AnthemForDoomedYouth(1).htm

I. Anthem For Doomed Youth
For Divided Choir, Bells, and Piano with Mallets  (5:00)

Gladde Music Publications
Choral Score (GMP0203) - $2.45
Instrumental Part (Bells) (GMP0203X) - $9.00

Jointly commissioned by the Fresno State Chamber Singers and Chico State Chamber Singers of California State University....
a dramatic, powerful choral statement about the anger and chaos of war!

The poem, Anthem For Doomed Youth (click here for an excellent analysis) was written in 1917 by Wilfred Owen, a British officer killed in battle one week before the war's end in 1918.  He was only twenty-five years old at the time of his death.  Owen's poetry rose to international prominence through its use in Benjamin Britten's War Requiem.  On November 11, 1918, one week after Owen's death--at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month--bells were ringing in Shrewsbury to celebrate the Armistice when the doorbell rang at his parent's home....a courier delivering a telegram, telling them that their son was dead.

2nd Lt. Wilfred Owen

The sounds and compositional techniques utilized in the music arise from the severity and haunting sadness of the poetry.  Extended vocal and instrumental devices are used to enhance images suggested by the words of the poem.  Vocal devices include shouting, sighing, cluster singing, pitch-bending, and non-metered chant.  Instrumental devices include trills and glissandi, piano clusters, and piano overtones produced with percussion mallets (click on the blue link for a live sample of this effect at meas. 61 from the composer's 1976 *Serenade for Flute, Cello, and Piano).

(Complete *Serenade with Brooks de Wetter-Smith on Flute - and Brad Nelson on "bowed" piano!)

See also:
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
   I. Anthem For Doomed Youth
   II. In Flanders Fields ( Streaming video!)
   III. Agnus Dei ( Streaming video!)

Choir 1-Practice Recordings

Each midi-recording below provides the designated voice part played firmly on the piano while the remaining parts play quietly in the background.

When playback begins - click once on the musical score. You can then scroll down to follow your part in the score.

Soprano

Alto

Tenor

Bass

World Premiere Performance!
The Fresno State and Chico State Chamber Singers of California State University
Dr. Anna Hamre and Dr. Jeffrey Gemmell, Directors
Anna Hamre, Conductor
Fresno Press Release                                                       Chico Press Release
Chico Enterprise-Record article

I. Anthem For Doomed Youth, p.1

I. Anthem For Doomed Youth, p.9

~ Pages 12 and 13 excluded ~

I. Anthem For Doomed Youth, p.15

I. Anthem For Doomed Youth, p.23

Choir 2-Practice Recordings

Each midi-recording below provides the designated voice part played firmly on the piano while the remaining parts play quietly in the background.

When playback begins - click once on the musical score. You can then scroll down to follow your part in the score.

Soprano2

Alto2

Tenor2

Bass2