Somme100Film: The Battle of the Somme

Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra will be playing the score for one of the most successful British films made as part of Somme100Film, an international project marking the anniversary of the Battle of Somme.

This project will bring together 100 live orchestral performances of the iconic 1916 film The Battle of the Somme with composer Laura Rossi’s acclaimed score, as commissioned by the Imperial War Museums (IWM) as part of the First World War Centenary Partnership to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

On Sunday 13 November at St David’s Hall, the Cardiff University Symphony Orchestra will join their musical peers from all around the world by performing the only rendition of the highly acclaimed score for this project in Wales.

The Battle of the Somme, made by British cinematographers Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, gave its 1916 audience an unprecedented insight into the realities of trench warfare, controversially including the depiction of dead and wounded soldiers. The film’s importance was recognised in 2005 by its formal inscription in the UNESCO ‘Memory of the World’ register – the first British document of any kind to be included.

Laura Rossi’s score was commissioned to mark the 90th anniversary of The Battle of the Somme as a soundtrack for the digitally restored film.  The re-mastered film was screened for the 90th anniversary of the Battle to a full house at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with the premiere of Laura’s score, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and received a five star review in The Times.

Somme100Film: The Battle of the Somme, is one of the many collaborative public events being hosted by the School of Music as part of the AHRC-funded project 'Commemorating World War I: Conflict and Creativity', which investigates how both war and the commemoration of war are enacted in music, in prose, in verse, and in visual images.

Bookings for the event can be made here.