11 replies to this topic

[LST_164]

Hi folks,
I'm going out to the Western Front in August with family, and will be trying to play some appropriate musical pieces (?on CD, iPod or whatever) at various sites to accompany the military and human stories at those places.

Given that my daughter's partner from Sydney will be with us, I could do with something appropriate to be played at Villers Brettoneux or Pozieres or wherever.  Is "Advance Australia Fair" too formal and national-anthemish to make an emotional link?  Or "Can You Hear Australia Marching" too modern?  "Waltzing Matilda" too frequently used?

I'll consider anything else as well, provided it can be downloaded and might help us & an under-40 yr old Aussie to make a thoughtful reflection on the spot.  If you have a particular artist/ band/ version to recommend, that might help as well.

Thanks,
Clive

[moggs]

As an Australian I find our "anthem" exceedingly trite - it's germanic harmonies unoriginal and it's lyrics (for want of a better word) ordinary.  Yet, it seems to have caught the imagination of the populace.  I do understand the need for an anthem but wish ours was better.  Mind you, I don't understand why our society always seems to think that we need music to fill up the vacuum.  At sporting events, especially out here, it's put on as soon as the so-called action has stopped preventing the spectator from appreciating the moment or even having a conversation at times.

To be quite honest, I think you should just let the natural sounds of the environment - the peace and quiet - reflect the emotional state you may be seeking.  Let the spirit of the pilgrimage take over.

Enjoy the trip

Jonathan

[Sandie]

'Anzacs, Well Done' and 'Australia will be there' seem to be the most popular.

This site might help you: http://www.musicaust...First+World+War

[khaki]

I agree with Jonathon , if you want a "thoughtful reflection on the spot" silence is always appropriate

khaki

[ShirlD]

'The Band played Waltzing Matilda', especially when touring round the battlefields would bring tears to my eyes.   It is essentially written about Gallipoli though.
There are recordings by John Williamson, Eric Bogle or the Pogues.

On the Anzac weekend at the end of the month, the Collegium Symphonic Chorus are to perform Dona nobis pacem – Vaughan Williams and Requiem – Faure,  in a Redemptory Monastery.  Again. not specifically WW1, but we have been invited because of our particular WW1 interest.

I am thinking of these to be played whilst in the car perhaps, rather than as anthems.
It sounds like this will be a very special holiday.
Cheers
Shirley

[saw119]

If you're interested in anything modern then take a listen to Let England Shake by PJ Harvey. Several songs on that reflect the Anzac experience in the Great War., All and Everyone, On Battleship Hill and The Colour of the Earth are all about Anzac soldiers. I find All and Everyone, about Gallipoli, particularly poignant, in fact it never fails to make me cry. Hanging in the Wire is another track with no specific Anzac connection but just genrally about the trenches of the Western Front. They should appeal to a 40 something and one of her band members is Ex Bad Seed, and Aussie, Mick Harvey.

All & Everyone

Hanging in the Wire

[brucehubbard]

organise a thunder storm. Park on Redan Ridge. play Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits)
That got to me!

Bruce

[ShirlD]

Yes Bruce, that would get me too.
'Hanging in the Wire', haunting.
cheers
Shirley

[LST_164]

Thanks folks!
I agree, in many places the silence will have to speak for itself.  I'd also have to consider whether even a modest amount of noise might distract or offend someone else present.  

What started it off was thinking of being at the Welsh Memorial, Mametz - I can get a male voice choir version of Nid Oes I Mi Yn Y Byd, which is the hymn the 16th RWF sang during the hours before they went over the top there.  It would move me to hear it "on the spot"...but that's just me.  I was wondering what might possibly do the same for our Australian friend - but as you say, the car CD system in between sites would be just as effective.  

I'd forgotten about "And the Band Played..."   The others are worth exploring (a treat for myself if not for the family!).  

Bruce - got caught in a cracker of a thunder & lightning storm between Grove Town Cemetery and Hardecourt one evening in October 2009.  A different and frankly frightening form of "son et lumiere" which despite the rain set fire to some undergrowth near our accommodation!  I won't be organising one of those again in a hurry!

Clive

[WhiteStarLine]

Bruce, this music is nothing to do with Australia and some consider it hackneyed, but when the movie Gallipoli was being filmed, director Peter Weir appeared just before the scene when we were filming the Battle of the Nek.  He had a large boom-box over his shoulder and he walked up and down the trench playing the Albinoni Adagio, to try and reflect the ethereal calm as the last soldier of each wave was shot down and silence prevailed.  The extras would not have been familiar with classical music but you could see that they were touched by the scene and the music and the realisation that the soldiers were around their age.


Personally, when you get to Villers-Bretonneux, I recommend an overview of the Australian brigade attacks and perhaps touch on some of the major gas attacks while it was being defended.  The Australian 15th brigade lost 1,000 and some of these were when the brigade gas NCO took off his mask, declared the area safe but because the gas had damaged his sense of smell, the area was still saturated and men died.  My grandfather's brigade lost over 600.  They experienced 20,000 gas shells in 24 hours and sugar cubes dissolved and potatoes shrivelled.  The 15th brigade casualties formed up into groups of 20 blinded soldiers, linked arms and with a fully sighted soldier at the front and end and sometimes in the middle, set off for medical assistance.  Here is my grandfather's photo of the main street, probably from late May 1918.
 Villers-Bretonneux.jpg   54.23K   0 downloads

[Peter Shand]

Another piece is "No Man's Land" aka "The Green Fields of  France" also known as "Willie McBride", written by Eric Bogle, an Australian / Scots folksinger. There was a thread on the forum some time ago about the song.  It's a powerful song aboqut a young Irishman who died in 1916. There is a grave of a Willie McBride in a cemetery at Authuille on the Somme but Bogle has denied that it was the inspiration for the song. Bogle is also the person who wrote "And The Band played Waltzing Matilda, the song about an Australian injured in Gallipoli. A search on YouTube will give you several  artists version.I first heard it sung by a Canadian tenor, John McDermott, on a November 11 radio programme, while driving. I  had to stop  the car as it affected me so. His version is also on YouTube and is highly recommended.Regards, Pete

[seaJane]

I thought I knew "No Man's Land" too well for it to affect me, but a few years ago a RM string quartet playing at a mess "do" performed it with a solo singer, the only accompaniment the beat marked by the tread of their boots. Got me straight through a gap in the armour...

Let us know what you decide and how it goes, Clive.