Frank Robinson: ANZAC Everyman

Three letters from Frank to his sister have been set to music through an ANZAC Centenary grant (2015) by Diana Blom and audio excerpts of the music, plus readings of the letters, are part of the multi-media publication. The iBook investigates Frank's experience as one of probably many other young men who enlisted, because friends and relatives enlisted, went to Gallipoli and was killed within a few days of arriving. Many books have been written about the experiences of WW1 soldiers through diaries, biography and autobiography. However, Frank Robinson" ANZAC Everyman is one of a small number of multimedia i-Books which document, while telling in story form, the life and war experience of one WW1 ANZAC. In 2013 the Australian Federal Government launched the Anzac Centenary Local Grants Program to support projects which commemorate the 1st World War. (http://www.anzaccentenary.gov.au/grants/). The project, War Letters, in which letters from the First World War are set to music by four established Australian classical composers, received funding for two concerts on 7th and 10th November, 2015" one concert for the public, the other for schools" both given in the Ku-ring-gai Town Hall in the Bradfield Electorate. The four newly composed works by Elliott Gyger, Nicole Murphy, Larry Sitsky and Diana Blom were performed by Australian contemporary classical music ensemble, Halcyon, and a recording of the program has been released by Wirripang Pty. Ltd. The War Letters project was designed to commemorate the service and sacrifice of servicemen and women in the First World War during the ANZAC centenary through the four composers' different musical settings of letters from the 1st World War. In doing so it reminds us of the continual service of those in the forces in past and current conflicts.