1918 – 2018 GURT LUSH CHOIR AND BRISTOL MAN CHORUS PRESENT A MUSICAL TOUR TO COMMEMORATE THE CENTENARY OF THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR FOOTNOTES TO INTRODUCTION PROGRAMME THE GREAT WAR BY SAM BURNS WITH INTERVAL

This November marks the centenary of the Collecting and selecting the songs that make I’ll Make a Man of You Hill 60 Tyne Cot at Night signing of the Armistice that sealed the end of up this suite (from hundreds of potential Arthur Wimperis/Herman Finck Jim Boyes, Coope Boyes & Simpson Jim Boyes, Coope, Boyes & Simpson the First World War. Throughout 2018, events candidates) took place over several years. Arr. GurtLush Interval I Want to go Home are being held across Britain, Europe and In researching each song, I stumbled over Send Me Away with a Smile Sung by infantry from the Boer war onwards many other countries to commemorate this The Rose of No-Man’s Land many fascinating facts and anecdotes about Al Piantodos/Louis Weslyn most deadly of global conflicts. Arr. SATB Bristol MAN Chorus Jack Caddigan/James A. Brennan We’re here because we’re here the war. There was space to include but Arr. SATB GurtLush Infantry of WWI to the tune Tonight, Gurt Lush Choir and Bristol Man a few. Bravo Bristol of Auld Lang Syne Chorus perform their tribute – FOOTNOTES Ivor Novello/Fred Weatherly Do You Want us to TO THE GREAT WAR. This collection has been Furthermore, nearly every detail or Arr. SATB GurtLush Lose the War? Minute silence There will be a minute silence before the curated by our musical director Sam Burns. fact about the war is disputed by someone. Robert Weston/Burt Lee I have done a lot of research and weighed Standing in Line Arr. Coope, Boyes & Simpson commencement of the final song Despite the variety of material, Sam is the Lester Simpson, Coope, Boyes & Simpson first to recognise its limitations – the war was my words carefully, but it’s a vast subject Margaritae Sorori We Will Remember Them full of contention. by its nature a global event and to attempt to The Lads in their Hundreds Poem by W.E. Henley, set by Ernest Farrar Words from ‘For the Fallen’ by represent every experience would be to reduce A.E. Housman (from ‘A Shropshire Lad’) Laurence Binyon. Music from ‘With Proud The summaries for each song are simply my Set for solo voice and piano by George The Show Thanksgiving’, Edward Elgar our tribute to lip service. own. Apologies for any errors. If in doubt, Butterworth. Arr. SATB GurtLush Poem by Wilfred Owen, Instead Sam takes us through a highly research further and form your own opinions! set to music especially for these Down Upon the Dugout Floor performances by Phil Dixon (2018) personal musical journey exploring the Jim Boyes, Coope, Boyes & Simpson attitudes, hopes and fears of many British The Pankhurst Anthem people, soldier and civilian. Silent Night/Stille Nacht Helen and Lucy Pankhurst Franz Gruber, Arr. GurtLush/ Commissioned by the BBC for 2018 FOOTNOTES mirrors Britain’s journey from Bristol MAN Chorus flag-waving hysteria to numb, sleepwalking Sam Burns Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire disillusionment. It’s a tableau of contrasts – Infantry of WWI social classes bound by hierarchy but often sharing the same fate in battle; the different In Flanders Fields war of men and women; the muddy stench of Poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, trench warfare and reveries of lush English MD, set by Eleanor Daley countryside in gentler times; terror, longing, hope, despair – and the ultimate calamity of a lost generation. Through these songs, we remember them.

Please note: The majority of the images shown are out of copyright and in the public domain due to their age. Where this is uncertain or there is still copyright, credit is given.

