A Walk Into War - Programme notes & text

Movements

I Waking: Gently, through a haze

II Slowly, over-dramatically: Hesitantly: Smoother

III Gently roaring: Busily: Slowly and coldly

V From afar: A little faster

V Gracefully

VI Gently rhythmic: With a little arrogance: Funereal

VII Slowly and sadly: Desolately

VIII Quite still: Strongly, with terror: Violently: Wearily

X Lightly, with increasing intensity: Becoming agitated: Miserably: Gradually easing

A Walk Into War for tenor and piano quintet is based on two books by the English writer, Laurie Lee. The first, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, is an account of Laurie Lee leaving his village in Gloucester, walking through Wiltshire and the South before working a year in London and travelling to Spain. Laurie Lee left Spain at the onset of the Spanish Civil War, but returned to fight some time later. The account of this is given in a later book, A Moment of War.

This piece has three main sections. The first, an English phase, is concerned with Laurie Lee’s departure from his village, making his living by busking, and working in London. Laurie Lee was just 19 years old (‘still soft at the edges’) and these years were the 1930’s; hence at times there exists a layer of apprehension to the lighter quality. A Spanish section sets some of the dominant aspects of his long walk through Spain, a period of his book which captures so beautifully his own youth and naivety, and the ‘unspoilt’ feeling of Spain at this time. The third and final portion of this piece takes as its basis his return to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Subsequent analysis has brought some controversy to Laurie Lee’s account but his writing still remains one of the most evocative and important descriptions of this period of history, not least because he writes so easily about the contradictions of war - optimism and desolation, organization and confusion.

I have constructed this libretto from the two books and with the exception of one or two minor alterations all the phrases are preserved in their original form. Some deliberate musical references have been made, chosen because their première occurred in the year in question. These include Vaughan Williams and Walton, as well as allusion to Spanish structures of particular regions. A Walk Into War was commissioned by the Allegri Quartet and supported by Southern Arts for its première at the Salisbury Festival 2002 with guest artists Paul Agnew (tenor) and Daniel Tong (piano).

Introduction (spoken)

The stooping figure of my mother, waist-deep in the grass and caught there like a piece of sheep's wool, was the last I saw of my country home as I left it to discover the world. She stood old and bent at the top of the bank, silently watching me go, one gnarled red hand raised in farewell and blessing, not questioning why I went. At the bend of the road I looked back again and saw the gold light die behind her; then I turned the corner, passed the village school, and closed that part of my life for ever.

(Reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of Laurie Lee. (c) the Estate of Laurie
Lee. All rights reserved.)

Departure

Laurie Lee left his Gloucester village in June 1934 and began to walk to the sea (his earlier life is described in his most famous book, Cider With Rosie). The image is that of ‘Englishness’ and summer but with touches of foreboding, in part reflecting these inter-War years. I have made reference to a work premièred in 1934, Suite for Viola and Small Orchestra by Vaughan Williams.

Southampton

After Salisbury, Laurie Lee walked to Southampton and then westwards along the south coast, disappointed by ‘that shabby shoreline suburbia.’ He supported himself by busking with his violin. He soon learnt what to do and what not, and found that slow melodies brought in more money than fast ones. More specifically, he found that Loch Lomond, Ave Marie, Largo, and Rose of Tralee worked particularly well and towards the end of this movement these can be heard together, one instrument of the quartet taking one melody.

London

By the time Laurie Lee reached London he was an experienced traveller. The first gentle roar of the capital that he described is evoked by close dissonances within the quartet, to be used in various guises in later movements. Following a girl who he had met in Gloucester (Cleo, ‘her lovely mouth was a political megaphone’) he lived in Putney, staying for the best

part of a year. He began to absorb his first experiences of city life and among these were visits to Queen’s Hall. I have made reference to William Walton’s first symphony* which was premièred there in 1935. Laurie Lee worked as a labourer on flats at the top of Putney Hill and a strike in May 1935 gave him his first ‘hallucinations of communism.’

Vigo

By early summer Laurie Lee’s work on the flats was coming to an end. He realized that he was free to go anywhere, ‘I was a young man whose time coincided with the last years of peace..’ He bought a one-way ticket to Vigo, a town on the coast of northern Spain, and departed on a Royal Mail Line ship in July 1935. The beginnings of Spanish structure now appear, the ‘crushed’ semitone in the harmony, and basic elements in the rhythm.

Dance

On arriving at Zamora, Laurie Lee heard three young German musicians giving a street concert with ‘waltzy gusts of Strauss’. He joined them that evening at an old dance hall where they were providing the music. The second violin, viola, and cello here mimic the accordion of one of the musicians and allude to the ‘Vienna Woods’ of which Laurie Lee makes reference. The piece closes with brief mention of the Pasodoble which was a feature of the wild drunken evening that followed.

Instrumental

Sunstroke/To the Sea

Laurie Lee continued towards the South and twice most evocatively describes the effect of walking in the intense heat. All the instruments are set high (with the earlier dissonances of ‘London’) but elements of the first movement can be heard as his hallucinations take him back home. His journey then took him on to Segovia and Madrid before travelling to the Southern coast. This later portion of the piece mixes up a number of Spanish structures including Soleares, Fandango, and Alegrías, the latter a form associated with Cadiz.

Execution

Laurie Lee was evacuated from Southern Spain in July 1936 but unable to settle back in England he returned in December 1937 to fight in the Spanish Civil War against the Fascists. After crossing the Pyrenees he was held for some time in a hole in the ground, accused of being a spy. The following texts are taken from A Moment of War, a sequel to As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.

Bombing

Having survived accusations of spying for Franco, Laurie Lee joined the International Brigade. In A Moment of War he twice experienced the bombing of a city, ’I was surprised at my detachment and lack of fear.’ The bombing of cities and their population was a new technique in warfare and it’s effect was of interest to the German Luftwaffe who collaborated with Italy and Franco in these attacks.

Conflict and Home

Throughout the book Laurie Lee vividly captures the misery and desolation of Civil War in Spain, more often or not through ‘minor’ incidents and experiences that are quite personal. None are arguably more poignant and pathetic than four boxes that are gently parachuted down to the expectant peasants. This is followed by reference to his one experience of battle which resulted in retreat, hand-to-hand fighting, and the killing of a man. Shortly afterwards Laurie Lee was advised to leave Spain (‘You could write about us, make speeches, paint posters - or something . . .') and he caught a train from Barcelona to the French border where an ‘amour’ was waiting.