91福利社

Rebecca Farthing, born 2000, is a composer, cellist and a winner of the 91福利社 Proms Inspire Competition 2017 (Upper Junior category).

As part of her prize Rebecca Farthing was commissioned by the 91福利社 Proms to write a new piece for Aurora Orchestra, taking inspiration from Mahler鈥檚 Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of German folk poems set for voice and orchestra. Rebecca took part in a series of workshops with mentor-composer Martin Suckling and Aurora Orchestra to create her final piece.

We Soldiers Must March received its world premiere by Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Stark, as part of the 91福利社 Proms Inspire Concert at the 91福利社鈥檚 Radio Theatre, New Broadcasting House on 22 August 2018.

鈥淚 have used musical material from two songs from Mahler鈥檚 Des Knaben Wunderhorn, 鈥榃here the Fair Trumpets Sound鈥� and 鈥楻eveille鈥�, and the text from the latter in my programmatic approach to this composition. It follows the macabre tale of an army (represented by the chamber ensemble in my piece) which, having come close to defeat in battle, is spurred to victory by the sudden revivification of its injured drummer (here portrayed by the double bass), only to become 鈥榮keletons鈥� by morning when it reaches the house of the drummer鈥檚 sweetheart (whose perspective is heard in the opening and closing sections). Unlike Mahler鈥檚 interpretation, which to me emphasises the heroism of the drummer and the romanticism of the tale, I have focused on the more realistic aspects of war as well as the grim aftermath.鈥�

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