Those Others
SATB + piano, soprano and tenor solo - 3'30''
Those Others - performed by the 2024 NZ Secondary Students' Choir, at the 3rd Annual Chorus and Conducting Art Conference in Hangzhou. Soloists: Sofia Gong and Leo Bamfield. Music Director: Sue Densem. Assistant Director & Vocal Consultant: Benjamin Madden. Assistant Director & Accompanist: Brent Stewart.
Those Others was a winning composition of the Choral Connect Composition Competition 2017.
Those Others is a setting of an extract by New Zealand poet, Ian Wedde. The poem describes the sea and the sky as lovers who are unable to meet except within their imaginations. Eternally separated, the voices echo one another with canonic entries and repeating sibilance that imitate the waves, meeting only briefly in fifths that reflect the space between them.
Text:
Ian Wedde – extract from ‘Those Others’
for Joanna & Jeffrey & Ingrid Magdalena
The sea does not
meet the sky. They kiss only
in our minds. They are priceless
in that space
which recedes forever
where we make them lovers
forever
O my dear friends I reach out
as though across the sea
to embrace you
between sea & sky
or between earth & sky, that space
where the imagination feels your warm
breath upon its cheek.
To enquire about this piece or to purchase the score, contact the composer here.