We remember and label acts of extreme violence by the dates on which they occurred. Dates like September 11, 2001 (coordinated terrorist attacks on the US), and December 7, 1942 (Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor), are forever remembered because of shocking violence and the impact these events had on our country and the world. Many remember where they were and what they were doing when these events happened. Our Monday rehearsals for this project began on January 6—another date forever associated with violence (Capitol attack).
When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, the country was in shock. A few days after the shooting in Dallas, Leonard Bernstein addressed an audience at a fundraiser-turned-memorial in NYC at Madison Square Garden and said:
We musicians, like everyone else, are numb with sorrow at this murder, and with rage at the senselessness of the crime. But this sorrow and rage will not inflame us to seek retribution; rather they will inflame our art. Our music will never again be quite the same.
This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before. And with each note we will honor the spirit of John Kennedy, commemorate his courage, and reaffirm his faith in the Triumph of the Mind.
This spring, we are anticipating our collaboration with the Griffin Ballet Theatre and our performance of “The Armed Man” by Karl Jenkins (May 2 & 3 at the Griffin Auditorium). It is a powerful work that provides a strong artistic voice in a call to end violence and “ring in the thousand years of peace.” Experiencing “The Armed Man” is a full evening’s work, yet I found myself wishing to include other musical selections and other themes into our spring project. This became the inspiration for tonight’s concert, “Prelude: l’homme arme’” (“Prelude: The Armed Man”).
THE GROUND
“The Ground” is the final movement of a larger work by young Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo entitled “Sunrise Mass”. The title is meant to suggest a sense of arrival, “to have reached a kind of peace and grounded strength, after… so many different emotional landscapes” (–Gunilla Luboff, Publisher, Walton Music). The text is a mash-up, using fragments of the three final movements of the Mass Ordinary—the Sanctus, the Benedictus, and the Agnus Dei. This provides a three-verse “trinity,” ending with “dona nobis pacem” (“give us peace”).
STRING QUARTET NO. 11 IN F MINOR, OP. 95
Wen Beethoven composed his String Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95, he recognized that it was edgy. In a letter to his friend George Smart, he indicated that he did not want the piece performed in public but instead presented only to elite listeners who might understand the unconventional treatments of meter, development, and freedom of expression.
Beethoven was deeply affected when Napoleon invaded Vienna, and his music reflected the emotional stress and frustration Beethoven was feeling. Even as many of his wealthy patrons fled the city, Beethoven remained, complaining of the noisy bombings.
This Quartet is among the last of the “middle” quartets. It is relatively short and direct. The first movement performed tonight is less than 4 minutes in length and yet has so much to say.
FLANDERS FIELDS
On May 2, 1915, Canadian medical officer and poet John McRae wrote his famous “In Flanders Fields” after the death of his close friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. McRae recited prayers at the service for Helmer as his remains were lowered into the ground and marked with a wooden cross. While McRae continued his work that day, treating and bandaging the wounded, he would take breaks to sit on the back step of an ambulance to write the poem “that to this day relays the images of war, loss, love, and renewal” (–Linda Granfield). The war would continue for three more years.
The poem was also the inspiration for Moina Belle Michael, an educator from Good Hope, Georgia, who came up with the idea to make poppies a symbol honoring veterans of the first World War. Sara Freeland tells the story:
During the war, Michael volunteered with the National YMCA. It was while she was working for the war effort in New York that she was struck by a sudden inspiration.
A young soldier left a copy of Ladies Home Journal on her desk with a marked page containing Lt. Col. John McCrae’s famous poem “In Flanders Fields,” about the war’s devastation.
“The last verse transfixed me,” she wrote. “‘To you from failing hands we throw the Torch; be yours to hold ir high. If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Fields.'”
On Nov. 9, 1918 — two days before the armistice that ended World War I — she wrote her own reply to McCrae’s poem — entitled “We Shall Keep the Faith” — and decided “always to wear a red poppy of Flanders Fields as a sign of remembrance and emblem of ‘keeping the faith with all who died.'”
