“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”
― Henry David Thoreau
This and every Memorial Day, we remember our brothers and sisters who lost their lives while serving in the armed forces during times of war. Composers throughout history have often been affected by such loss and have expressed their feelings the best way they know how.
Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin honors the friends he lost in battle. Strauss’ Metamorphosen is a post-war dirge that is tumultuous and emotional. Vaughan Williams’ elegiac Pastoral Symphony is inspired by the French countryside where he drove an ambulance for the British Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I. Thus, the spirits of so many of these brave men and women are immortalized through this music.
Memorial Day Selections
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- Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
- Maurice Ravel - Le Tombeau de Couperin
- Frederic Chopin - Etude: Op. 10 No. 12
- Karl Jenkins - The Armed Man: Benedictus
- Aaron Copland - Fanfare for the Common Man
- Gustav Holst - Venus, The Bringer of Peace
- Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”
- Richard Strauss - Metamorphosen
- Morton Gould - American Salute
- Ralph Vaughan WIlliams - Symphony No. 3
- William Grant Still - In Memoriam
- George Butterworth - The Banks of Green Willow
- John Williams - Hymn to the Fallen
