Composer’s pride at performance

T was the box-office blockbuster of its time.

When the Battle of the Somme film opened in 34 London cinemas on August 21, 1916, it caused a sensation, with an estimated one million watching it in the first week and 20 million by week six.

Up until then, the British public had been protected from the actual horrors of the Western Front.

It’s true they were under no illusions that what was going on was shocking, with the ever growing newspaper columns of war dead bearing testament to that.

Yet they could only imagine just how terrible a place it was – until August 1916 and the release of the 74-minute film captured by the government’s official cameramen, Geoffrey Malins and John B McDowell.

It captured all of the events in northern France, from the initial bombardment of German lines from June 25, the first day of the Somme offensive on July 1 and then the subsequent aftermath.

But in order to bring this silent picture even more dramatically to life, it required music.

No record exists of the music played at the time, but in 2006 British composer Laura Rossi was commissioned to write a score to mark the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme as soundtrack to the digitally-restored film.

And to mark its century, a Battle of Somme Centenary Tour got under way at Thiepval on the Somme on July 1, 2016, with 100 live orchestral performances of the Imperial War Museum film being staged over the next 12 months.

Huddersfield Town Hall has just had the honour of staging performance number 57, with Mayor of Kirklees Clr Jim Dodds among those in the audience to help boost his chosen charity, The Royal British Legion, who benefited from the proceeds raised on the night.

In order to be chosen and in order to do the film justice, it clearly needed an orchestra good Event: Artist: Venue: Review: Rating: enough to take on what Rossi herself has admitted is not an easy piece of music.

Musica Youth Orchestra (MYO), under the umbrella of Kirklees Music School, demonstrated they were more than up to the task. To be honest, they were wonderful.

It couldn’t have been easy getting the essential timing between the music and film absolutely right, which they most certainly did under the steadying hand of MYO Musical Director Thom