In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
--from “In Flanders Fields,”John McCrae, May 1915
The Capitol Hill Chorale, led by Artistic Director Frederick Binkholder, will be honoring the hundredth anniversary of World War I in two concerts on Saturday, June 4 at 7:30 PM and June 5 at 4:00 PM at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, 4th Street and Independence Avenue, SE. The concerts fall on the week of Memorial Day, Monday, May 30. Tickets are $25 preferred seating, $20 general seating, $15 age 30 and under and free under age 12, and can be purchase at www.capitolhillchorale.org or at the door.
2016 marks the centenary anniversary of the mid-point of the World War I. By 1916, predictions of early victory had ceased, casualties suffered by the warring armies remained staggering, and new countries continued to be drawn into the conflict. Gone is the “Christmas Truce” of 1914, where German and British soldiers met briefly between the trenches to sing and play soccer. In the Battle of the Somme, which began in July 1916, more than one million men would be wounded or killed in one of the bloodiest battles in human history.
World War I remains poignant in our memory for its surrealism, scale of human tragedy, pathos, and stupidity. It left behind a moving body of art, poetry, literature, and music that eloquently expresses the pain rather than the glory of war. Everyone attending the concert will be given a remembrance poppy, inspired by the World War I poem “In Flanders Fields,” and adopted by the American Legion and throughout the United Kingdom and Canada to commemorate servicemen and women killed in all conflicts since 1914.
The Chorale will honor Memorial Day with a program that features principally music by composers alive then, including composers who served or were killed in the Great War. English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, at age 42,enlisted in 1914 as a Private in the Royal Army Medical Corps British army and served as a medical orderly, rescuing and transporting wounded and dying soldiers. At the outbreak of the war, the young English composer William Denis Browne was a Private Secretary to Winston Churchill. After receiving a commission in the newly formed Royal Naval Division, he died at age 26 on the Gallipoli peninsula of wounds sustained during an attack on Turkish trenches in June 1915. French composer Maurice Ravel was rejected in his effort to join the French Air Force because of his age, and instead volunteered as a lorry driver supporting a French artillery regiment. Claude Debussy died in Paris in 1918 during a German bombardment of the French capital and only a handful of mourners attended his burial. Austrian composer Alban Berg was drafted into the Austrian army in 1915, and would later draw on his military experience later in writing of the soldier Wozzeck.
Russia suffered particularly grievously from the war, not only its devastation and casualties, but a complete transformation of Russian society and culture as the result of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which was precipitated in large part by deprivation and unrest during the war. The second half of the concert is devoted to a performance of Memory Eternal to the Fallen Heroes, dedicated to all fallen soldiers from the Allied nations by Russian composer Alexander Kastalsky. Kastalsky was a major musical figure in Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century, a leader in a group of composers producing an outpouring of choral liturgical music at the time. Published in 1917, this piece was one of the last religious works published in Russia before the revolution. From a new edition of the work published last year, the Chorale’s performance will be one of only a few known performances ever, and probably only the work’s second performance in North America.
Kastalsky’s original conception involved a large-scale piece for chorus and orchestra, combining portions of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass and Russian Orthodox Memorial Service with musical elements from all the Allied nations (which kept expanding as new nations joined the Allied cause.) Kastalsky published this a cappella version, a setting of the Russian Orthodox funeral service, to be sung in Orthodox churches, but it was never performed at the time.
The Capitol Hill Chorale is a 100-voice auditioned choir, celebrating its 23rd season of concerts on Capitol Hill since its first program in December 1993. This is also the 16th season that Frederick Binkholder has served as the Chorale's Artistic Director. Chorale programs have included a wide repertoire of innovative programming — from the major works in the classical choral canon to works by early music masters, contemporary composers, and four programs of vocal jazz. Recent highlights have included a concert of German Lieder in memory of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Handel's Messiah as arranged by Mozart, and programs of American Shape-note and Shaker music.
The Chorale has performed a number of major Orthodox liturgical works, including settings of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Serbian master Stevan Stojanovic Mokranjac. In October 2014, the Chorale released its first recording, Georgian Sacred Chants, a 1909 setting of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy by the Georgian composer Zakaria Paliashvili (1871-1933), the first recording of this piece in the Georgian language. The recording and accompanying 32-page booklet is available online through Musica Russica and cdbaby. Additional information about the Chorale is available at the Chorale’s website: www.capitolhillchorale.org.
The Chorale is always seeking experienced choral singers who live or work on Capitol Hill or anywhere in the metropolitan Washington area. Anyone interested in finding out more about joining the Chorale can contact Parker Jayne at 202-549-0744 or [email protected].