2 3 I’ll Make a Man of You Send Me Away Arthur Wimperis/Herman Finck, Arr. GurtLush with a Smile Brooklyn’s drafted men leaving Long Island Railroad terminal on Flatbush Avenue, in September of 1917 In 1914 national radio didn’t exist, and gramophones were largely Lord Kitchener is asking for an army, Al Piantodos/Louis Weslyn for the wealthy, so hits from the music hall – the era’s beating so now’s the time for you to show your grit. Arr. SATB Bristol MAN Chorus heart of popular culture – were the main recruiting tool, making And I’ve got a perfect dream ruthless capital out of publicly shaming young men and boys. Of a new recruiting scheme By 1917 patriotic recruiting songs were Meanwhile the middle classes, who probably wouldn’t visit music Which I really think is absolutely it thoroughly out of fashion in England, but in halls themselves, would buy the same hits by the thousand in sheet If only other girls would do as I do North America, the war was still exciting. music form, and enjoy them around Britain’s three million pianos. I believe that we could manage it alone For I turn all suitors from me The US had done rather well out of the war Unlike during the Second World War – when the CIA secretly But the sailor or the Tommy up till then – the much-quoted statistic that ran a record label, and the involved powers embraced the I’ve an army and a navy of my own. over 25,000 Americans became millionaires potential of popular culture – this sort of propaganda was not during WW1 (by selling to both sides) is centrally coordinated but driven by commercial pressure to please Chorus: impossible to prove, but what is certain is audiences. In 1914 patriotism sold. When stories of the war started On Sunday I walk out with a soldier that by the end of the war the USA was the to come back with the wounded, the recruitment songs vanished On Monday I’m taken by a Tar world’s greatest economic power – and as quickly as they’d begun, but not before over a million men had On Tuesday I’m out with a baby Boy Scout most of Europe owed them money. volunteered. Sexual bribery and innuendo characterised many of On Wednesday a Hussar the songs written for women to sing. On Thursday I gang oot wi’ a Scottie Little girl, don’t cry, I must say goodbye, So, Send me away with a smile, little girl, When I leave you, dear, Give me words of cheer This example, made famous in the musical Oh! What a Lovely On Friday the captain of the crew Don’t you hear the bugle call? Brush the tears from eyes of brown. To recall in times of pain. War! is a chilling example. Its exploitative subtext makes it But on Saturday I’m willing And the fife and drum Beats a fair old tum, It’s all for the best And I’m off with the rest They will comfort me and will seem to be uncomfortable to sing, especially with the passion it demands. If you’ll only take the shilling Where the flag waves o’er our all. Of the boys from my own home town. Like the sunshine after rain. But it was not for us to dodge the brutality behind the shtick, To make a man of any one of you. Though I love you so, It is time to go It may be forever we part, little girl, And mid shot and shell, I’ll remember well one shamelessly brandished to beat young men into chasing And the soldier in me, you’ll find, But it may be for only a while. You’ve a heart of a soldier too, giddy adventures promising sex and glory. I teach the tender-foot to face the powder When on land or sea, Many boys like me; But if fight here we must, And that through this war I am fighting for That adds an added lustre to my skin You would not have me stay behind! Then on God is our trust, My country and my home and you! So send me away with a smile! And I show the raw recruit So, Send me away with a smile, little girl..... etc How to give a chaste salute So when I’m presenting arms he’s falling in It makes you almost proud to be a woman When you make a strapping soldier of a kid And he says ‘You put me through it Bringing the boys home – Troop ship USS Agamemnon And I didn’t want to do it, arriving at Boston in 1919. She was formerly the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II but was seized following the But you went and made me love you, so I did.’ outbreak of hostilities by the United States. Chorus: On Sunday I walk out with a bosun On Monday a rifleman in green On Tuesday I choose a sub in the Blues On Wednesday a Marine On Thursday a Terrier from Tooting On Friday a Midshipman or two But on Saturday I’m willing If you’ll only take the shilling To make a man of any one of you.

May 1915 poster by E. J. Kealey, from the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee

Maggie Smith in Oh! What a Lovely War, ©Paramount Pictures (1969)

