Battlefields: Glory & Memories

Battlefields: Glory & Memories is a look into how we remember dramatic events. Some events we remember with exaggerated glory, others we carry anger and loss. Both approaches have value for us for different reasons: For people who lose a loved one in a battle, it is sadness and anger. For people whose lifestyle is saved by the actions of those in the battle, there is glory. For people within the battle itself there is often both at once. I try to balance these reactions in these pieces.

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Why War?

War is a part of being alive. Plants and animals all practice war in one form or another. Despite becoming more civilized, war still plagues us for exactly the same reasons that one plant invades the space of another: resources.

We consider civilization to grow from the point at which we start to care for one another – the healing of a broken bone being the threshold attributed to Margaret Meade (quite falsely apparently). It is working together that allows us to do the fancier things that we do – from building pyramids to iPhones. It would be a lot better overall if we were to leave war behind, but doing so is not easy as it is so ingrained in us to hold all the resources (and to be lazy).

I tried to keep politics out of this. The writing started with one war grinding into stalemate, then another kicked off (again) with unconscionable brutality. In no way was I expecting or even wanting this to seem like a current affairs commentary but ultimately it seemed that was not avoidable.

Compositionally I have portrayed some events directly with sound effects, others are implied in the use of musical motifs. There is no right or wrong way to interpret any of these pieces. My aim is to help people feel some of what those there may have felt as events occurred.

Tracks

Glory & Memories – is a freeform intro piece
Agincourt – reflects the glory that the English feel in having defeated a much larger French force through ingenuity (pluck vs arrogance). At the same time there is a reminder that it is the individuals who do the work and bear the costs in battle.
Waterloo – is commonly considered one of the most glorious of battles. While this is correct in that: through unity a tyranny was finally stopped, it was also brutal with huge losses on both sides.
Thermopylae – is the battle of the 300 Spartans. These few soldiers face down a massive army over several days of fighting. While the reality is a bit different from the legend, it is still a few who sacrifice everything to create time to help save many. The Spartans knew that they would never leave.
Dresden – is in some ways not a battlefield in that this was a series of bombings in which there was limited return fire. As a result, the city was effectively leveled over a couple of days & nights. Being a person on (or hopefully under) the ground would have been harrowing.
Stalingrad – the defense of this city spawned several legends and has been used, sometimes erroneously, in many stories. I consider here the sheer hanging-on-ed-ness of these people who really had little chance of success against a more aggressive attacker. It is this spirit that helped them hold just long enough and then rebuild.
Kyiv – provides a contrast to the piece before. The people who showed such courage before are now (apparently) besieging another country, complete with similar atrocities to those they suffered. I was initially going to avoid this but then it felt that the hope for freedom through sacrifice was exactly what this record is about.
Bến Tre – as a battlefield is famous for the (mis)quote about needing to destroy the town to save it. The tracks starts with what sounds like birdcalls which represent the “chatter” of planning the whole spate of attacks. The initial conquest is successful. The response has to demolish the whole town piece by piece to dislodge the enemy.
Fort Pillow – is a relatively forgotten battle in the American Civil War. I read about it in the Harry Turtledove book of the same name. Union soldiers had taken a fort and garrisoned it with a unit of freed “colored” slaves. This angered the Confederates and they besieged the fort. Ultimately the fort was undefendable, and when the Confederates overran it, they massacred everyone they could.
The Levant – has always been an exciting place to live. There are few places in the world as continually affected by attempts to conquer & control. Things got hot again whilst writing this album with a deliberate atrocity that sadly reminds us that some are more interested in their idea of glory than building good memories.
Just Memories – over time glories fade. We are left with only diffuse (or re-engineered) memories.

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Artwork

The main painting on the album cover is Henry V at Agincourt by Harry Payne (1858–1927).
The photo below is the location of the Agincourt battlefield today.