Anthem for Doomed Youth
Baritone and Piano, four hands

Lance Ashmore, Baritione
Kirsten Halker-Kratz, Piano
Kathryn Harsha, Piano

Program Note

Anthem for Doomed Youth (1917)

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -- -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.

~Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)

Himself a casualty of World War I, Wilfred Owen’s sonnet, Anthem for Doomed Youth, memorializes the brave young soldiers who die alone on the battlefield. Away from family and loved ones, these men are not afforded the funeral bells, prayers, or proper church choirs they rightfully deserve. Owen gives them this honor. Through the use of text painting and references to songs and hymns, I try to amplify Owen’s voice.

The first eight lines of the sonnet, the octave, focus on the slain soldiers on the battlefield. The absent funeral bells, hymns, and prayers are found in the piano parts along with the prayer-stifling gunfire and wailing shells. As is standard with the Petrarchan Sonnet, the final six lines, the sestet, show a distinct change in mood. Owen leaves the battlefield and moves to the homes of the grieving families. A funeral dirge accompanies these somber words. Continuing the theme of absent funeral bells, this dirge employs quotes from the spiritual, Tone de Bell Easy. As the words of the spiritual beseech, “When you hear that I’se a dyin’, I don’t want nobody to moan. All I want my friends to do, is give that bell a tone.”