Unsung Works about Battles/Wars or other military engagements

[monafam]

I have really received great replies with other posts, so I thought I'd try this one.

With my background in history (my BA is in History, but sadly I really don't use it for a career) and an affinity for military history, I was curious what sort of works were out there about military engagements, battles, or wars that I might not already know about.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[thalbergmad]

The one that immediately comes to mind is the Battle of Manassas by Blind Tom. There is also a Sonata entitled The Battle of Prague by Kotzwara and a fantasie on the Battle of Manila by Schleiffarth. All are pretty horrid Salon music.

On a slightly higher musical level is a piece by Steibelt which has the longest name I have ever seen:

"An Allegorical Overture in Commemoration of the Signal Naval Victory obtained by Admiral Duncan over  the Dutch Fleet on the 11th of October 1797"

I am a battlefield visitor myself and after a visit to a retrogressional hypnotist, it appears I fought for Cromwell at Naseby in a former life.

Thal

[Amphissa]

 

I was curious what sort of works were out there about military engagements, battles, or wars that I might not already know about.

Uh, how do we know which ones you already know about?   

[monafam]

Uh, how do we know which ones you already know about?   

I guess that was my not so clever way of referring to "unsung" works.  Let's just assume I am not aware of any.   

[Alan Howe]

Draeseke's Funeral March, Op.79 (dedicated to the memory of the German soldiers who fell in Africa) is a very fine piece indeed.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I fought for Cromwell at Naseby in a former life.

How very unpleasant for you!

[Mark Thomas]

I'm with the authors of "!066 and All That":

Roundheads were "right but repulsive" whilst the Cavaliers were "wrong but romantic".

[thalbergmad]

I fought for Cromwell at Naseby in a former life.

How very unpleasant for you!

Indeed, as now I would undoubtedly be a Royalist.

Thal

[Syrelius]

Franz Berwald has worked a bit in this genre, though these works hardly belong to his masterpieces...
The orchestral "tone painting" The Battle of Leipzig is available on a Sterling CD. Unfortunately (or perhaps not...  ) that is not the case of King Charles XII's Victory at Narva (for 4 tenors and military band) or The Victory and Death at Lützen of Gustavus Adolphus the Great (solo, choir, wind ensemble and organ).

[khorovod]

Perhaps strictly speaking beyond the remit of the forum, being Late Classical, but there is a "Grand Characteristic Symphony for the Peace with the French Republic" by Paul Wranitzky; it includes a fair amount of marching around by English, Austrians and Prussians (apparently authentic national military marches are used), a "tumult of the battle" section and takes in the death of the French king on the way to it's ultimately celebratory final section. There is a good recording of it from CPO with Howard Griffiths as conductor. It's a bit of a descriptive pot-pourri rather than a symphony proper.

On the same theme of the French Revolution, IIRC, Dussek wrote some sort of piano fantasy about the execution of Marie Antoinette but I can't remember offhand whether any of its several movements include music actually representating revolutionary battles/combats.

Tchaikovsky's fund-raising "Slavonic March" is hardly unsung but the "Triumphal March for the Capture of Kars" by Mussorgsky is far from being a repertoire piece.

[Revilod]

Well....if you don't know of any, in a forum devoted to unsung composers I'm reluctant to mention it but how about Tchaikovsky's "1812" Overture? There's also the "Battle on the Ice" from Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky".

Perhaps, though , the best piece of unsung music (though not by an unsung composer) on the theme of battle is Liszt's symphonic poem "Hunnenschlacht" ("The Battle of the Huns"), the first six minutes or so being amongst the finest, most imaginative and certainly most thrilling music that Liszt wrote. After that, though, it does rather go off the boil becoming rather noisy and bombastic. However, this performance on "Youtube" really makes the best of it:

http://www.youtube.com/user/liszt73#p/search/0/VZpXaxWp_1k

http://www.youtube.com/user/liszt73#p/search/1/mqCoXmYNdfY

[TerraEpon]

There's also the "Battle on the Ice" from Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky".

Well if you mention that, you could mention hundreds of other film scores about war, couldn't you?

Anyway, there's a very interesting CD that has music for, what is basically, brass band with flutes and clarinets (IIRC) written near the beginning of the 20th century. It's called "A Trip to Coney Island" and includes a piece called "The Battle of San Juan Hill" by one Albert Sweet
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=11806&name_role1=1&bcorder=1&comp_id=60379

As for the other piece, The Battle of Shiloh by C. L. Barnhouse, I apparently didn't like it enough to buy it on eMusic...

[khorovod]

There's also the "Battle on the Ice" from Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky".

Well if you mention that, you could mention hundreds of other film scores about war, couldn't you?

I think the Prokofiev cantata is generally accepted as a concert work, independent of the material's origin in a movie score, actually. It would be interesting to know how many people who own recordings of the work or have listened to it in concert have even seen the movie and heard the music in that context.

If I might be permitted to stretch the boundaries of the original request, a leftfield and most definitely unsung composition is Anthony Philip Heinrich's symphony, The Ornithological Combat of Kings, or the Condor of the Andes and the Eagle of the Cordilleras. Its four movements are named:

"The Conflict of the Condor in the Air"
"The Repose of the Condor"
"The Combat of the Condor on Land"
"The Victory of the Condor"

High-spirited and original to say the least even if its inspiration is nature rather than the military. 

[Delicious Manager]

It would be interesting to know how many people who own recordings of the work or have listened to it in concert have even seen the movie and heard the music in that context.

Yes, I would agree that the Alexander Nevsky cantata has to be accepted as a concert work in this context (as would Lieutenant Kizhe). I have seen the film twice - once with its scratchy original soundtrack and once with the score played 'live' in the concert hall with the film shown behind the orchestra. I have to say that the film (a masterpiece in its own right) gains tremendously from Prokofiev's technicolour score.

Contributors might be interested to know that there is one recording of most of the soundtrack, with numbers in the order they appear in the film (they are re-ordered for the cantata). It is available on RCA Victor with the St Petersburg Phil conducted by Yuri Temirkanov. It lends an interesting comparison to the cantata and contains some excellent music that didn't make it into the concert work.

[albion]

There is Havergal Brian's formidable fourth symphony Das Siegeslied (1932-33), setting Psalm 68. Clearly a reflection of growing German militarism, it's certainly not an easy listen but the sheer prodigality of Brian's invention is astounding - the Marco Polo/ Naxos recording is serviceable but the work still awaits a recording worthy of it:

http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.570308

Another relevant British composition is Sir Arthur Sullivan's Boer War Te Deum. Commissioned to celebrate (hypothetical) victory, Sullivan did not live long enough to hear it and it was first performed posthumously in 1902. In this poignant last work, Sullivan makes use of his 1872 hymn tune St Gertrude (better known as Onward, Christian Soldiers). The Hyperion recording under Ronald Corp is very good:

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67423&f=sullivan

Parry's Naval Ode The Chivalry of the Sea is a fine and moving tribute to those lost at sea in the early years of the First World War. An outstanding performance can be heard on a war-themed Dutton disc, including Frederick Kelly's incredibly beautiful Elegy In Memoriam Rupert Brooke and Elgar's The Spirit of England:

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7172