Soon...too soon

The time is flying, and I can't really understand that it is November already. What does it all mean? Well, let me tell you:
*My exams are coming closer; which means: I will have no life for the next month. This happens EVERY TIME. I tell myself in the beginning of the semester to be a good student, read properly throughout the whole semester, make notes and hope for the best. It's only the latter I'm good at; because I read like a maniac the last month before my exam, and cross my fingers. I have so far been rather lucky, and passed all my exams...but how long will it last with such a tactic?
I'm gonna mix up everything! Put the definition about diaspora and identity into the exam where I should be answering stuff about new age and folklore...

But even if the days are passing by, and the evenings get darker faster and faster, some things are amazingly great at the moment. Because it isn't just my exams that are closing up; also the Christmas concert with Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Orchestra and students from the Grieg Academy. The plan was to sing "Belshazzar's Feast" by William Walton, but when it proved to hard because of the lack of three important things; men, brass and money, the orchestra decided for something else that has turned out to be addictive:
"Dona Nobis Pacem" by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Seriously, I can't stop humming to it!
Much of the text is actually poems by Walt Whitman (1819-1892); a poet I'd wish more people could appreciate. His "Beat! Beat! Drums!" gets a life of it's own through the music of Vaughan Williams. It strokes, caresses you, before it attacks with a terrible force.
This cantata (as it is being called) was written in 1936, and one can hear the war in the background. The reason for this was that Vaughan Williams had experienced the horror of the First World War, when he partly worked as a stretcher bearer in the trenches in France.
But "Dona Nobis Pacem" also reflects a fear that such a gruesome thing could happen again, and a hope that it won't.
But as we know....it did.
It's divided into 6 parts (well, actually 5, but one often separates the last part which consist of a quote from a speech by John Bright, written trying to prevent the Crimean War and a mixture of Bible-passages)
I remember when I listened through it for the first time, a feeling of peace struck me. I think this happened because of how the piece is built:

Dona Nobis Pacem: it starts with a soprano-soloist....softly...softly...repeating the words "Dona Nobis Pacem", which means "Grant us peace"...she's pleading...the choir is responding is a most amazing way. The frustration and fear are building itself up and the sound is shattered by the next movement....

"Beat! Beat! Drums! Blow, bugles! Blow!: This can be resembled with the "Dies Irae" part in Verdi's Requiem. It tears out everything peaceful and leaves both the singer and the listener with a feeling of shock, fear and anxiety. Here we encounter the  brilliance of Walt Whitman for the first time, and even when it gets unpleasant he manage to drag us back into the horror of the war. We cannot look away. He portrays the civilians meeting with the war, with its wild and illogical being. And when it is over, one can barely breath

Beat! beat! drums! -- blow! bugles! blow!

Make no parley -- stop for no expostulation,

Mind not the timid -- mind not the weeper or prayer,

Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,

Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties,

Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,

So strong you thump O terrible drums -- so loud you bugles blow.

"Reconciliation" - This movement works as the perfect opposition of what we've just heard. It gives me the impression of something magical, and a friend told me that when he heard this part it reminded him of the soundtrack from LOTR. It is very melodic, and tender. One can feel the moonlight through the words and the music, and it gives the listener a chance to relax. In this movement one will hear both the baritone-soloist and the soprano; underlining the theme of tranquility.

Word over all, beautiful as the sky,

Beautiful that war and all its deeds of carnage must in time be utterly lost,

That the hands of the sisters Death and Night incessantly softly wash again

and ever again, this soiled world;

 

"Dirge for 2 veterans": This movement tends to stick in the memory of those who hear it. It's a funeral-march over father and son who fell together in the war (I would bet he was talking about the Civil War, but the motive is everlasting). Even if it should be sad, one can hear the drums pounding in the background together with the trumpets calling new men to the war:

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they're flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

 

Though, one has to take into account that this movement was actually written already in 1914 at the outbreak of a war that would shatter Europe for the next 4 years. But even if it is portraying a tragic event, it still clings to the hope in the last "verse":

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

The last movement starts with this quote: "The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land, you may almost hear the beating of his wings.". A mighty mental image; isn't it?

It continues like this: 

"There is no one, as when the first-born were slain of old, to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side-posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on; he takes his victims from the castle of the noble, the mansion of the wealthy, and the cottage of the poor and lowly"

This is a clear reference  to the Angel of Death in the Old Testament, that wandered through Egypt and killed all the firstborn. But against this gloomy image of death, both the choir and the soprano comes back with the pleading and desperate "Dona Nobis Pacem"
The next part is an interesting compilation of Bible-quotes; mostly from the Book of Jeremiah. Though, one can always here the echo of the "Dona Nobis Pacem" in the background.
 Here's the parts that leaves the strongest mark in my soul:

"The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein."

Jeremiah 8:16

And the magic lingers in the room after the somber voice of the soprano-soloist has sung her last note...the music just slowly fades away.
That's the trademark of good, music when it leaves something in your soul and heart, that cannot be erased.

 

Enjoy!