BEFORE ACTION

For SATB Choir and Organ

This piece was written for an anthem competition at St Edmundsbury Cathedral to mark the centenary of the end of WW1. The brief was to write and anthem for choir and organ using William Noel Hodgson’s poem “Before Action”. I wanted to start with a relaxed, almost meditative tone but with some tension of the upcoming battle. I emphasised chords without thirds in the beginning to lend the music an ambiguous quality and the feeling of waiting to strike. After an organ interlude, the second stanza takes a more wistful tone with each voice taking a line, thinking about the wonders of the world before the organ interlude comes back more forcefully. The last stanza has the organ use the choir’s material from the first stanza whilst the choir sing a forceful unison melody. I was trying to evoke the soldier and protagonist of the poem psyching himself up and adopting the nihilistic attitude that the poem puts forward. After the climax the music simmers down to a melancholy recap and extension of previous material on “Help me die oh lord”. I use “Pack up your troubles” a popular wartime song against the melancholy organ to further emphasise the “Do what you gotta do” attitude that Hodgson is writing about all be it less cheerfully. The almost free tempo at the end was inspired by a shot in the film “Atonement” where a scene happens on the ground but the camera pans up to show the extent of the british camp and that the character’s story was one of millions during the war (even though Atonement is set in WW2). The sotto voce also make sit sound like the material is being sung at a distance, as if the poet is away from the camp and listens back to the innocent soldiers ready for the slaughter.