In this week’s MfE Monday we take a moment to pause and reflect on the sacrifices made by brave servicemen and women.
Classic FM has produced a list of reflective pieces to mark Remembrance Day: from the mournful cry of the solo bugle in The Last Post, to Butterworth’s bucolic The Banks of Green Willow. Sadly Butterworth died just two years after composing The Banks of Green Willow during the Battle of the Somme, at the age of just 31. Other notable musicians who served in the First World War include Butterworth’s close friend Ralph Vaughan-Williams who upon the outbreak of war abandoned all composition for the duration of the conflict and enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Vaughan Williams generally dislike musical associations being made with his works, but his Pastoral Symphony and Dona Nobis Pacem are usually regarded as his musical responses to the war.
Maurice Ravel, who didn’t weigh enough to serve in the French Military, found a way around regulations by joining the medical unit. After the war, he wrote Le Tombeau de Couperin, in which each movement is dedicated to a friend who died in the war. In 1929, another World War 1 veteran and talented pianist, Paul Wittengenstein, who lost his right arm in the war, commissioned Ravel to write his Piano Concert for the Left Hand.
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/music-for-remembrance-day/
- Things are getting rather Christmassy in the office at the moment – we are busy putting together music packs for the Christmas Vocals course which will be going out this week! If you know a primary school aged young singer who’s ready for Christmas, why not encourage them to sign up? There’s still time! https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/vocals-christmas-is-coming/
Have a good week!
Your friends at MfE.
11/11/2019
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#MfEMondays are Music for Everyone’s new weekly emails designed to keep you up to date with MfE events & to circulate interesting finds, special features, and motivational moments for your Mondays! We are aiming to send out something new each week.