War Poems: the dead returning lightly dance

War Poems: the dead returning lightly dance is a 23’ chamber piece for mixed ensemble and recorded spoken word commissioned by Poems on the Underground and premiered by the Apollo Chamber Orchestra (conducted by David Chernaik) on the 2nd of November, 2016, at the London Transport Museum. Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, trumpet, 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, double bass, 2 percussionist and electroacoustic sounds. The electroacoustic sounds are made from recordings the composer made of native speakers reciting international war poetry from the period, each poem in its original language. The music is composed around these recordings but also has its own structure and identity. In the performance, poet Michael Rosen read out each poem in translation in between the movements.