"In Flanders Field" & "He is There" from THREE SONGS OF THE WAR by Ives • Washington Men's Camerata

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Charles Ives (1874–1954) premiered "Three Songs of the War" in 1917 in response to the US entering World War 1. The text was written 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, M.D. after seeing a friend die in battle. The third piece in the cycle, not included here, is "Tom Sails Away." Julie Huang Tucker, piano. Scott Tucker, conductor. Washington Men's Camerata in "The Dawn of Peace" concert in 2024.

IN FLANDERS FIELD

In Flanders fields the poppies blow;
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks still bravely singing fly,
Scarce heard amidst the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from falling hands we throw,
The torch; be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though [the] poppies
grow in Flanders fields.

HE IS THERE

Fifteen years ago today
A little Yankee, little yankee boy
Marched beside his granddaddy
In the decoration day parade.
The village band would play
Those old war tunes,
And the G. A. R. would shout,
“Hip Hip Hooray!” in the same old way,
As it sounded on the old camp ground.
That boy has sailed o’er the ocean,
He is there, he is there, he is there.
He’s fighting for the right,
But when it comes to might,
He is there, he is there, he is there;
As the Allies beat up all the warlords!
He’ll be there, he’ll be there,
And then the world will shout
The Battle-cry of Freedom
Tenting on a new camp ground.
For it’s rally round the Flag boys
Rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of Freedom.

Washington Men's Camerata, directed by Scott Tucker, is DC's premier chorus performing, promoting, and preserving diverse tenor and bass choral music and camaraderie since 1984. The Camerata has performed at The Kennedy Center, The White House, Smithsonian institutions, National Gallery of Art, Wolf Trap, Strathmore, and across the region; alongside National Symphony Orchestra, The U.S. Army Chorus, Washington Symphonic Brass, Mark Morris Dance Group, Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia, and on NPR, PBS, and SiriusXM. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Camerata has recorded six albums and regularly commissions and premieres pieces, part of a national lending library of sheet music, The Demetrius Project, with over 200,000 scores of 3,300 works. https://www.camerata.com/