in those years, Memorial Day was still celebrated on the anniversary of the first Decoration of graves, both Union and Confederate, in Columbus MS in 1868.
Yet perhaps the most appropriate statement on war took place in another country, one untouched by our great fraternal conflict.
Here is the beginning:
And yet that setting of the traditional Latin text does not fully explain why this is a great masterpiece. Consider what comes next:
Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem," combining the text of the Latin Requiem Mass with 9 poems by British poet Wilfred Owen, who died during the Great War. It was written for the dedication of Coventry Cathedral, that is, the replacement for the original 14th Century structure destroyed by German bombers on November 14, 1940, in a raid the British knew was coming - yet they did nothing to evacuate the city because they did not want the Germans to know they had broken their codes.
Owen was a company commander killed one week before Armistice in 1918.
Britten was anti-war, and used his commission to make a powerful statement about the nature of war, even as he honored those who served - the work is dedicated to four men, friends of Britten and his long-time companion tenor Peter Pears, who served, several of whom died during World War II, one of whom having participated in D-Day committed suicide in 1959.
The premier of the work 5 decades ago included three great artists from the major European combatants - it was a way to try to heal the divisions of war. Pears was the British representative, the tenor who sang that first Owen poem. The Baritone was German Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who served in the Wehrmacht. The soprano was Russian Galina Vischnevskaia, whose husband Mistislav Rostropovich conducts the the opening Requiem Aeternam with which this post begins.
This magnificent piece of music was most appropriate for the dedication of the new cathedral, which was built adjacent to the ruins of the original structure, those ruins deliberately left standing as a reminder. Leaves on the Current and I remember clearly visiting the site in 1980, and being incredibly moved. You can get some sense of the power of place by exploring the pictures at this Google Images search
But I am a musician by background, and as a result of this work, which premiered my junior year of high school, by the time I had graduated from high school I had become - how shall I say, enchanted, transfixed? - not only by the music but by the powerful poetry of Owen.
You can read the complete text for the Requiem, Latin and Owen.
Here is that first poem:
What passing bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, --
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them at all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Throughout the work, Britten combines the Latin text with Owen in powerful ways. For example, during the Dies Irae - Day of Wrath - a Latin text on judgment, there are multiple selections from Owen, including this text:
Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death:
Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,-
Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,-
Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe.
He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed
Shrapnel. We chorused when he sang aloft;
We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.
Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier's paid to kick against his powers.
We laughed, knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars; when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death - for Life; not men - for flags.
... now listen:
The Libera Me is a masterful combination of Latin text, Owen words, and Britten's music.
If you want to see the words, refer to the text through the link I have already provided.
I will end this post with three clips, covering that final section of the work. If you have time ( and you will need more than 20 minutes), stop what else you are doing and simply listen.
Or if you have less time than that, but can spare a bit more than 5 minutes, simply listen to the final clip, with the words "Let us sleep now."
Before I turn to those clips, I will offer first these few words of my own -
I honor those who serve and die, even if their leaders have led them into pointless and destructive conflicts. The blame is not on the individual soldiers.
War is always evil, even if it be to protect us from or prevent an even greater evil.
We need our artists - poets and musicians, novelists and dramatists - to remind us what we should already know, especially in our own day of seemingly endless conflict, that there are better ways of interacting, among people and peoples, among nations and cultures.
Fifty years ago today, on what was then coincidentally the occasion of our own Memorial Day, a powerful indictment of war and its consequences, a great masterpiece, an attempt at healing the damage soul, made its first public appearance.
It seems fitting that we remember.
Peace.