Songs of Suffragettes
A song-cycle for mezzo-soprano, piano and percussion - 8'50''
Performed here by mezzo-soprano Barbara Paterson, pianist Gabriela Glapska and percussionist, Justin DeHart as part of the Nelson Composers' Workshop, 2022.
This work was award 1st place in the University of Auckland Douglas Lilburn Composition Competition, 2020.
Songs of Suffragettes is a song cycle based upon the words of New Zealand activist Kate Sheppard as she sought civic freedom for women. Taken from pamphlets and addresses in the Prohibitionist and the Suffrage Petition, Kate’s persuasive and bold arguments are placed front and centre in the work, echoed by a clacking typewriter that tracks her words. The second song highlights Kate’s audacious criticism of an opponent of suffrage, Mr Mackenzie, who later came to support the movement. This is followed with the presentation of more than 25000 signatures to parliament, and finishes with a celebration of their victory in becoming the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1893. The New Zealand anthem surfaces for a moment in the melody.