4 5 Bravo Bristol Standing in Line Ivor Novello/Fred Weatherly Lester Simpson, Coope, Boyes & Simpson Arr. SATB GurtLush This legendary vocal trio have done extraordinary Puttees and polish, a cigarette and a smile A sepia soldier, no more than a child A young and then unknown Ivor Novello wrote When the stalwart merchant venturers, It’s a rough long road you’re going. work documenting and commemorating WW1, and You roared ‘Tipperary’ down to the train this merely months before Keep the Home set out in days of old, It’s a tough long job to do. our programme owes them a great debt. This song But in Flanders the guns sang a different refrain Fires Burning launched his career permanently. they sailed with a Bristol blessing But as sure as the wind is blowing, was inspired by Lester Simpson’s memories of his great aunt Annie, widowed in 1917. After her husband, Presumably he was thrilled to work with to find a land of gold. we know you’ll see it through. Standing in line, waiting to sign Albert, was killed at the battle of Passchendaele, she Bristol lyricist Fred Weatherly, already famous And now there’s a grimmer journey, Who cares how the guns may thunder? Standing in line to go over lived alone in a house of ‘half-empty washing lines’. for Danny Boy and many other hits. However, there’s a sterner call today. Who wrecks on the sword and flame? And a half-empty washing-line serves to remind this song, written to celebrate the creation of But the men of Bristol answer in the You fight for the sake of England, That you’re fallen and always standing in line Bristol’s own volunteer regiment, swiftly good old Bristol way. and the honour of Bristol’s name. Misinformation, a well-hidden lie sank without trace. Not long after the war all It’s a rough long road we’re going. And when the sea’s are free again, Roll up, try your luck on the coconut shy copies were thought to be lost and it was It’s a tough long job to do. and the bloody fields are won, White feathers or glory, while government hacks never recorded. But as sure as the wind is blowing, We’ll tell our Bristol children Are busy newspapering over the cracks Happily though, an old scruffy copy was we mean to see it through. what Bristol men have done. Standing in line... etc discovered in Bristol Records Office in 2011 and Who cares how the guns may thunder? Their deeds shall ring forever, But only the swallows and your postcards came home is now safe in Bristol Museum. The regiment Who wrecks on the sword and flame? from Avon to the sea. To the long summer days and the corn newly grown was not so lucky. Of the 1300 volunteers 765 We fight for the sake of England, And the sound of the march of the Bristol men, As certain as Empire you marched off to war were killed and only 535 returned, presumably and the honour of Bristol’s name. the song of their sons shall be. Where fear-choked and rum-soaked, they taught most of them wounded. O Men and boys of Bristol, ye swarm T’was a rough, long road to travel. you to plough While Weatherly’s triumphalist lyrics may sound from far and wide. T’was a tough long job to do. Standing in line... etc appalling to modern ears as do all the recruiting The rich man and the poor man, But, please God, they meant to do it, You fought and you died in the mud and the rain songs, equally uncomfortable is the romantic thank God are side by side. and by God they’ve done it too. A mile into hell and a mile back again imagery of the conflict he evokes. ’Who wrecks on March on, our hearts go with you, The cost? Who stopped to count it? A pawn in their game, not fallen but pushed the sword and flame?’ somehow suggests playing we know what you will do. They knew and played the game. And a Portland stone bonnet forever pirates rather than storming a machine gun nest. The spirit of your Fathers, is alive today in you. They fought for the Empire’s honour. Standing in line... etc And the glory of Bristol’s name.

Bristol’s Own: 12th Gloucestershire Regiment – The 12th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment the boys in their barracks marching on North Street, Bedminster 1914-15 Images courtesy of Bristol City Archives

D Company, 12th Gloucestershire Regiment 1916 Men from the Black Watch Regiment leaving Bristol for the front, April 1915 Images courtesy of the National Library of Scotland 6 7 The Lads in their Hundreds A.E. Housman (from ‘A Shropshire Lad’) Set for solo voice and piano by George Butterworth Arr. SATB GurtLush Housman was not actually writing about WW1 here, the poem is from the 1896 collection A Shropshire Lad. But, largely due to its haunting setting and Butterworth’s subsequent death in action, it has become synonymous with doomed youth, WW1 and the battle of the Somme in particular. Butterworth left little music behind. He destroyed Infantry with small box respirators,Ypres 1917. many works before going to the war, fearing he should not George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC return and have the chance to revise them. 12 July 1885 – 5 August 1916 Five weeks into the battle of the Somme, Butterworth was Down Upon the Dugout Floor shot through the head by a sniper. His body was hastily buried The lads in their hundreds to Ludlow Jim Boyes, Coope, Boyes & Simpson by his men in the side of the trench and never recovered come in for the fair, for formal reburial. When his brigade commander wrote to There’s men from the barn and the forge Battered down to the ground. Butterworth’s father to inform him of his death, it transpired and the mill and the fold, Down upon the dugout floor. that he had not known that his son had been awarded the The lads for the girls and the lads Hear the whine crease the spine. Military Cross. Similarly, the brigadier was astonished to for the liquor are there, Take me to that other shore. learn that Butterworth had been one of the most promising And there with the rest are the lads For I’m here in No-Man’s-Land, English composers of his generation. that will never be old. And the world has turned to sand. Down upon the dugout floor. The initial attack at the Somme involved 110,000 men. There’s chaps from the town and By the end of the first day, 20,000 lay dead between the the field and the till and the cart, Young in years, old in fears. lines and 38,000 were wounded or missing. Six months later And many to count are the stalwart, Down upon the dugout floor. the total deaths (on both sides) are estimated at 1.6 million. and many the brave, Trapped in time, between the lines. And many the handsome of face Take me to that other shore. The Allies had advanced less than ten miles. and the handsome of heart, For I’m here in No-Man’s-Land...etc And few that will carry their looks Oh can’t you hear the mournful cry? or their truth to the grave. We cannot do but only die. I wish one could know them, And here we sit and wonder why. I wish there were tokens to tell You and I. The fortunate fellows that now Battered down to the ground. you can never discern; Down upon the dugout floor. And then one could talk with them friendly Hear the whine crease the spine. and wish them farewell Take me to that other shore. And watch them depart on the way For I’m here in No-Man’s-Land...etc that they will not return. My soul can never return home. But now you may stare as you like On air or land or sea or foam. and there’s nothing to scan; Condemned forever to roam, And brushing your elbow unguessed at Lost and alone. and not to be told They carry back bright to the coiner Please don’t go. I need to know. Soldiers of an Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard the mintage of man, Down upon the dugout floor. track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the Ypres salient, If part of me has set you free. 29 October 1917. The men belong to a battery of the 10th Field Artillery The lads that will die in their glory Brigade. Australian War Memorial collection number E01220. and never be old. Take me to that other shore. For I’m here in No-Man’s-Land...etc

