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Michael Stephenson: Three Owen Poems I. Dulce Et Decorum Est
In 2003 a voice workshop, instigated by New Music Brighton, introduced me to the soprano, Debbie Bridge. I decided to compose music for the famous Wilfred Owen poem ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. Owen has been one of my favourite Great War poets alongside, of course, Siegfried Sassoon. The resulting piece was premiered by Debbie in February 2004, with piano accompaniment by Glen Capra in an NMB concert in Brighton. Then in May of that year a Brighton Festival Fringe concert called New Music Day, held at Brighton College, gave me the opportunity to compose for another Owen poem, ‘Cramped In That Funnelled Hole’, which I set to electronic backing with piano and cello accompaniment (Ric Graebner and Peter Copley). Again this song was written specially for Debbie. A year later I completed the set for Debbie by taking a relatively little-known Wilfred Owen poem ‘I Saw His Round Mouth’s Crimson’. This was very movingly performed by Debbie in a Brighton Festival Fringe concert with accompaniment by clarinettist, Steve Dummer.
The choice of soprano to sing what is essentially a soldier’s tale may seem unusual but I felt that a female voice lent tenderness and poignancy to the hard, harsh words. It is only at the end that this female voice of compassion becomes filled with anger and bitterness when she exposes ‘the old lie: it is sweet and honourable to die for one’s country’. The piano accompaniment has its own gently lurching rhythm, at one point echoing the jolting action of the wagon bearing the dead.
lyrics
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime. . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori
New Music Brighton (NMB) is an association of composers who live or work in the Sussex area. The main purpose is to put on
concerts of our members' works and to promote an interest in new music in the region. We also produce compilation CDs of our composers work. NMB is supported by Brighton & Hove City Council and our increasing membership is now over 40 strong....more
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