Description
This is a secular oratorio-type work, for baritone solo, SATB chorus and orchestra, written to commemorate the centenary of World War 1. The libretto is made up of poems by war poets such as Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Alan Seeger, John McCrae and Isaac Rosenberg, as well as the later novelist and poet, Herman Hesse. The separate sections of the work are interspersed with spoken passages for a narrator, the text of which comes from the writings of soldiers who fought and died in the conflict.
The premiere was very successfully performed in Ripon Cathedral, North Yorkshire, by the Ripon Choral Society under the direction of John Dunford on Saturday 15th November 2014 as the first in a 4-year series of WW1 commemorative concerts.
