Classical Music Reviews
Return to the Requiem Index
Articles from Sequence II:
MAHLER Kindertotenlieder
GÓRECKI Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
PENDERECKI A Polish Requiem. The Dream of Jacob
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For my enemy is dead, a man as divine as myself is dead.
WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)
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Cantata for soprano and baritone soli, chorus and orchestra
to words from Walt Whitman, Wilfred Owen and the Bible.
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
An inktroduction
by Chia Han-Leon
Dona nobis pacem. The words mean simply, "grant us peace". Something which so many of us want, but somehow, strangely, the world refuses to give. How it is we yearn for peace in this day and age; but how do we compare to those who lived, fought, and died in the wars? In the middle of the 1930s, the world was poised again on the brink of war. A war which we now of course write down in history as words and pictures; while those who were there, nursing memories now, pass into history one by one. Is peace derived only by forgetting?
Memories cannot be transferred across minds; poetry, powerful as it is, remain words imprisoned by language. Although it was composed and performed before the War, Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem spoke across time, warning of the destruction, ignored; and thus ultimately also to commemorate the destroyed. In our time now, more powerful than images, more expressive than words alone, the music - with the words; how beautiful they become - becomes a great humanitarian song, beseeching the same messages, warning the same warnings, commemorating death eternally recurring, but also life eternally surviving.
The second movement is a violent depiction of war, a furious setting of Whitman's "Beat! beat! drums!" for choir, heralded by volleys of brass and rattling percussion. Schools, churches, brides, farmers, sleepers, old men and children are in turn swept aside by the warring sounds.
The heart of the work, in my opinion, is the third movement. As Beat! beat! drums peeters out, the drums slow down into the lapping, tranquil rhythms of Reconciliation. This heartwrenching poem, also by Whitman, is matched in perfect spirit by the sensously beautiful setting by Vaughan Williams, in the grand tradition of melancholic English song, sung by the commanding yet gentle voice of the baritone:
Whitman's long lines are not easy to set to music, and here they are, perfectly flowing in this music. Heartwrenching dissonances in this song tear at the words with almost intolerable beauty - and truth; such wretchedness and compassion, shocking carnage against shining humanity. The choir washes into the orchestral soundscape like an ocean of calm, faithfully depicting the sisters Death and Night, incessantly, softly, washing - again and ever again - this... soiled... world...
As the soldier left alive bids his enemy - fellow human being - farewell, the soprano again intones in their behalf, dona nobis pacem. The music moves on to the Dirge for Two Veterans. The drums return, now not with the march of war, but a funeral procession; not a funeral to mourn within, but a song of hope. Whitman describes two veterans, son and father, "dropped together, /And the double grave awaits them":
In the eastern sky up-buoying,
O strong dead-march you please me!
The fifth movement begins with the famous lines by John Bright: "The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land..."; darkness seeps through the music, first quietly then with a dramatic interjection of "Dona nobis pacem" - Vaughan Williams creates an atmosphere of anxiety and expectation; one is left wondering in a kind of limbo - will the war ever end? Will we find peace? "We looked for peace, but no good came... The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved..."
But the final message of the composer is optimistic. The conclusion of the cantata begins with an invocation by the baritone, beseeching man to fear not, to receive peace on earth. Messages of consolation, peace and togetherness from the Bible are joined together in celebration as the orchestra is brightened with the sounds of flutes, tuned percussion, brilliant brass and choral festivity - the effect is Christmassy and a welcome finale against the previous movements. Nevertheless, we are not allowed to forget what has transpired - war - as the soprano leads the serene final pages: as in the beginning: Dona nobis pacem. Grant us peace.
In the 1930s, before the Second World War (1939-1945), the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams compiled a text from the Bible, the famous American 19th century poet, Walt Whitman, and the War Poet Wilfred Owen. With all this was born surely one of the great masterpieces of (anti-)war music, the title which belongs to the Mass.
The 35-minute cantata holds in its core the angelic cry of "Dona nobis pacem" from the soprano, repeated at intervals. From the beginning, she is the first to appear, soaring high and distant, beseeching peace against a choir alternatively gloomy with war, then echoing in serenity.
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;
For my enemy is dead, a man as divine as myself is dead,
I look where he lies white-faced and still in the coffin - I draw near,
Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.
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.
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illuminated,
'Tis some mother's large transparent face,
In heaven brighter glowing.
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
Although it starts at a moderate level, the choir channels the words into a collossal paean of hope, before delivering a final hymn of peace, farewell and love. The drums and brass have transformed into instruments of noble commemoration; the strings and harp creating a serene field over which the choir fill with the surprisingly tender words.
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Dona nobis pacem.
Judith Howarth sop. Thomas Allen bar. Corydon Singers and Orchestra conducted by Matthew Best. Recorded June 1993. HYPERION Records CDA66655. [xx:xx] full-price. Coupled with Four Hymns, Toward the Unknown Region. O Clap Your Hands and Lord, Thou hast been our Refuge. The rather distant recording here is its main fault; it does not capture as much detail as the recordings below. Nevertheless, this is a very powerful reading worth one's investment. The shining light of Judith Howarth is superceded only by the humane and heartwarming singing of Thomas Allen. His rendition of "Reconciliation" is by far the most moving I've ever heard. The choir sings with great beauty, very moving in the Dirge for Two Veterans. The orchestra sounds a little small, but plays well, capturing with great beauty the atmosphere of "Reconciliation" and the "Dirge for Two Veterans". |
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Dona nobis pacem.
Yvonne Kenny sop. Bryn Terfel bar. London Symphony Chorus & Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox. Recorded March 1992. EMI Classics CDC7 54788-2. [72:58] full-price. Coupled with Sancta Civitas.
I bought this actually because of the presence of the popular baritone Bryn Terfel, but in fact found his singing too self-indulgent and self-conscious to the words, lacking both poignancy and humility. Terfel's emphasis on the consonants is very distracting ("DDdddTHHHis... soiled world..."); his heroic voice is compelling in the final movement, except where he overdramatises.
Richard Hickox's conducting is extremely fine, shaping the lines with great flow and beauty. The star of the recording is the combined London Symphony Choir and Orchestra, producing a soundscape of startling subtlety, and brass-rattling conviction for Vaughan William's masterly orchestration, backed up by EMI's transparent sound. The words of the choir are surprisingly distinguishable and beautifully delivered. Australian soprano Yvonne Kenny makes a simple and effective representative for the "Dona nobis pacem".
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Dona nobis pacem.
Edith Wiens sop. Brian Raynor Cook bar. London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson. Recorded January 1988. CHANDOS CHAN 8590 [56:36] full-price. Coupled with Five Mystical Songs. The oldest recording in this survey, but good sound nonetheless, á là Chandos, matching the EMI recording. The London Philharmonic forces also respond to their conductor Bryden Thomson with impressive conviction - the percussion section really strike their personality here. The shifts of dynamic level achieved in this recording are very well-executed. Occasionally the lines are played/sung too straight, and this is the main detraction against an otherwise serviceable performance. Baritone Brian Rayner Cook has a younger voice here, not as moving as Thomas Allen (Hyperion) but not as distracting as Terfel (EMI). |
567: 9.9.1999. up.13.9.1999 ©Chia Han-Leon