The map shows trenches during the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt at a time when the British had advanced into German lines, 1915. Source: from the personal archives of Sir Charles Geoffrey Vickers VC.

8 9 Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire Infantry of WWI Speaking out against the war in any I saw him, I saw him. way was treason and punishable by Scrounging round the cookhouse door, execution by firing squad. I saw him scrounging round the cookhouse door. So the multitude of soldier’s songs, always at least sarcastic and often The Major… so filthy or inflammatory that most …Drinking all the company rum. historians didn’t record them, must The General… have also had an important role in …Pinning another medal allowing disillusioned troops to vent to his chest steam. This is one of the most famous examples. The Private… …Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire If you want to find the Sergeant, I know where he is. Numerous other verses existed, I know where he is, many of them much smuttier! I know where he is. If you want to find the Sergeant, I know where he is. He’s scrounging round the cookhouse door.

Left: This is a list of humorous orders, in the style of a military memo, for the fictitious “Royal Standbacks.” Ironic humour provided a safe outlet for front line soldiers to poke fun at and express contempt for military life. Canadian poster encouraging the purchase of war bonds George Metcalf Archival Collection

In Flanders Fields Poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD, set by Eleanor Daley Silent Night/ While the iconic ceasefire of the first Christmas truce, complete with football in McCrae fought in the Second Battle of Ypres. Stille Nacht No Man’s Land, was never repeated on such In a letter written to his mother, McCrae a scale again, there were multiple other Franz Gruber, Arr. GurtLush/ described the battle as a nightmare, “For examples of temporary pauses or ‘going easy’ Bristol MAN Chorus seventeen days and seventeen nights none of throughout the war, including exchanges us have had our clothes off, nor our boots even, of goods and pleasantries, despite the dire except occasionally. In all that time while I was threats of higher ranking officers. awake, gunfire and rifle fire never ceased for sixty seconds… …And behind it all was the constant background of the sights of the dead, the wounded, the maimed, and a terrible anxiety lest the line should give way.”

Alexis Helmer, a close friend, was killed during the battle. McCrae performed the burial service himself, at which time he noted how poppies quickly grew around the graves of those who died at Ypres. The next day, he composed the poem while sitting in the back of an ambulance.

