin names of extinct New Zealand birds

Commissioned:

Commissioned by Arnold Marinissen with funding from Creative New Zealand

• Arnold Marinissen

Difficulty:

Advanced

Influences:

• Birds - NZ

Funders:

• Creative New Zealand

Performance History

	09 Aug 2006	Performed by Arnold Marinissen (voice and percussion); Victoria University, Wellington
		Arnold Marinissen
	28 Sep 2008	Performed by Arnold Marinissen in the Hunter Council Chamber at Victoria University, Wellington
	19 Feb 2010	Performed by Arnold Marinissen at Vredenburg Leeuwenbergh, Utrecht, Netherlands
		Arnold Marinissen
	20 Feb 2010	Performed by Arnold Marinissen at De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
		Arnold Marinissen
	25 Feb 2010	Performed by Arnold Marinissen at the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
		Arnold Marinissen