Dan Jenkins: From Princip to Poppies - Trombone Octet

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This is a sad story of WW1; is there any other kind? It’s one of my more descriptive works in that musically, there are distinct characters and events.

After the initial gunshots (the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip, a Yugoslav nationalist), Britain throws herself into preparations for war. This is the first of five sections in this piece, though they’re not individual movements, it’s continuous. The factories pound out armaments amidst fanfares calling the young men to glory. The second section sees Tommy, having proudly enlisted, marching down the street in his uniform with all his fellow soldiers. But you can hear that Tommy, behind the euphoria, has doubts, and is a little afraid and unsure. He rallies but the uncertainty grows as the distant rumble of war is heard. And suddenly we’re there, in the midst of battle, and the music is stark and unforgiving, with glimpses of the ancient Dies Irae, day of wrath. There are gunshots (the same cluster as Princip’s volley) and machine gun fire, before a shell lands and creates a huge crater in the middle of it all. This crater chord is to feature later. After the fighting, night falls, and Tommy is left in the trench, perhaps a small fire burning in a can next to him, desolate and desperately sad; this isn’t what he signed up for. But the music suggests there’s more trouble ahead.

Morning comes, and the troops of both sides must go 'over the top'. Chromatic sweeps portray wave after wave clambering up to No Man’s Land and the fray beyond, but for a moment in the battle, it seems to Tommy that he’s going to be alright, there’s a brief moment of hopeful relief. But there’s a bullet on its way, fired from far away, and Tommy is killed. The music tries to veer towards hope, but a nagging note won’t let it. But that note does relax into the final picture. The battle is over, and Tommy lies dead in the crater chord, and poppies rise from the ground; the final chord has all three elements. This is not a spectacular ending. Do the poppies suggest hope at last?

Dan Jenkins, October 2014

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