Duty Alone)
(This page)
Duty Alone
(This page)
DETAILS AND TEXTS/TRANSLATIONS.
Duty Alone:
Composer's note: As the war advanced and the
initial popular fervour for battle diminished, soldiers
had to find their own motivations to keep going. In the
first text in this section, Victor Richardson, writing
to Vera Brittain about her brother Edward, states: 'He
is sustained by duty alone'.17 With the
further passage of time, widespread disillusionment
grew on all sides. The second text is an anonymous poem
written on a scrap of paper and left by German soldiers
in a railway carriage in early 1918. It was reported by
the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior to the regional
army command as an indication of diminishing
morale.18 The text translates as 'It is all
a swindle, War is for the wealthy, The middle class
must give way, The people provide the corpses'. My
setting of 'Schwindel' is jaunty but slightly
disjointed, to echo the possible mood of soldiers who
are beyond caring. While 'Duty alone', in contrast, is
solemn, both settings, are intended to convey a feeling
verging on desperation.
Texts:
He is sustained by duty alone; [17] duty,
duty alone
Es ist alles Schwindel; [18] Schwindel,
Schwindel
Es ist alles Schwindel:
Der Krieg ist für die Reichen,
Der Mittelstand muss weichen,
Das Volk, das stellt die Leichen [18]
[It's all a swindle
War is for the wealthy
The middle class must give way
The people provide the corpses]
He is sustained by duty alone
Duty alone
REFERENCES:
17 1916, in Vera Brittain: A Life by
Paul Berry & Mark Bostridge (1996, p.106). Pimlico,
London.
18 Quoted in German and in English
translation by Richard Bessel in Germany after the
First World War (1993) Clarendon Press, Oxford,
p.1. With thanks to Professor Bessel for clarifying the
translation and the military context.
© Emily Feldberg 2017-2018.