Ruined House / A piece for the Violin and the Piano

This performance was a premiere at St Andrews, Wellington, on the 6th May 2023. Violinist is Mark Menzies, and the pianist is @liamfureymusic . ’Ruined House’ won an Asilence NZSM Composers Competition in 2022 and was signed by @hilaryhahnvideos . These days, all music that I write is about one thing. It is a war in Ukraine. It hurts a lot and stays deeply in my mind. In the piece ‘Ruined House’, I used the old Ukrainian ritual lamentation for a dead person. In the original recording, it was about a mother. Ethnomusicologists find it difficult to get these recordings, because people in the villages, who still know the traditional cries, on the interviews do not want to sing them. These lamentations are very intimal and emotional, and often the singer really starts crying doing this. Who wants to wipe their tears on the interview? That is why this topic is under researched, and the recordings are rare. I am collecting samples of folklore. This time, when I was working