A Worldly View of War – The U.S. premiere of a new composition highlights a centenary look at WWI The U.S. premiere of a new composition highlights a centenary look at WWI

One of the most devastating battles of World War I inspired a new musical work that brought out the best in the Orange County Youth Symphony Orchestra. Under the direction of maestro Daniel Alfred Wachs, director of orchestral activities at Chapman University, the youth symphony collaborated with the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra to provide the U.S. premiere of Passchendaele at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Wachs said the young musicians were “giddy” about playing in Disney Hall and delivered what was perhaps the greatest concert he has heard them play.

The performance of the new work by British composer Mark-Anthony Turnage highlighted the weeklong event “World War I: A Centenary Perspective” in Los Angeles. Perspective and context were provided by Chapman history professor Jennifer Keene, Ph.D., an internationally recognized expert on the Great War. Keene spoke prior to the Disney Hall concert in January during a roundtable at the Los Angeles Central Library.

“Passchendaele is one of the most famous battles in World War I because the failed Allied attack in Belgium against entrenched German forces came to symbolize the futility of trench warfare,” Keene explained. “Heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, but soldiers were still ordered to attack into heavy machine gun and artillery fire. The image of men and horses literally drowning in mud seemingly gave truth to the phrase heroes led by donkeys.”

Keene said this battle embodies the enduring image of WWI generals squandering the lives of hundreds of thousands in pursuit of pointless attacks that became the predominant memory of the war.

“For this reason, playing an original piece of music with the title Passchendaele commemorates the suffering and bravery of fighting men along the Western front, and asks the question: Why did they have to fight and die?” Keene added.

Turnage’s composition is intended to encourage the musicians and audiences to think for themselves and “make their own minds up for their generation,” Wachs said. “The young musicians are very distant from the First World War, but they should know what happened.” The other works on the Disney Hall program included Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony, The Inextinguishable, which the Danish composer wrote during World War I, and American composer Charles Ives’s well-known The Unanswered Question, which draws audiences into contemplation about war.