'U Trau'

Greetings:

Back in March I announced on this list the premiere in the Netherlands of a piece of music with a text in the language constructed for that purpose, ‘Niuspi’ a variant of Glosa.

The piece was called ‘U Trau’. It was written for two wind bands and a choir of nearly 200 international students.

I am happy to report back that the premiere on March 20, in Pieterskerk in Leiden was a great success.

Niuspi seemed to be embraced by the students who immediately took to creating short sentences and expressions (of a lighthearted nature) from the song text - and forming, according to Niuspi phonetic principles, additional words, some of which are now official Niuspi.

I still haven’t received a recording of the event, but there is a photo of the performance on my website http://www.vaiaata.com/u_trau.html along with the text and translation.

At http://www.vaiaata.com/niuspi_texts.html there’s a possible future song text - an extract from the Song of Solomon - and a letter I subsequently wrote to the participants in the AMIS event. There are other texts too but they need fine tuning!

Yesterday I had confirmation that ‘U Trau’ will be performed at the Blue Lake Summer Camp in Michigan in July 2005 by around 300 singers and instrumentalists of senior high-school and university level. And there is a strong possibility of a third performance in Illinois at around the same time.

I’m not sure where Niuspi will go from here. But I was so encouraged by the response of the performers and audience in Leiden that I’m sure I’ll be looking for any excuse to combine music and Niuspi on future occasions!

Thank you to those who sent their best wishes when I first announced the ‘U Trau’ project. I welcome your comments and will keep this list informed of future Niuspi developments.

Regards,

Chris

– Christopher Marshall - composer

vaiaata@…

http://www.vaiaata.com

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