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A Buried Flame

composition
posted on 2023-06-08, 07:29 authored by Ed HughesEd Hughes
Texts from Psalm 69, and three poems from the collection Poems from Guantanamo (University of Iowa Press, 2007) Used by permission of the book’s editor, Marc Falkoff, and publisher, University of Iowa Press. The poems in this collection were by current and former detainees at Guantanamo Bay, at time of publication, translated into English. ‘The poems in this collection were written against enormous odds. The men detained in Guantanamo Bay are routinely held in solitary confinement, condemned without a fair trial, many of them tortured. Through it all, some have taken sanctuary in poetry and through [these poems] we hear their voices and glimpse their innermost feelings. Their poems are a remarkable and moving testament to the power of the human spirit.’ Composer’s note:- I was struck by the modernity of these poems and their ‘general concern with physical incarceration and oppression rather than with Islam’ [as Flagg Miller notes in an introduction to the collection]. At the same time suffering, oppression and imprisonment has unfortunately been a constant mark of human experience throughout the ages, as seen in Psalm 69, to take an example from Christian tradition. The kernel of this new composition is a recognition, prompted by this collection of poems, that the ‘war on terror’ has undoubtedly resulted in detention without trial and further injustices; the music exists as a response to the poetry while including the notion that any hope for the future must reside in religions and political cultures talking to one another, and seeking reconciliation.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

University of York Music Press

Department affiliated with

  • Music Publications

Notes

IMSN M-57036-171-7 available at http://uymp.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=32&products_id=812

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  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • No

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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