Music / One Woman’s War, Polifemy. At Wesley Uniting Church, Forrest, April 26. Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

Polifemy is a women’s choir who formed in 2008 primarily to sing European sacred music written and performed by nuns in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Their repertoire has widened over the years, but their focus remains on renaissance sacred music.

This concert wove a 16^th century mass, by Spanish composer Francisco Guerrero around the story of Ada Priscilla Smith, an Australian Army nurse during World War I and the grandmother of Polifemy director Robyn Mellor.

Guerrero’s mass is entitled Mass for the Armed Man and based on a 15^th century popular song The Armed Man. The program began with a rendition of the song and the Kyrie from Guerrero’s mass before Liz MacKenzie, former Polifemy member and Wesley Music Centre Director, began telling Ada’s story.

This was done by reading from the letters she sent home from Egypt and France in four and a half years of working in military hospitals from 1915 to 1919. These short spoken excerpts were poignantly illustrated by photos and other memorabilia she brought back to Australia after the war, with an image left on the screens during the next musical section.

The Guerrero mass was expanded by other 16^th century motets by contemporaries of Guerrero such as Lasso, Victoria, Papa, Handl, Sheppard, Palestrina and Morales. The text of each was carefully chosen to reflect the tone and content of Ada’s letters.

The work from the eight singers, four sopranos and four altos, was glorious, often with two singers to a part. Notable were the high soprano parts in Guerrero’s Gloria and some strong alto/bass lines in Parce Mihi, Domine by Christobal de Morales. The mix of composers gave an extra variety to the concert, each bringing a different musical flavour while keeping within the broad style of late renaissance sacred vocal music.

This was a very cleverly conceived and realised Anzac Day concert. The singing was excellent and the readings from Ada’s letters were moving and an ongoing reminder of the horrors of that time. Robyn Mellor should be justifiably proud of this concert and it would certainly be worth a repeat performance.

One formidable woman’s war set to song