Dulce et Decorum Est

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC" TEXT="#080000" background="13cfd5a3.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aaron Alon"><U><B><IMG SRC="3a27d140.png" border=0 width="125" height="20" ALT="Homepage" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>     |     </B><A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Compositions"><U><B>Recent compositions</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id163.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breaking the Silence"><U>Breaking the Silence</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id158.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All Rights Reserved"><U>All Rights Reserved</U></A><B>   |   </B><B>Dulce et Decorum Est</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id104.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fairy Tales"><U>Fairy Tales</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id101.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Hibakusha"><U>Hibakusha</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id81.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="A View to a Death"><U>A View to a Death</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id47.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Peter Pan Suite"><U>Peter Pan Suite</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Córdoba"><U>Córdoba</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spell"><U>Spell</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Spring and Fall"><U>Spring and Fall</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Fantasia for Piano"><U>Fantasia for Piano</U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Silken Tent"><U>The Silken Tent</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#888888" TEXT="#080000" background="13dd2b03.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="6f815210.png" border=0 width="21" height="33" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Order the Score:</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.lulu.com/content/740480" TARGET="_blank" TITLE="http://www.lulu.com/content/740480"><U><B><IMG SRC="7166e8e0.png" border=0 width="110" height="142" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#CCCCCC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><IMG SRC="6f5fb1d0.png" border=0 width="251" height="29" ALT="Bitmap Image" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I></div> <div> <B>INSTRUMENTATION</B>: Baritone and String Quartet</div> <div> <B>DURATION</B>: Ca. 6½ minutes</div> <bR> <div> <I>Dulce et Decorum Est</I> was commissioned by baritone Colm Estridge.  As one of the most powerful anti-war poems in the English language, Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" reminds us of what is truly at stake in war, of the true horrors that are hidden in the daily statistics.  The text challenges the call to arms from Horace's <I>Odes</I>, which is quoted in Latin as the last two lines of the text: "It is sweet and right to die for your country."  A slow opening, depicting the soldiers' weary return to their campsite, gives way to a sudden, rhythmically charged section as the speaker is launched into a flashback of a WWI gas explosion.  Quotations of the rally tune, "Battle Cry of Freedom," appear with increasing clarity in the piece.  This piece was supported by a grant from the Mu Phi Epsilon foundation.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Listen to the Piece:</div> <div> <I><B> <embed src="HTMLobj-1984/Dulce_Studio_Recording.mp3" autostart="false" width="145" height="70">  </B></I></div> <div> <A HREF="#about_the_recording" TITLE="Dulce et Decorum Est"><U><I>About the Recording</I></U></A></div> <div> <I><B>NEW Studio Recording!</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Commission</U></B></div> <div> Commissioned by Baritone Colm Estridge.</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Awards</U></B></div> <div> 2008 Texas Composers Competition</div> <div> <I>Winner</I></div> <bR> <div> Texas Representative for the 2009 ISCM World New Music Days Festival in Sweden</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Text</U></B></div> <div> <I>Dulce et Decorum Est</I></div> <bR> <div> Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, </div> <div> Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,</div> <div> Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs</div> <div> And towards our distant rest began to trudge.</div> <div> Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots</div> <div> But limped on, blood-shod.  All went lame; all blind;</div> <div> Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots</div> <div> Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.</div> <bR> <div> GAS! GAS! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,</div> <div> Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;</div> <div> But someone still was yelling out and stumbling</div> <div> And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .</div> <div> Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,</div> <div> As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.  </div> <bR> <div> In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,</div> <div> He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.</div> <bR> <div> If in some smothering dreams you too could pace</div> <div> Behind the wagon that we flung him in,</div> <div> And watch the white eyes writing in his face,</div> <div> His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;</div> <div> If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood</div> <div> Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,</div> <div> Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud</div> <div> Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-</div> <div> My friend, you would not tell with such high zest</div> <div> To children ardent for some desperate glory,</div> <div> The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est</div> <div> Pro patria mori.*</div> <div>                                                   —Wilfred Owen</div> <bR> <div> *It is sweet and right to die for your country.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <U>Performance History</U></div> <div> <A HREF="id149.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="November 3, 2007"><U>November 3, 2007</U></A></div> <div> Mark Whatley, Baritone</div> <div> Eva Liebhaber, Violin I</div> <div> Kaoru Suzuki, Violin II</div> <div> Elizabeth Charles, Viola</div> <div> Jennifer Humphreys, Cello</div> <div> Shepherd School Composers' Forum</div> <div> <I>Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, Houston, TX</I></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id152.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="April 14, 2008"><U>April 14, 2008</U></A></div> <div> Brian Speck, Baritone</div> <div> Eva Liebhaber, Violin I</div> <div> Stephanie Nussbaum, Violin II</div> <div> Elizabeth Charles, Viola</div> <div> Jennifer Humphreys, Cello</div> <div> Aaron Alon: Doctoral Composition Recital</div> <div> <I>Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, Houston, TX</I></div> <bR> <div> <U> <A NAME="about_the_recording"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></U><U>About the Recording</U></div> <div> This is a new studio recording with the same musicians who gave the piece its premiere: Mark Whatley, baritone; Eva Liebhaber, violin 1; Kaoru Suzuki, violin 2; Elizabeth Charles, viola, and Jennifer Humphreys, cello.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div> All music ©2007 Aaron Alon (ASCAP).  All rights reserved. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>