Work
Shanti
for four-part vocal group with digital soundscape
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About
Shanti is an electroacoustic work and an elegy. It is dedicated to four people - my close friend David who died from skin cancer in 1991; Georgia who died in 1997, a past student who was killed in a motorbike accident; my Nana who died in 1997; and Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn who also died in 1997, the world's finest Qawaali singer from Pakistan.
All of these deaths had a strong impact on me and inspired the composition of this work. Each of the dedicatees has a section (or verse) which refers directly to them. The piece ends with a life-affirming coda - the simple act of having the sun on our back always makes us feel better. The backing track is a digital soundscape with manipulated vocals layered throughout.
Jeni Little
Dedication note
To David Gilbert, Georgia Brown, Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn and Marjorie Bourke
Performance history
06 Nov 2003: Performed by the Opus Choir, directed by David Hamilton, broadcast on Helen Young Studio, Radio New Zealand
First performed by Selwyn College Vocal Group in June 1999