Oboe: Oleg Balanuta
Clarinet: Ciprian Melente
Bassoon: Ionut Mardare

Recorded & mixed by Nabil Abdul Khalek at Signwave Studios.

I was struck by the realization that since I was a boy, the idea of war was not only normalized, but glorified with all kinds of war toys. Little heroic action figures, tanks, airplanes, missiles. A child's innocence combined with these toys which in reality represent something as terrible as war is something that probably translates as passiveness to war in adulthood. 

"Little Toy Soldiers going off to war
None will ever live to  see age twenty four
None of them even  know what they're fighting for
Little Toy Soldiers going off to war

The world has always been this way
With Emperors and Kings
Fighting with toy soldiers
And the glory that it brings

Land, beliefs, religion
The basis of the war
fought by young toy soldiers
Who all die by the score

Time has taught us nothing
But, it's changed the way we fight
War is a full day job
Now that it is fought at night

The boards of little armies
Are now shown up on the screen
With all the little soldiers
Lit in different shades of green

They used to be all metal
Painted up in nice bright shades
With a General on horseback
Leading all his smart brigades

Then, the men were plastic
glued to bits of wood
Behaving as a unit
Just like a soldier should

Now, the war is different
They're up there in different hues
You can watch them fight in real time
Just like on the nightly news

The only thing remaining
The thing that's stayed the same
Is that nobody in power
Know the Little Soldiers names

Little Toy Soldiers going off to war
None will ever live to  see age twenty four
None of them even  know what they're fighting for
Little Toy Soldiers going off to war"

"Little Toy Soldiers" by Roger Turner
April 29 2018
Copyright © roger turner | Year Posted 2018

Photograph: Teresa Evangeline 
(http://teresaevangeline.blogspot.com/2013/11/toy-soldiers.html)

"Toy Soldiers" Suite for Woodwind Trio (3rd Movement)

Wajdi’s music exhibits an echo from the Arabic Mashriq musical history, in a modern language that imitates the contemporary unbalanced world, reflecting the contradictions, beauty, and brutality within it. And it searches as well for inspiration in the elements of Arabic music such as Maqamat, rhythms and Taqassim, as well as in classical Arabic language and rhythms of poetry, which results in a unique Contemporary Oriental music language.

Born in Lebanon in 1991, got his license in piano in 2014, then in Music Composition and electronic music in 2016, from the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music, and is currently continuing his studies in piano and bassoon performance in the same conservatory where he also teaches piano, harmony and music theory.

He’s also the principal conductor, art director, and arranger for “Beit Atfal Al Soumoud Kids’ Orchestra”, “the Lebanese Higher Conservatory Orchestra and Choir – Choueifet branch”.

Jazz Bassist and Composer based in Beirut, Lebanon.

"Toy Soldiers" Suite for Woodwind Trio (3rd Movement)

Makram A.Hosn