Honour and Reality

Honour and Reality by Frank Horvat

2014 / Choral

DURATION
6 minutes, 15 seconds

INSTRUMENTATION
men’s chorus (TTBB), a cappella

TEXT
Frank Horvat

  1. Honour and Reality (midi demo) 06:12

Programme Notes

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, I created this piece as a way to imagine what it must have been like, both on the home front and on the front lines. I’ve always been compelled by what motivates people to go off to war and risk their lives. To explore this, I perused many recruitment posters from the time and noticed that the same keywords were consistently used. At the same time, I read a moving and graphic letter on a Government of Canada website by Captain Bellenden S. Hutcheson, a decorated war hero from WWI, in which he described in great detail the horrors he witnessed on the front lines.

These two sources became the primary inspiration behind the lyrics I composed for the piece. The collage of keywords quickly switches back and forth between the “Honour” theme and the “Reality” theme—sometimes phrase by phrase, note by note, and even occasionally sung simultaneously. This technique symbolizes the fine line between going off to war for “noble” reasons and the senselessness of it all.

The overall solemn mood is intended as a mark of respect for those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

– Frank Horvat

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