A MUSICAL memorial to the victims of a docks disaster in Newport attracted two world-class performers for its world premiere - thanks to the South Wales Argus.

A Newport Elegy by composer Michael Elliott will receive its first performance later this month at a concert by the city’s Priory Singers and the Cann twins, the internationally-acclaimed pianists.

Mr Elliott, an 84-year-old former Gwent county librarian who also studied at the Royal Academy of Music under famous composer Lennox Berkeley, wrote the choral work after discovering a marker to the disaster in St Woolos Cemetery.

A feature in this newspaper about his project last May led to the work being taken up by the Priory's musical director, Stephen Benavente, and the Canns - Claire and Antoinette - who have given first performances of several Elliott works.

In July 1909, men working on the excavation of a docks extension were overtaken by the incoming tide and 39 perished in a glutinous soup of mud and sea water.

The cemetery obelisk which caught Mr Elliott's eye was created for the extension engineers, Easton, Gibb and Son, of Scotland, and bears a few stanzas of anonymous poetry as a meditation on the incident and a dedication to the men who drowned.

"I didn't know about the incident but read about it in the South Wales Argus of the time," Mr Elliott said. "The words say it all so I have set them for choir with piano accompaniment. I have also composed an elegiac prelude for piano to begin the piece."

The work is cast as a modified funeral march and also depicts the incoming tide; it spelled doom for the men working beneath the huge wooden lock supports which were rapidly undermined before they collapsed.

"I thought that was apt and it's the recurring theme that comes in and out," Mr Elliott explained. "I've tried to change the mood to suit the words. At the end it's very peaceful because for those men it was all over."

Claire Cann said: "This is a most dramatic and poignant work. The opening captures the feeling of desolation in the community as those left come to terms with the loss of so many of their friends and family."

Antoinette Cann said A Newport Elegy was full of Mr Elliott's exquisite lyricism.

"The piece is superbly crafted and holds listeners in rapt attention, taking them through the journey from the starkness of death to the joy of heaven," she said.

"Michael’s faith as a Christian is evident throughout."

Mr Benavente said the more the choir had worked on the piece the more it revealed its quality. "We have been rehearsing it for about five weeks and I think we have mastered most of the notes," he said. "As we always rehearse without a keyboard it will be interesting to hear the finished article. It 's exciting to perform a new work."

The concert will also feature the Malpas Church Junior School Choir, the Canns in piano music by Michael Elliott, as well as choral and piano music by Tippett (Five Negro Spirituals), Borodin, Johann Strauss, Ravel and Stanford.

The concert takes place at St John the Baptist Church, Risca Road, Newport, on April 23 at 7.30pm.

Tickets can be bought online from www.priorysingers.com, at the door or by phoning Mr Benavente on 01633 420183.