Classical and classic: What music best expresses Memorial Day?

By Jacob Stockinger

Today is Memorial Day, 2011.

All wars have many things in common. One thing is music.

From the American Civil War and World War I and World War II to the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, music has proven vital to heading off to war, coming home from war and remembering war.

It seems only fit and just then, as Abraham Lincoln might say, to mark this Memorial Day with appropriate music.

I choose not to celebrate the upbeat or jingoistic side of war, the Sousa marches, victory suites and the like.

That’s probably because in the long run, war always seems a solution of last resort – sometimes necessary but rarely desirable and never totally victorious or without terrible cost. It is a bittersweet and poignant, not joyful, occasion. And that is how remembering it should also be.

Today I offer three pieces of music that I hope will help you and those close to you to remember war and its human cost.

Curiously, all three have been used as soundtracks by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, who clearly has a sharp ear for music that, to my mind, fits the occasion.

First, I offer a piece by Sir Edward Elgar often used to remember the dead and the fallen, one that is particularly popular in Britain and Commonwealth countries on Remembrance Day, which is similar to the American Memorial Day.

It is the “Nimrod” Variation from Elgar’s wonderfully effective “Enigma” Variations, often used by Burns in a solo piano transcription that I cannot find to link to.

The second is the bluegrass-type of music, which to me resonates with a certain American classicism, as does the words written by Sullivan Ballou. It is Jay Ungar’s “Ashoken Farewell” and was used by Burns in “The Civil War” to create one of the most moving moments in television history.

If you go to YouTube, you can even find it used to memorialize 9/11 and the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. That is how current it remains.

Finally, there is a newer piece, a pop song that also resonates of becoming a future classic, called the “American Anthem” and sung by Norah Jones, which Burns also used is his film about World War II, though it could apply to all wars and all forms of patriotic sacrifice.

This one is for you, Dad.

To all who have served and are serving and will serve, thank you. I hope you and your loved ones find these choices a fitting and worthy memorial in sound and will share this link with others.

If you want other ideas, here is a link:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2011/05/29/136721458/what-music-helps-tell-your-memorial-day-stories

I would also like to hear whatever music you think is most appropriate and most moving to mark Memorial Day – a song, an instrumental piece, an orchestral or choral work, whatever. Just leave a comment and a link.

The Ear wants to hear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa2hv8U8cWU

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Posted in Classical music