'The interruption of it, it hurts': reviving the music of the Australian lost at the Somme

Detailed summary

Rarely heard virtuosic music set for Canberra revival.

In the muddy and bloody trenches of the Western Front, an Australian was hard at work composing music in his mind.

Frederick Septimus Kelly was born in Sydney, a natural musician and sportsman. Educated at Eton, Oxford and Frankfurt, Kelly competed in the gold medal-winning 1908 Olympic Games rowing eight. He enlisted with the Royal Naval Division in September 1914.

There is the Elegy he wrote down on the troop carrier back from Gallipoli, on manuscript paper he had managed to buy in Egypt. It had been working through his mind far longer.

But few have heard Kelly's virtuosic piano music. He was killed in the Battle of the Somme aged 35 on November 13, 1916, joining a generation of young scholars and artists who perished in World War I. There were three hours of music in his head he never wrote down.

Now Kelly's music will be performed, 110 years on, at a concert in Canberra, including an unfinished piece that just runs out. Kelly never finished putting it on paper.

"In a concert, that feels quite violent, because he was so used to things just flowing. ... The interruption of it, it hurts," musician Christopher Latham said.

Mr Latham has spent two decades working to secure the legacy of the composer he says is Australia's answer to Chopin, the Polish virtuoso pianist and composer.

"I would like him to become part of our shared story. I think culture is a very unifying idea. And if Kelly is part of that and it's played at November 11th, there will be a place that his music will fit. And that's a good thing," said Mr Latham, an artist-in-residence at the Australian War Memorial.

"And we should value our own culture because it's a sign of cultural confidence. We should be confident enough in ourselves to know that this is ours. And it is also good."

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Canberra Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.