She left her office and scoured local flower shops in search of silk poppies to share with businessmen, veterans and soldiers.
Moina’s great nephew Tom Michael estimates that, during her lifetime and adjusting for inflation, she raised over $3 billion worldwide—funds that went almost exclusively to veterans. Moina retired from the University of Georgia in 1938 after 54 years as an educator. Thanks to her efforts, the poppy is now the international symbol of remembrance and support for all military veterans.
Flanders Fields, composed by Paul A. Aitken, won the ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) Raymond W. Brock Student Composition Award in 1999.
I WILL BE A CHILD OF PEACE
Based on a Shaker hymn, “I Will Be a Child of Peace” is beautiful, simple, and dramatic. The meter is unusual, with five beats per measure. Three repetitions of the same verse are presented first by the women, then by the men, and finally in 5-part mixed harmony.
In a world of increasing division and discord, this selection reminds us that we are called to be peacemakers and to seek righteousness. Each verse is an increasingly more urgent call to take that vow.
EREV SHEL SHOSHANIM
“Erev Shel Shoshanim,” or “Evening of Roses,” is subtitled “A Sensitive Portrait of the Israeli Desert… and Love.” The song has been recorded by many popular artists, including Harry Belafonte. Although the words are largely taken from the biblical “Song of Songs,” the original setting was created by Moshe Dor and Josef Hadar in 1956.
EVEN WHEN GOD IS SILENT
Recently, Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s Ambassador to the UN, shared a message that was written on a whiteboard in a bombed-out al-Awda Hospital room that was used to schedule surgeries. Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila wrote this message:
Whoever stays until the end will tell the story.
We did what we could.
Remember us.
He was killed in an airstrike on the hospital.
A similar message-left-to-be-discovered-later, the so-called “Inscription of Hope,” has been the inspiration for many who question God’s presence in times of violence, war, and death. Allied troops found the poem written on a wall of a secret space that was used to hide Jews from the Gestapo during World War II.
Michael Horvit composed “Even When God is Silent” on the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass, in November 1988. Horvit says, “It is one of the most poignant poems I know: an extraordinary testimony of faith under horrible circumstances.”
ADAGIO FOR STRINGS
When most people think of Barber’s Adagio for Strings, they recall the string orchestra version, performed by a large ensemble. These versions are frequently heard in movie soundtracks such as “Platoon” and “Lorenzo’s Oil” or the TV show “Outlander.” However, Barber’s Adagio for Strings was originally the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936 while he was spending a summer in Europe with Gian Carlo Menotti, an Italian composer and Barber’s partner since their student years at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Arturo Toscanini conducted the first performances of the orchestral version: in New York in 1938, and later in Europe and South America.
According to music theorist Matthew BaileyShea, the Adagio “features a deliberately archaic sound, with Renaissance-like polyphony and simple tertian harmonies” underlying a “chant-like melody”.
In 1967, Barber arranged the work for chorus, using the Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”) text from the Mass.
In 2004, listeners to the BBC Radio’s Today program voted Adagio for Strings the “saddest classical” work ever.
DONA NOBIS PACEM
The Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bachis considered his crowning achievement and one of the greatest choral-orchestral compositions of all time. The origins of the work can be traced to 1724 and Bach’s composition of a 6-part Sanctus for Christmas. It was not unusual for composer to re-use musical material in subsequent collections—cantatas, suites, concertos, or sonatas. While one might think that this would result in a work that is disjunct and pieced together, the B Minor Mass is remarkably balanced and deliberately, even miraculously crafted. From 1724 until 1749, the year before his death, Bach compiled composed and compiled various movements, keeping them in 4 folders to indicate which section of the Mass they belonged to. The work is monumental, nearly two hours of music, scored for two SATB choirs, and what would be considered an extravagant Baroque orchestra, with extra strings and extra winds.
