Words, music, break the silence

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

Kings County Register

Composer Derek Charke’s new work will have its world premiere in Wolfville this weekend. “Silenced” is for string quartet and clarinet, commissioned by Charke’s Acadia University music colleague, Stan Fisher. Funding was provided by Nova Scotia department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.

The premiere will take place Saturday, Nov. 17 at Wolfville’s Festival Theatre.

The genesis of this special evening came from Fisher, who plays the clarinet. “He wanted to deal with the issue of violence against women, and essentially asked me for a work of an elegiac nature. I thought about the project quite a bit before responding.”

Charke wasn't too sure about tackling the subject matter: “for one thing, I'm not a woman, and I didn't think that I had any direct experience with violence against women. But after a while I came around and realized that this is a subject that affects us all: our wives, sisters, daughters, or friends, other relatives.”

Watching the horrific events unfold in the Robert Pickton trial inspired Charke’s composition. “I grew up in the lower mainland of B.C. This was such a terrible tragedy, made worse because of the lack of interest from the police for such a long time. All of those missing women - and no one really paid any attention.”

He says he decided to call the work “Silenced” so it would be more encompassing. He and Fisher set the premiere to coincide with the École Polytechnique Massacre in Quebec, so the title became more apropos. Students from Acadia have been recruited to extinguish 14 candles, representing the 14 women killed in Montreal.

Charke composed the work over a four-month stretch, then talked with Donna Smyth about her poem. Smyth, who used to teach creative writing at Acadia, is contributing a newly commissioned poem, “Spirit-wind,” her response to violence directed at women. The Halifax-based Blue Engine String Quartet, along with Fisher, will perform a Brahms clarinet quartet, along with Charke’s new work.

The evening of words and music gets underway at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are on sale at the Box of Delights, or at the door.