Programme note

This anthem was commissioned for the 2014 War Horse Prom as a companion to the original 2010 War Horse Suite used in that Prom concert. The original brief was to write, very unusually, for a mix of young baritone and ‘cambiata’ voices — male voices that have begun to change and deepen. This was to memorialise those young men who, though still in their teens, were sent to fight for their country. It is an anthem to the lost.

In the libretto, these fallen soldiers are imagined as guardian angels, timeless and prophetic as they guard against conflicts old and new. Their constant warning is to step back from the brink of war, and they plead with us to play our part in that.

A fluttering in muted strings sets the stage. This busy rhythm will be an almost constant thread to the piece, either gently accompanying or driving the material urgently forwards. The angels present themselves in voices half whispered, half sung.

There is deft word-painting throughout: the descending phrase of sleep, the rattle of the drum on the battlefield, the lament of graves overgrown, the snap pizzicato of bricks being splintered, the fanfares of the march in the chorus. Every phrase is full of detail.

A solo voice in the middle section reminds us that ‘today the lines are drawn again,’ and the music briefly becomes more reflective before building to the angels’ desperate cry to learn from the past.

A brief quote of the opening theme in the strings turns the page for the final prophecy, and the music ends on a note of defiant hope.

Words by Jonathan James

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Text

Some see us
As birds wheeling against the white
As sun spearing through the cloud
Or as the deep breath before sleep

We are your guardians
The sons and daughters you never had
We are the deflected bullet
The hide-out unfound
The bridge, the kindling
The message that got through

We rewrite the rules
We are prophecy retold
We set the march to a different beat
And watch as your world unfolds
And watch as your world unfolds

Some see us
In faces fading into the black
Their eyes holding still your gaze
Yet with their graves overgrown

But we are your angels
The wheel re-spun, the chances you can take
We are your eyes to the past
The picture recoloured
Unfaded, and unframed
The anthems sung anew

We rewrite the rules
We are prophecy retold
We set the march to a different beat
And watch as your world unfolds
And watch as your world unfolds

Today the lines are drawn again
In gas, in oil and water
The spoils divided and lives reshuffled
And lots are cast by the few

Today mothers scavenge for weeds
Under siege of sniper fire
Today the fields are scorched tar-black
Your homes splintered into bricks and blood

We are your forefathers
The sons and daughters you may never have
Our voices raw and hoarse
Can you not hear?
Draw back! Step down!

This will not end
This will not end until

You rewrite the rules
You retell the prophecy
You set the march to a different beat
So new tales can be told
So new tales can be told

Text: Jonathan James

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(extract perf. BBC Concert Orchestra cond. David Charles-Abell)