“The ethereal sound of children’s voices . . . whose innocent, pure sonorities set them apart from human experience.”
On March 17, 19 and 20, 1966, I was one of the angelic voices performing in Benjamin Britton’s “War Requiem,” sitting in a hallway at the very back of the balcony in Cleveland’s legendary Severance Hall.
Auditions were brutal for me, the reason why I never pursued voice beyond that. But it was a fun experience. Carpooling after school to Mercer Elementary–we practiced for months through the winter. I remember the snow-crusted streets. Rehearsals in magnificent Severance Hall. Vividly, I remember traipsing in a line through a Robert Shaw Chorale’s rehearsal. It was a very small space. They though we were darling.
There was a lot of waiting time between the children’s’ parts and of course we had to be completely silent. I was reading The Caine Mutiny. I still think of the book whenever I eat strawberries.
I also remember the thrill of the standing ovation as we made our way to the stage. And the bravos’!
The first line, ingrained in memory:
“Te de chet e noose, e noose” is how it sounded:)
Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion (Songs of praise are due to Thee, God, in Zion)
Benjamin Britten composed his “Was Requiem in 1961 for the consecration of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Coventry, England. The medieval cathedral–and most of the city– had been destroyed in a 1940 German bombing raid.
After the war, St. Michael’s was rebuilt. To celebrate, there was an arts festival in 1962, a symbol of reconciliation and national celebration.
The War Requiem was a public statement of Britten’s anti-war convictions. The piece was also meant to be a warning to future generations of the senselessness of taking up arms against fellow men. The work received immediate critical acclaim and was hailed as a masterpiece. “I hope it will make people think a bit,” Britten reflected.
Sigh.
In War Requiem, within the context of the Latin Mass for the Dead, Benjamin Britten incorporated poetry of the First World War by poet Wilfred Owens (1893–1918), who was killed in action just one week before the Armistice. Britten described Owens as ‘by far our greatest war poet, and one of the most original poets of the century.’
Futility
Move him into the sun –
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know …
War Requiem allowed Britten to express his pacifist beliefs. He offered War Requiem as ‘an act of reparation.’
Its first performance was in May, 1962, in Coventry Cathedral. It became an anthem of outrage against war, conflict, and violence. Consider the time: There was mounting outrage against atrocities unfolding in Vietnam.
Peter Pears, Britten’s partner, remarked: ‘It isn’t the end, we haven’t escaped, we must still think about it, we are not allowed to end in a peaceful dream.’
A disturbing thought in a world that still needs
warnings from War Requiems and poets.
