"Serenade" by Ivor Gurney

It is hard to discern which talent was the more mastered by Ivor Gurney, musical composition or poetry. What is certain is that the experience of fighting in the Battle of the Somme and of being in the trenches with limited resources for musical composition led him to intense poetic creativity. He sent letters home to his friend, musicologist Marion Scott, recording French words he learns, the slang of war-time, and manuscripts of his poems. He arrived in France in May 1916, was wounded in the shoulder spring 1917, then gassed at Saint-Julien in September 1917, after which he was discharged. 

This poem, composed in 1925 in a mental hospital, vividly recalls the trenches, possibly with the experience of hearing records being played by the enemy at night. It includes the poet's deeper wish that the enemies could serenade each other instead of shoot each other.

Serenade

It was after the Somme, our line was quieter,

Wires mended, neither side daring attacker

Or aggressor to be—the guns equal, the wires a thick hedge,

When there sounded, (O past days for ever confounded!)

The tune of Schubert which belonged to days mathematical, 

Effort of spirit bearing fruit worthy, actual.

The gramophone for an hour was my quiet’s mocker,

Until I cried, ‘Give us ‘‘Heldenleben’’,  ‘‘Heldenleben’’,’ 

The Gloucesters cried out ‘Strauss is our favorite wir haben

Sich geliebt’. So silence fell, Aubers’ front slept,

And the sentries an unsentimental silence kept.

True, the size of the rum ration was still a shocker

But at last over Aubers the majesty of the dawn’s veil swept.

One of the aspects of war that the poem makes allusion to is the "rum ration" in the penultimate line: soldiers where given something alcoholic to drink before going over the top, so a large ration of alcohol might indicate a difficult battle. But the rum ration could also refer to the small size and poor quality of food served to the troops. 

Take a few minutes to listen to one of Gurney's musical compositions.











Links

Tim Kendall, "Ivor Gurney and the poets of the First World War," OUP Blog (October 14, 2013).

Exhibit "Ecrivains de guerre: nous sommes des machines à oublier" at Historial de Péronne, http://www.historial.org/Expositions/Expositions-en-cours/Ecrivains-en-guerre-14-18-Nous-sommes-des-machines-a-oublier

Ivor Gurney Society  http://ivorgurney.org.uk

Heroic couplets of Nixon and Mao at the Met in February

The opera Nixon in China (1987, music by John Adams, libretto by Alice Goodman) will be performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, February 1 to 19, 2011. This will be concurrent to performances at the Canadian Opera Company, February 5 to 26.

The opera covers Nixon's visit of five days (February 21-25, 1972) in three acts, with the key players: Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Pat Nixon, Mao Tse-Tung and his wife Chian Ch'ing, and Premier Chou En-Lai. The opening scene features the landing of the "Spirit of '76" jet, and the arrival of the Nixons. Before the plane lands, the chorus sings the opening couplets:

Soldiers of heaven hold the sky

The morning breaks and shadow fly

Follow the orders of the poor

Your master is the laborer

Who rules the world with truth and grace

Deal with him justly, face to face

Pay a fair price for all you buy

Pay to replace what you destroy

Divide the landlord's property

Take nothing from the tenantry

Do not mistreat the captive foe

Respect women, it is their due

Replace doors when you leave a house

Roll up straw matting after use...

Writing about her Libretto for the opera in 1987, Alice Goodman explained: "It would be an heroic opera—that would be the character of the work—and an opera of character—that had become inevitable—and the heroic quality of the work as a whole would be determined by the eloquence of each character in his or her own argument" (Goodman, "Towards Nixon in China").

According to Peter Sellars, "What opera can do to history is deepen it and move into its more subtle, nuanced, and mysterious corners" (see Met website). The following two videos are from the original 1987 performance in Houston, Texas.

Nixon in China was performed at the Chicago Opera Theatre in 2006:

Links & additional information:

Anthony Tommasini, "President and Opera, on Unexpected Stages," review of Nixon in China at the MET, New York Times (February 3, 2011).

"Reading Nixon in China," Nixon in China blog, with links to musical samples on Blip.fm (Vancouver Opera, 2010).

Matthew Gurewitsch, "Still Resonating from the Great Wall," New York Times (January 30, 2011).

"History in the Making" Metropolitan Opera website (2011).

Florence Fabricant, "Nixon in China, the Dinner, Is Recreated," New York Times (January 25, 2011).

Jason Farago, "Nixon in China in New York," n+1 (February 17, 2011).

Alex Ross, "Reverberations: A Month of Music and Politics," New Yorker (March 14, 2011).

May 20, 2011, Mathieu Duplay will speak about "L'imperceptible dans Nixon in China de John Adams et Alice Goodman," (Seminaire "Littérature et Métaphysique," ENS, Paris, 18h30).

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