Thought to be a world first, farmers hope a classical concert – featuring Chook Symphony No 1 – will benefit their flocks
On a grey Friday morning at a Hawke’s Bay farm, members of New Zealand’s symphony orchestra dressed in their black finery and stood in the dewy grass to premiere their latest composition in front of a large, well-plumed crowd.
The music contained many hallmarks of traditional baroque music, but as it began, the instruments began to screech with sounds more commonly heard in coops than in the hallowed stalls of an auditorium.