In 1918, exhausted from years of war, McCrae In Flanders fields the poppies blow; Take up our quarrel with the foe: contracted pneumonia and later cerebral Between the crosses, row on row To you from falling hands we throw, meningitis. He died at the military hospital in That mark our place; and in the sky The torch; be yours to hold it high Wimereux and was buried there with full military The larks still bravely singing fly, If ye break faith with us who die honours. As with many of the popular works of Scarce heard amidst the guns below. We shall not sleep, though poppies grow the First World War, this poem was written early We are the dead. Short days ago In Flanders fields. in the conflict, before the romanticism of war We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, turned to bitterness and disillusion for soldiers Loved and were loved, and now we lie and civilians alike. In Flanders fields. Image courtesy of the London Illustrated News Archives 10 11 Right: Hill 60 Sappers and miners at Jim Boyes, Coope Boyes & Simpson work on a tunnel under Hill 60, overlooking the Despite being essentially a small pile of spoil from the Ypres salient, blown up digging of the nearby railway, merely 40m higher than April 1915. Tunneling and mining operations were the surrounding land, Hill 60 was considered tactically used to attack enemy significant and was lost and won many times over the positions by tunneling course of the war. Both sides used gas in the battles. underneath them and then destroying them with The Hill was finally won for the Allies in 1917, after explosive mines. Image they exploded nearly half a million tons of TNT planted courtesy MOD archives in tunnels under it. It has been claimed that 10,000 Below right: Germans died in the blast and that the explosion was A soldier standing in a heard in both Paris and London. huge crater near Hill 60 Today Hill 60 stands just 4m high. Image courtesy of Australian War Memorial We mourn for you, whose peace may never come, Who never more will see a harvest home, Who never more will witness a new birth, Whose bodies, vapourised, ne’er fell to earth, Or decomposed in hideous stinking pools, Or buried deep below with miners tools. We stand on high, where sheep may safely graze. We come to honour meditate or praise, Or empathise, but we can’t understand A conflict on a scale so grand, That mortal tongue can only glibly tell That this is what we made a living hell. A pilgrimage to where our fathers fought, A history class that never can be taught Of gas and guns and spades and hands and teeth, A subtle knowledge of what lies beneath, The Rose of No-Man’s Land A subterranean honeycomb of fear. A pock-marked surface of another year. Jack Caddigan/James A. Brennan Arr. SATB GurtLush We see the glint of Zillebeke lake And in the distance there is no mistake, The image of the WW1 nurse in her pristinely The recreation of a city’s dreams, starched virgin-white uniform is well known, The golden statues in the twilight gleam. and the traditional feminine values associated But to the echo of a distant gun, with nursing made this a reassuring and non- Behind the ruined cloth all sinks a blood red sun. threatening symbol of women’s contribution to the war effort. We mourn for you, whose peace may never come... etc Of course the reality was horribly different. At first the army only accepted single women over 25 from upwardly mobile backgrounds. Sheer weight of casualties soon forced them to accept more or less anyone willing. Living and working conditions were often much the same Australian government recruiting I’ve seen some beautiful flowers, poster drew on their soldiers’ as the trenches. Without antibiotics, infection Grow in life’s garden fair, success at Hill 60. Image courtesy was everywhere. I’ve spent some wonderful hours, of Australian War Memorial Less idealised were the ‘Canary girls’, (women Lost in their fragrance rare; working in explosives factories, so named But I have found another, because the TNT dyed their skin yellow). Wondrous beyond compare. Almost all suffered from toxic jaundice – There’s a rose that grows on even their babies were born yellow. Hundreds “No Man’s Land” died from poisoning and hundreds more in And it’s wonderful to see, accidental explosions. Tho’ its spray’d with tears, They worked shifts of up to 12 hours with minimal it will live for years, breaks, paid half the wages of men doing the In my garden of memory. same jobs. Such inequality was typical for all the It’s the one red rose 2 million women that took on traditionally male the soldier knows, roles over the course of the war. It’s the work of the Master’s hand; Mid the War’s great curse, Stands the Red Cross Nurse, She’s the rose of “No Man’s Land”. Image courtesy of the London Illustrated News Archives

12 13 Margaritae Sorori

Poem by W.E. Henley Set by Ernest Farrar

Charles Stanford (distinguished composer and A late lark twitters from the quiet skies: teacher of Holst and Vaughan Williams), wrote And from the west, of Farrar, “He was one of my most loyal and Where the sun, his day’s work ended, devoted pupils. He was very shy, but full of Lingers as in content, poetry, and I always thought very high things of There falls on the old, gray city him as a composer and lamented his loss both An influence luminous and serene, personally and artistically.” A shining peace. Stanford personally attempted to bring his The smoke ascends pupil’s music to wider attention and many organ In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires and vocal works were published posthumously Shine and are changed. In the valley during the 1920s, However, following Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun, Stanford’s death, Farrar’s music saw a decline Closing his benediction, in popularity, with the composer’s Edwardian Sinks, and the darkening air idiom out of place in a post-war music scene. Thrills with a sense of the triumphing night-- Many of his scores are now lost. Night with her train of stars And her great gift of sleep. He was killed by machine gun fire in 1918. He had been at the front for just two days. So be my passing! My task accomplish’d and the long day done, My wages taken, and in my heart Some late lark singing, Let me be gather’d to the quiet west, Cartoons by by famed British soldier and artist Capt. The sundown splendid and serene, Bruce Bairnsfather for the ‘Bystander’s’ Fragments Death. from France. His cartoons of trench life proved extremely popular among Allied soldiers.