Like “The Ground” from Geilo’s Sunrise Mass, the “Dona Nobis Pacem” sung tonight is the final movement of the Bach Mass in B Minor. The movement is only 46-measures long, and the translation is simply three words: “Give us peace.”
MYR, ZARAZ
Taking simplicity one step further, the Ukrainian lament “Myr, Zaraz” has only two words, translated “Peace, Now.” Composer Joan Szymko writes in her 2022 introduction to this piece:
Ukraine’s struggle is our struggle. Democracy must prevail over autocracy. […] it was my hope to create a worthy vessel for singer and listener to hold grief and to feel solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine, and with those suffering anywhere in the world where violence dominates human discourse.
THE PARTING GLASS (Irish) toast for fallen comrades
The Parting Glass is a Scottish folk song that is also very popular in Ireland. It is said that “The Parting Glass” was the most famous farewell song in Scotland until Robert Burns wrote “Auld Lang Syne.” The “parting glass” or “stirrup cup” was the final hospitality offered to a departing guest. Once they had mounted, they were presented one final drink to fortify them for their travels. The text includes a toast recalling fallen comrades and bidding them “Good night, and joy be with you all.”
SKYE BOAT SONG
The Skye Boat song is also very popular. A Scottish folk song with Gaelic roots, the original 18th century text was widely replaced with a 19th century text by Robert Louis Stevenson. The text of the song gives an account of how Bonnie Prince Charlie, disguised as a serving maid, escaped in a small boat after the defeat of his Jacobite rising of 1745. The lilting melody has been treated like a lullaby or a slow waltz in cover versions by popular artists such as Paul Robeson, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, Roger Whittaker, Tori Amos, and others. The most haunting line refers to the individual trauma and loss of innocence after serving in a war: “All that was good, all that was fair, all that was me is gone.”
ALBINONI ADAGIO
“Adagio in G minor for strings and organ” is a neo-Baroque composition often misattributed to the 18th-century Venetian composer Tomaso Albinoni. In fact the work was composed by a 20th-century musicologist and Albinoni biographer named Remo Giazotto. The piece was purportedly based on the discovery of a bass line by Albinoni in a manuscript fragment.
The story of the composition’s origin is fascinating enough, but a better story about the work emerged from events in the early 1990’s in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. The capital city was under siege, and mortar fire and sniper attacks were common in the city square. On one terrible afternoon, 22 people were killed while waiting in a bread line. Cellist Vedram Smailovic responded to the attack by dressing up in full concert attire and performing for 22 consecutive days amidst the rubble at the site of the attack. His courage and artistic dedication became legendary, and books and movies were produced that romanticized the story even further. One can hardly imagine a more stunning musical response to violence than bringing lament to the center of the bullseye, the heart of the crosshairs.
The piece he famously played was the “Albinoni Adagio.”
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE
In his homily “The Power of Love” delivered at the 2018 Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Episcopalian Bishop Michael Curry punctuated his vision of a loving world this way:
That’s what love is. Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world.
“If you don’t believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way.” […]
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.
When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.
When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.
“Down by the Riverside” is a barnstorming American song, published in 1918 in Plantation Melodies: A collection of Modern, Popular, and Old-Time Negro Songs of the Southland. It was sung in a variety of styles and in a variety of places: as a work song, a marching song, or a southern gospel church song.
The song develops dramatically and transformatively; after laying down burdens and weapons, the singer puts on traveling shoes, a white robe, and, finally, a starry crown. The final verse is euphoric, with a repeated descant of “Glory, Hallelujah!”
ALL MY TRIALS
There is a calm steadiness in the gospel song, “All My Trials.” It is a testament to perseverance and the faith that release from the current struggle is inevitable—it’s coming soon. The song began as a pre-Civil War Southern American gospel song. From there it was carried to the Bahamas where it became a lullaby. The lyrics suggest a dying mother singing to her child. The bittersweet notion of death being a sweet, inevitable release resonated with folk artists associated with the roots revival. Joan Baez released a version of All My Trials in 1960.
–Dr. Stephen J. Mulder, Artistic Director
