Wap baa.m4a

Fire Fire Fire

Bali hai.m4a

Poem by Pär Lagerkvist, set to music with permission from ©Pär Lagerkvist Estate 

Det är vackrast när det skymmer (Earth’s Most Lovely at Light’s Waning)

I- O Long the Fiends of War…

O long the fiends of war shall dance
Upon the stricken fields of France:
And long and long their grisly cry
Shall echo up and smite the sky:
O long and long the tears of God
Shall fall upon a barren sod,
Save when, of His great clemency,
He gives men’s hearts in custody
Of grim old kindly Death, who knows
The mould is better than the rose.

II- Sun and Shadow and Winds of Spring…

Sun and shadow and winds of spring,
    Love and laughter and hope and fame,
Cloud and storm-light over the hills,
    Tears and passion and sordid shame:

All, all are but as quenchèd fire
    And vanish’d smoke to him that lies
Amid the silence of the trees

Program note: 

“Death can make us loathsome and helpless as individuals, but it cannot put an end to the immortal four! May God bless you my dear John Ronald and may you say things I have tried to say long after I am not there to say them if such be my lot"

The above text can well be considered to be the last written words ofGeoffrey Bache Smith, Late Lieutenant of the Lancashire Fusiliers. He died  in 1916, only 20 years old; just a year older than I am today, writing this preface. A collection of his poetry was published after the war by his close friend J.R.R Tolkien under the title "A Spring Harvest".
   This action was not just an act of kindness on Tolkien's part (publishing the works of one's dead friends or family members as a kind of eulogy was common practice at the time), but because he genuinely felt that Geoffrey had something to say with his work. 
   Having read through the collection, I am inclined to agree, and felt I had to at least attempt to set some of them to music. 
   Geoffrey Bache Smith never did get to say
all those things he wanted to say; "grim old
kindly Death" got to him before he had the
chance, and now nothing remains of the 
immortal four save in memory. It is therefore my hope with this piece that I may be able to let another voice speak the words that Geoffrey wished to say, and let his work reach new people in a different way. 

-Oskar Österling, 2024



Performed by En Kör, Drottning Silvias Konsertsal

Thursday evening

RW Hedges

Related tracks