Battle-Flags
Battle-Flags
a meditation on loss for chorus and string orchestra, or chorus and two pianos (7')
To purchase this piece for performance, add the "String Orchestra Full Score and Parts" or “Two-Piano Full Score and Parts” to your shopping cart, then add the number of "Vocal Scores" that you plan to print.
The Full Score (for string orchestra) is formatted for 11x17in. paper, the string parts are formatted for 8.5x11in. paper, the Full Score (for two pianos) is formatted for 8.5x11in. paper, the piano parts are formatted for 8.5x11in. paper, and the vocal score is formatted for 8.5x11in. paper.
Original version for chorus and string orchestra completed in August, 2015. Version for chorus and two pianos completed in September, 2021.
Instrumentation: SATB chorus (with divisi) and string orchestra, or SATB chorus (with divisi) and two pianos.
The original version of this piece was commissioned by the Choral Arts Society of Washington, Scott Tucker, Artistic Director, in memory of Norman Scribner. The version of this piece for chorus and two pianos was commissioned by Luminous Voices, Tim Shantz, Artistic Director.
Text: by Walt Whitman (1819-1892), from Leaves of Grass (1892). Public domain
This piece may be performed immediately before Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem (1868).
“Wadsworth ... is someone to keep an eye on. His compelling “Battle-Flags,” using verse by Walt Whitman, was composed to be followed without
pause by the Brahms, a function it fulfilled admirably. Delicately scored for chorus, obbligato string quartet and string orchestra, it was fresh, deeply felt and strikingly original in a way that complemented rather than competed with the gigantic “Requiem.”
Most impressive is Wadsworth’s feeling for text, which he sets with a sensitivity that is never obvious, yet always apt. Verses from Whitman’s poem, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” were understandable in the hall, something only the most skilled vocal composers are able to pull off.”