Ruined Country: Old Battlefield, Vimy, near La Folie Wood. By Paul Nash, 1918

Do You Want us to Lose the War? Robert Weston/Burt Lee Arr. Coope Boyes & Simpson (Found in a piano stool in Poperinge, Belgium). Contrary to popular misconception, songs that actively mocked the war were abundant and popular from late 1915 onwards. Generally, most of the press submitted willingly to voluntary self- censorship. Pop culture didn’t.

A lady went to the butcher’s shop Oh, Brown sat in the Rose and Crown A patriotic lady known as saucy Missus White, for ‘alf a pound of meat. and talked about the war. She organised a concert for The butcher carved her off a slice He dipped his finger in ‘is beer the wounded lads one night. that wasn’t very sweet. and then began to draw. She whispered to ‘er ‘usband, She sniffed at it and said, “Oh dear, Said he, “Now here’s the British lines “George, I’m going to try to sing, is that the best you’ve got? and here’s the German foe.” To cheer the lads up a bit.” Said he, It smells too high for me to buy”, Then the potman shouted “Time!”, “God save the King!” the butcher shouted, “What? and Brown said, “’Alf a mo’! Do you want us to lose the war? (x2) Do you want us to lose the war? (x2) Do you want us to lose the war? (x2) To those convalescents who shivered in dread, It’s not very tasty I’ll freely admit, I’d mapped it all out we were certain to win, She warbled, “Oh, tuck me in my little bed”, But you’ve got to ‘ave it and put up with it. Then you shouted out “Time!” and I think it’s a sin. “We’ve got to get back to the front line”, they said, You can’t stop that old cow from doing its bit. With another ‘alf pint we’d ‘ave been in Berlin. “Do you want us to lose the war?” Do you want us to lose the war?” Do you want us to lose the war?”

