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Additional Information
The Warning Song is a tone poem based on music from a dramatic cantata for four principals, children’s chorus, and small orchestra. It was written and composed in 1985 and performed that year at Spring Street Theatre, Hull, under the musical direction of Laurence Rugg, who had commissioned it. It was a stage work created in opposition to the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The music of the tone poem begins with an abbreviated statement of the ‘March of Escalation’ and then turns to the music of ‘The Warning Song’, the message of which was taken from lines in William Cowper’s poem Expostulation of 1782:
I know the warning song is sung in vain, That few will hear, and fewer heed the strain.
The mood changes to one of satire in the next section, based on the song ‘Tarzon Agonistes’, Tarzan being the nickname of the UK’s defence minister Michael Heseltine. He had suffered huge embarrassment when Sarah Tisdall, a Foreign Office employee, leaked information about how he was intending to explain to the House of Commons the arrival of American cruise missiles. The unfortunate Sarah was imprisoned for her offence.
The march of escalation interrupts before a new lyrical theme acts as a lament for the neglected veterans of the UK’s nuclear tests carried out in 1957–58 at Malden Island and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) in the Pacific Ocean. Analysis of subsequent illnesses suffered by veterans had been deemed too difficult to interpret, and case brought before the European Court of Human Rights in 1998 was rejected by a majority of 5 to 4. In 2005, researchers at Massey University, New Zealand, discovered that there was a statistically significant rate of chromosome translocations in the blood of sailors who had witnessed the tests. An attempt by over a thousand ex-servicemen to sue the Ministry of Defence collapsed on the grounds that too much time had elapsed since they first noticed health problems. In contrast, the government of Fiji awarded compensation payment in 2015 for the two dozen surviving Fijians who had been present at the tests.
The march of escalation now develops in a more persistent manner and lead to a reprise of the scornful ‘Tarzan’ music. That is followed by a reprise of the lament and, after a final short interruption from the march, the ‘Warning Song’ music is recapitulated.
Instrumentation
3.3.3.2. – 4.2.3.1. – Timps + perc. – Str.
Duration 9 mins 30 secs
(Untuned percussion, 1 player: Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Cymbals.)