Sound Files from the Ceremony
These sound files are made available here as high quality mp3 files. Please contact us for permission for any reuse of these files.
Fernleaf Headstones by Dwayne Bloomfield (3.4mbs)
S/Sgt Dwayne Bloomfield, Deputy Bandmaster and composer-in-residence for the New Zealand Army Band, was commissioned to write a special funeral march for the Funeral Procession. Entitled Fernleaf Headstones, this march was performed by the New Zealand Army Band as the Funeral Procession for the Unknown Warrior moved from the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul to the National War Memorial.
Homecoming - Te Hokinga Mai by Vincent O'Sullivan (1.8mbs)
Vincent O'Sullivan, one of New Zealand's leading poets and writers, was commissioned to write a special poem in honour of the Unknown Warrior. The poem entitled Homecoming – Te Hokinga Mai was read at the Interment Ceremony. Read words for Homecoming.
Lament for the Unknown Warrior by Murray Mansfield (3.3mbs)
Piper, Sgt Murray Mansfield of the RNZAF wrote a lament entitled Lament for the Unknown Warrior of New Zealand. First heard at the Handover Ceremony at Longueval, France on 6 November 2004, it was played as the casket was placed on the Gun Carriage following the Memorial Service on 11 November 2004.
Memento for an Unknown Warrior by Timothy Hurd QSM (3.9mbs)
Memento for an Unknown Warrior, sung by The Tudor Consort, is a setting of the Maori and English words of the karanga inscribed on the granite surround of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. It begins with a forceful exortation with written-in echo effects, making full use of the marvellous acoustics of the Hall of Memories. The two solo sopranos [and languages] then echo and compliment each other, over a slowly shifting modal underlay in the other voice parts. The composition ends softly on an open fifth [in dominant key], signalling an implied return to the beginning which, like remembrance itself, continually begins anew.
A Simple Elegy by Timothy Hurd QSM (7mbs)
'A Simple Elegy' for carillon was played on 11.11.04. to close the formal Entombment Ceremony at the National War Memorial, Wellington. In distinct contrast to other music heard on the day, A Simple Elegy is comprised of three interwoven melodies and uses asymmetric time signatures [principally 5/2], as evocative of the slow, unsynchronised walking cadence of a cortege of mourners.
Homecoming – Te Hokinga Mai by Vincent O’Sullivan
The figure at the paddock’s edge,
The shadow in the football team,
The memory beside the hedge,
The notes behind a song that seem
Another song, a different dream –
The past we harvest that was yours,
The present that you gave for ours.
The life in places once your own
And left behind, and what was said
To husband, father, lover, son,
Are stories that were lost instead,
That ran to darkness where you bled –
Are what we owe you, we who say
'See morning in its usual way
Moving along the ridges, the bright
Day broadening on the river,
The warmth of cities wakening, the sight
Of roads ahead and doors forever
Onto families, friends, whatever
Life allows us, one another –
What we have and you do not, our brother.’
Solemn the speeches and the drum
That draw you to the unguessed tomb,
But more than these, the sounds that come
To us as once to you, from
Bach and backyard, from marae and town,
Our standing where you too have stood
‘Now and forever, home is good.’
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