14 15 The Show Poem by Wilfred Owen,set to music The Pankhurst Anthem especially for these performances Helen and Lucy Pankhurst by Phil Dixon (2018) Commissioned by the BBC for 2018 This poem is unusually allegorical By 1914, there were more than 50 suffrage societies compared to Owen’s more graphic work. across the UK. Once war was declared, militancy The composer comments: and violent direct action was brought to a halt, but suffragists continued to campaign peacefully for “ I was given a book of World War One poetry votes for women throughout the war years. Women and began the process of finding a poem I workers and volunteers became visible in public thought could be set to music. This proved space, as they took over men’s roles in every aspect harder than I imagined as much of the poetry of public and work life. Suffragist women were was quite wretched and gloomy, until I came present and active on the Western and Eastern across The Show. It was unique as it had a fronts in a huge variety of roles, including doctors, lot of dreamlike imagery. nurses, drivers, mechanics and administrators. I began by deciding on my make up for the In 1918, property owning women over 30 were choir. I wanted it to be quite bass/baritone granted the right to vote, via the Representation heavy and as such split basses and tenors into of the People Act. In 1928 this was extended to all three groups. These three groups interplay the women over 21, finally on equal terms with men. opening theme, which reoccurs throughout the Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, MC 18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918 (It is likely that most of the men serving at the front piece in various forms and by different groups. would not have had the right to vote either, as it I wanted to create large washes of harmonic was limited to property-owners over 21) colour to create the dreamlike mood the poem Suffragette Charlotte Despard speaking to a crowd demanded, so at various stages, singers are It is often suggested that women were finally in Trafalgar Square, London (Press Association) required to hold notes that are actually far granted limited voting rights because they had too long. This should be imperceptible to ‘proved themselves’ over the war years by taking an audience as singers will take a breath at on men’s jobs. Or perhaps the establishment simply different moments. brought in compromise legislation to avoid eventually losing the fight with the suffragettes, knowing that In addition there’s not much lyrical rhythm A page from Owen’s original manuscript. © The British Library & The Wilfred they would resume their campaign after the war. in Wilfred Owen’s words and this is Owen Literary Estate, image via The First World War Poetry Digital Archive, reflected by the lumbering, often repeating University of Oxford I hear the sound of feet perpetually beating, musical rhythms.” The pounding of our hearts as we march on through the streets. Suffering from shell shock, he was sent to My soul looked down from a vague height with Death, A good friend once described Phil Dixon as ‘an A sisterhood of sacrifices made along the way, Edinburgh for treatment. Whilst recuperating, As unremembering how I rose or why, uncompromising voice’. I now understand what But now we stand today. he meant. As musical director I was a little he met fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon. And saw a sad land, weak with sweats of dearth, Gray, cratered like the moon with hollow woe, unnerved by my first sight of the manuscript. Owen returned to active service in France in If we win this hardest of fights, to be sure And pitted with great pocks and scabs of plagues. Not only were there three bass and three July 1918. His decision to return was probably in the future will be made easier Across its beard, that horror of harsh wire, tenor parts, which is a challenge to any response to Sassoon being sent back to England, For women all over the world to win the fight There moved thin caterpillars, slowly uncoiled. choir, but the text, despite being ‘dreamlike’, after he was shot in the head in an apparent when their time comes. It seemed they pushed themselves to be as plugs is nonetheless stomach-churningly dark. ‘friendly fire’ incident. Owen saw it as his duty Our own path, the right to live. To tell our story Of ditches, where they writhed and shrivelled, killed. Dixon’s setting accentuates that darkness to add his voice to that of Sassoon, so that the with what we have to give. By them had slimy paths been trailed and scraped with the aforementioned lumbering/cycling horrific realities of the war might continue to be So, listen, tho’ you may feel alone Round myriad warts that might be little hills. rhythms almost evoking some ‘foul march of told. Sassoon was violently opposed to the idea This is the sound of those that follow you. the damned’...... Honestly, I didn’t expect the of Owen returning to the trenches, threatening From gloom’s last dregs these long-strung creatures crept, I hear the sound of feet perpetually beating, singers to receive it with much enthusiasm. to ’stab him in the leg’ if he tried it. Aware of his The pounding of our hearts as we march on And vanished out of dawn down hidden holes. attitude, Owen did not inform him of his action through the streets. Happily though, from the very first rehearsal (And smell came up from those foul openings Lady ‘clippy’ at Ashton Road, on the until he was once again in France. At the very A sisterhood of sacrifices made along the way, we found that within the horror, the piece As out of mouths, or deep wounds deepening.) Bedminster and Bristol Bridge tram end of August 1918, Owen returned to the front But now we stand! We sing! We rise! Today! also possesses great beauty. The choir’s On dithering feet upgathered, more and more, line. For his courage and leadership, he was determination to do it justice, despite the Brown strings towards strings of grey, awarded the Military Cross. obvious trauma incurred by working intimately with bristling spines, with such a text, has impressed and moved He was killed in action on 4 November 1918, All migrants from green fields, intent on mire. me deeply. I can honestly say that I’ve never exactly one week before the signing of the Those that were grey, of more abundant spawns, conducted anything else like it and that we’ve Armistice, and was promoted to the rank of Ramped on the rest and ate them and were eaten. all greatly enjoyed the challenge. Lieutenant the day after his death. His mother I saw their bitten backs curve, loop, and straighten, Owen enlisted in 1915. Initially he held his troops received the telegram informing her of his I watched those agonies curl, lift, and flatten. in contempt for their loutish behaviour and death on Armistice Day, as the church bells in Whereat, in terror what that sight might mean, described his company as ’expressionless lumps‘. Shrewsbury were ringing out in celebration. I reeled and shivered earthward like a feather. However, he was to change dramatically after Even on the very last day of the war there were And Death fell with me, like a deepening moan. a number of traumatic experiences. He suffered 10,944 casualties, including 2,738 deaths. And He, picking a manner of worm, which half had hid concussion after falling into a shell hole and Overall, the Allies lost about 6 million soldiers Its bruises in the earth, but crawled no further, was also blown up by a trench mortar, spending and the Central Powers about 4 million. Showed me its feet, the feet of many men, several days unconscious among the remains of Effectively they ‘won’ because they were still And the fresh-severed head of it, my head. Corporal: What will you do after the war if you can’t get your Female munitions workers during the First World War, at the one of his fellow officers. willing to sacrifice more. old job back? Private: Marry the girl who’s holding it down. Whitehall Iron Works of Strachan & Henshaw Ltd, 3 October 1917

