The Battle of the Somme

Title: The Battle of the Somme (silent movie score)
Composer: Greg Smith
Instrumentation: Piano
Product medium: Full score (PDF download) – 80 pages
    Related products:
    – The Battle of the Somme (MP3)

Background:
In 1916 France was struggling to fend off German occupation.  It had become apparent that to break the stalemate Britain may need to increase its involvement in battle.  Plans were made in late 1915 by French commander Joseph Joffre for coordinated offensives on all fronts.  On the western front, Joffre planned to attack Picardy near the Somme River, which marked the boundary between the French and British forces.  However, by July 1916, the French forces had weakened and the Somme offensive became a primarily British battle.

The initial attack was made on 1 July 1916 at 7.30am.  100,000 men from British forces went into battle on that day.19,240 British troops died that day.  The battle would continue for a one hundred and forty-one days.

Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, British army cinematographers, filmed footage of the preparations and Battle of the Somme.  The live footage was recorded between 26 June and 8 July 1916.  Some shorted staged sequences were staged in  later July.

The footage was first shown in London on 10 August 1916 at the Scala Theatre and was publicly released 21 August.

This original score was created for a live Remembrance Day Observance presented by the Teachers Sub-Branch of the RSL and Australia’s Silent Film Festival on 12 November 2012.

SAMPLES:









Posted

in

by

Greg

Tags:

, , ,

Featured Content

The political function of music
“There can be no music without an idealogy. The old composers, whether they knew it or not, were upholding a political theory. Most of them, of course, were bolstering the rule of the upper classes. Only Beethoven was a forerunner of the revolutionary movement.” – Dmitry Shostakovich Cited in: Nettl, Paul (1969) The Book of […]
Streisland’s instinct
[Barbara Streisand’s] early voice training amounted to one lesson with a voice teacher. At that session Ms. Streisand sang “A Sleepin’ Bee,” the Harold Arlen song that she performed in her first television appearance, on “The Jack Paar Show” in 1961, just before turning 19. During the lesson Ms. Streisand got as far as the […]
The progress of an artist
What happens is a continual surrender of himself as he is at the moment to something which is more valuable. The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality. – T. S. Elliot, Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919)
Dreaming of Figaro
By 1790, Haydn has become dissatisfied with life at Eszterhaza.  On 9th February he wrote: Well! I sit in my wilderness; forsaken, like some poor orphan, almost without human society; melancholy, dwelling on the memory of past glorious days.  Yes; past, alas! And who can tell when these happy hours may return?  Those charming meetings? […]
How piano wires have changed throughout history
While piano wire has changed over the centuries from iron to steel of varying qualities, researchers were surprised to find that the sound produced by the instruments’ wires has remained largely unchanged. “I thought as the wire evolved — as the tension evolved — harmonicity would also change over time,” Purdue University physics professor Nicholas […]
A good performance
A good performance is one that moves me. But it is not only the passion and emotion expressed in a performance that move me, it is also allowing the clarity of the structure, as well as the different characters, to shine through, a well-judged balance, a sense of architecture of the whole piece and, at […]
It’s my apartment and I’ll play if I want to
Prokofiev and his family moved into a small top floor-apartments in Paris.  Prokofiev spent much time practicing a revised version of his second piano concerto (which was to be premiered 8 May 1924).  The apartment manager demanded that Prokofiev cease playing.  His wife Lina recalled Prokofiev’s response: All right then, you don’t want to hear […]
Liszt on the piano
In its span of seven octaves [the piano] embraces the range of an orchestra; the ten fingers of a single man suffice to render the harmonies produced by the combined forces of more than 100 concerted instruments. We make arpeggios like the harp, prolonged notes like wind instruments, staccatos, and a thousand other effects which […]
Music transcription
Transform audio into a notated score.  Music transcription can be particularly useful to composers and performers that incorporate elements improvisation into live performances or composition method. From cadenzas, improvised solos, to whole pieces of music; Emotemuse Music Services can provide music transcription services that suit your needs: – Direct transcriptions: the exact ensemble performing is […]
Music as a metaphor … or not
“Most music is metaphor, but Wolff is not. I am not metaphor either. Parable, maybe. Cage is sermon.” – Morton Feldman, American composer Cited in Tom Johnson, Remembrance, September 1987. Accessed 11 May 2013.