“The larks, still bravely singing, fly” will present music of wartime, remembrance and peace.
“In Flanders Fields” is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially unsatisfied with his work, discarded it.
The first chapter of In Flanders Fields and Other Poems, a 1919 collection of McCrae’s works, gives the text of the poem as follows:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The programme will include music by Barber, Bloch, Richard Strauss, J.S. Bach, and Enesco.
The Dodson Music Series is organized and performed by students of the UBC School of Music. The Artistic Director is Chantal Lemire.
Admission is free.
The next concert in the Dodson Music Series 2012-2013 will be held on Friday November 9 at 12:00 pm in the Dodson Room of the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.