16 Inset images above: courtesy of Bristol City Archives 17 A monument to those who fell Only the truth can bring us peace, Speaks still of duty nobly done. And truth in time will free these souls. And those who followed to their fates, And those who manufacture war Followed the lie that first begun. Will crawl, dejected, to their holes. Tyne Cot at Night When the wheels of history rolled into place And for us it seems like far off dreams, And the call went out to serve the gun, But here the seeds of peace are sown. Jim Boyes, Coope, Boyes & Simpson Which relentlessly, without poetry, And, like a gardener, we must stand by, On contemplation of the famous war cemetery. Killed a generation of our sons. To nurture them until they’re grown. A silver moon was in the sky, And as we wander through the gloom, And from the south a warm wind blew. What stories could these stones re-tell? We thought we’d seen it all before, Each one a different former life, And finally But this was something new. Each one a different dying hell. To my great regret, I didn’t find any satisfactory musical way Just rows and rows of pale white stones, A Catholic spurned, an exile returned of making reference to the conscientious objector movement, Standing out in the morning dew. And a General reduced to tears. the experiences of non-white troops or the rise of international And a wall inscribed with more homicide, It’s their legacy that the truth should be, socialism over the course of the war. These are huge omissions, Than a lifetime’s friendship ever knew. Remembered now and down the years. but sometimes there’s just not a song to fit. The UK’s 16,000 ‘conchies’ were mocked in the press as lazy/weak/ cowardly/traitors/homosexual, as Britain’s first ever conscription laws enlisted 2.5 million extra troops from 1916 onwards. They were imprisoned, sentenced to forced labour, threatened with execution and often ostracised for years after the war. Soldiers from non-white colonies (in the empires of Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and so on), who died in their millions were slow to be recognised in official war figures, often treated appallingly after the war ended, and have received scant recognition for their sacrifice, even today. The spread of socialist ideals and echoes of the Russian revolutions struck fear into Establishment’s heart and played a part in precipitating the German surrender. The role the war played in accelerating social evolution is a complex subject, but by the end of 1918 the idea that some were born to rule and others to be ruled, was dead and buried (along with 41 million soldiers and civilians). I Want to go Home We’re here because We Will Remember Them This centenary is inevitably the last time we commemorate the Sung by infantry from the we’re here Words from ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon First World War so profoundly. Boer war onwards Music from ‘With Proud Thanksgiving’, Infantry of WWI to the tune Edward Elgar Thank you for helping us remember. I want to go home. I want to go home. of Auld Lang Syne The whizz-bangs and shrapnel A tiny snippet of an epic poem and equally The Whiteford brothers; Wilfred, Free of all conceit and pretension, They whistle and roar, epic musical setting. Graham and Hubert, from I don’t want to go on the top any more, perhaps these five words make the St George, Bristol. One of whom – We will remember them. We will remember them. Take me over the sea, most pointed war poem ever written? Hubert – refused to take any part At the going down of the sun, or in the morning. in the war and was sent to Horfield Where the Alleymans can’t catch me. We will remember them. We will remember them. Prison while one brother agreed to Oh my! I don’t want to die. undertake non-combatant duties They shall not grow old, as we that at left grow old. I want to go home. as an ambulance driver. The third Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. brother agreed to be conscripted. At the going down of the sun, or in the morning. Courtesy of Bristol Radical History We will remember them. We will remember them. Group

Conscientious objectors at a protest on Dartmoor in 1917

18 19 THE TOUR

ST GEORGE’S BRISTOL Great George Street, Bristol BS1 5RR 7 July 2018, 7.30pm ST PAUL’S CHURCH Coronation Road, Southville, Bristol BS3 1DG 20 October 2018, 7.30pm ST ALBAN’S CHURCH Coldharbour Road, Westbury Park, Bristol BS6 7NU 27 October 2018, 7.30pm ST BARTHOLOMEW’S CHURCH Sommerville Road, Bristol BS6 5BZ 4 November 2018, 3pm BRISTOL MUSEUM & ART GALLERY SPECIAL ARMISTICE DAY F​ INAL​ PERFORMANCE Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RL 11 November 2018, 6pm

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

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With thanks to: Annabel Reddick, writer and editor, first alto and Paul Ellis, graphic designer, second tenor.