Work Overview
At the beginning of the year, disaster struck on every continent.
Fascism, and their fellow travellers, triumphed everywhere. The
Japanese army had captured impregnable Singapore and almost every
country and island in the Pacific. German troops were at the
gates of Moscow, and in Africa the German army was almost in
Egypt. In the high seas, German U-boats roamed at will almost
unmolested. Civilisation had never been in more
dire peril.
Then, almost miraculously, the situation changed. A naval battle
in the Pacific blunted the Japanese. The Russians won the Battle
of Stalingrad, and in Africa, at the Battle of El Alamein, the
German army was defeated. In the Atlantic Ocean the U-boat menace
was gradually being overcome. The air raids on Britain almost
ceased.
The peoples of the world who valued freedom breathed sighs of
relief, for although much toil lay ahead, the tide had turned.
Civilisation was, for the moment secure.
The music of this work does not mirror any particular event of
that period, more the emotion and thoughts, sadness and relief of
the people involved in that year, arguably, the most decisive
year in history of mankind. It is to a certain extent
autobiographical, from the distant memories of a very small boy
growing up.
Work Details
Year: 1987
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in C, 2 tenor trombones, bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (4 players), harp, strings.
Duration: 25 min.
Revised 2015
Subjects
- In the form/style of: Symphonies
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