Echoed Memories was written while I was Composer in Residence with the Auckland Philharmonia as part of a collaborative project with the Auckland War Memorial Museum. I was asked to write a work, inspired by one of the spaces in the Museum. I chose the World War I Sanctuary.

The World War I Sanctuary is a public space, but also a very personal one for the many people who have relatives names inscribed on the walls. The dignity of the space, the sense of light which streams through the skylight and windows, contrasting with the sombre nature of the lists of names that surround you.

In Echoed Memories I draw on several musical pieces that would have been significant to the soldiers; The Last Post, the popular tune It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, and I Runga o Nga Puke, written by Paraire Tomoana and used to farewell the Second Maori Contingent in 1915.

At the same time I was conscious of the fact that my own life has been much distanced from the experience of war. I wanted to write something that did not try to diminish or trivialise the experience of those who have gone through the pain of war. I wanted to create a piece that, drawing on aural fragments of our collective past, might allow us to reflect and contemplate what the World War I Sanctuary actually means.

Sonic Museum

Echoed Memories

Electronic, orchestral, Neo-classical, piano, and whatever else. Thank you for your interest.

Chris Adams (1979-) is a New Zealand composer and is the Head of Music at The Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School in Christchurch. He was the Mozart Fellow (2010-2011) at the University of Otago and the Auckland Philharmonia’s Composer in Residence (2009). Chris was the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Pah Homestead from July to September, 2010, a position he held again for a further three months in 2011.

Echoed Memories

Chris Adams Composer