Work
In Memoriam
for tenor and string quartet
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About
This is a song cycle comprising four poems by English writer Edward Thomas. Most of his poetry was written shortly before his death at the Battle of Arras, 1917. The first poem, 'The Trumpet', is opaque in meaning, but the setting captures the poet's contradictory feelings of exhilaration and despair at the onset of war. 'The Owl' is one of Thomas's many poems that feature a first-person narrator. The repeated calls of the owl in the cello and violins act as nagging voices intruding on his solitude. 'The Gallows' is an apparently straightforward folk tale but the poem is perceived as an expression of Thomas's confusion over war between England and Germany. Each verse expresses the character of its subjects (the gamekeeper, weasel, magpie and crow). Who are the aggressors and who are the victims? The final song of the cycle, 'In Memoriam (Easter, 1915)', is a deeply felt lament in which the young men killed in war are compared with flowers "left thick at nightfall in the wood".
Contents note
I. The Trumpet
II. The Owl
III. The Gallows
IV. In Memoriam (Easter, 1915)
Text note
Text by Edward Thomas (1878-1917)
Performance history
13 May 2017: Performed by Jared Holt (tenor) and the New Zealand String Quartet in Auckland
19 May 2017: Performed by Jared Holt (tenor) and the New Zealand String Quartet in Wellington
29 Apr 2018: Performed by Jared Holt (tenor) and the New Zealand String Quartet in Christchurch
19 May 2018: NZSQ - In Memoriam