films/video installations
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Dona nobis pacem
35 min 2006 DV
Videotriptych for the Dona nobis pacem concert for choir and orchestra by Vaughan Williams, performed by Stichting Kunstklank, conducted by Herma van Piekeren, may 2006 in the Big or St Jeroen's Church, Noordwijk, the Netherlands
In 1936 the composer Vaughan Williams produced his plea for peace by referring to recent wars during the growing fears of a new one. Walt Whitman's texts show pain and compassion and confront death and destruction with humanity.
The choir in the church is embraced by a large canvas triptych on which a film is projected. During the war the Dutch beach was forbidden area, full of mines and barricades, blocked by the North-Atlantic Wall, barbed wire and pillboxes. Images of people on the beach of Noordwijk before the war flow into contemporary images of the beach and it's visitors now. In a poetic way the different generations are portrayed and the consequences of the war are made perceptible. It is clear that the plea for peace is of all times.
- Music
- Vaughan Williams
- Performed by
- the Kunstklank project Choir and Orchestra
- Director of music
- Herma van Piekeren
- Bariton
- Willem de vries
- Soprano
- Chantal van der Klugt
- Piano
- Jaco van Leeuwen
- Direction, Photography and Editing videotriptych
- Dorothée Meddens
Performance
3 and 4 may 2006 at the St Jeroen's Church in Noordwijk on Remembrance of the Dead (Dutch: Dodenherdenking) wich is held annually on May 4 in the Netherlands. It commemorates all civilians and members of the armed forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands who have died in wars or peacekeeping missions since the outbreak of the Second World War.