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What do you think I fought for on Omaha Beach?

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Here is the excerpted text as it appears in the new choral work:

“Good morning, committee. My name is Phillip Spooner and I live at 5 Graham Street in Biddeford. I am 86 years old and a lifetime Republican and an active VFW chaplain … I was born on a potato farm north of Caribou and Perham, where I was raised to believe that all men are created equal, and I’ve never forgotten that.

I served in the U.S. Army, 1942-1945 … I worked with every outfit over there, including Patton’s Third Army. I saw action in all five major battles in Europe… I was in the liberation of Paris.

(I have seen much, so much blood and guts, so much suffering, much sacrifice.)

I am here today because of a conversation I had last June when I was voting. A woman … asked me, “Do you believe in equality for gay and lesbian people?” I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her, “What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?”

For freedom and equality. These are the values that make America a great nation, one worth dying for.

My wife and I did not raise four sons with the idea that our gay son would be left out. We raised them all to be hard-working, proud, and loyal Americans and they all did good.”


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Comments

  1. The composer of this piece is also behind the Gonzales Cantata, which is set to excerpts from governement hearings to a surprisingly moving effect. You can listen to the whole thing online at her website actually. 

  2. So far as affecting public policy, the "fors" will not change, but the "undecideds" and the "againsts" may not care for the music itself and/or the performance     of it even though in agreement with the sentiment expressed. We have to be careful to not alienate the approximately 50% who are on the other side of any issue raised. Selfishly speaking, classical music is having a tough period right now and anything that might win new and better patronage is a good thing.
    If there were a pattern of similar compositions, it would be easily known. It is very difficlult to set music to a prose text- the music can become too busy, vague and preachy, missing the mission that was in the mind of the composer and word crafter. There are many short songs on many issues: abolition, for instance. The most successful thing related to this attempt might be the "lincoln Portrait" of Aaron Copeland.

  3. Spectacular sentiment … maybe choral music really can affect public policy.
     
    Question: As this is in the same vein as "Letter Home," "Dear Sarah," and "Letters from the Front," does anybody have a historical sense of whether this is a current pattern? Or have there always been popular pieces with texts from letters or politically charged speeches? The only one I remember is "The Declaration of Independence," and that is much more generic than these current pieces.
     
    Question #2: If there are lots of these pieces out there (with texts from speeches or letters), which do you really like?
     
     

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