Musical groups unite for battle of Britten

The Chapel will witness a war this weekend.

Rodney Wynkoop, director of Chapel music, will conduct the Chapel Choir, Durham Civic Choral Society, North Carolina Symphony, a professional chamber orchestra, soloists and the newly-formed Boy Choir at Duke Chapel this weekend in a performance of Benjamin Britten's immense War Requiem.

Because of the huge numbers of musicians involved, the War Requiem is logistically difficult and rarely performed. An ongoing arrangement with the North Carolina Symphony, gave Wynkoop his first opportunity to conduct the work, which has enthralled him since he first became acquainted with it over ten years ago. "It's been on my mind for all these years," Wynkoop said.

The requiem juxtaposes the traditional Latin text of the Mass for the Dead with the heart-rending poetry of Wilfred Owen, a young English poet who was killed in World War I. Owen's words serve as a preface to Britten's piece: "My subject is War and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity . . . All a poet can do today is warn."

Owen's poetry is sung by tenor Christopher Cameron and baritone Donald Milholin who assume the role of soldiers on opposing sides, confused and horrified by the war which they are asked to fight. Owen's purpose in writing the poetry and Britten's message when he set it to music nearly fifty years later were to alert the world to the evils of war.

In contrast to the soldiers' voices, the full choir and soprano soloist sing the bulk of the mass text, providing a more formal expression of mourning and emphasizing the poignancy of Owen's poetry.

The boys' choir adds an additional plane of meaning, singing portions of the mass and depicting the innocence and hope which their elders have lost. Contrasting especially with the disillusionment and bitterness of the two soldiers, the boys' function in the requiem is to provide "a bit of heavenly bliss and a bit of the innocence which existed before we grew up . . . the purity which we try to call on in worship," Wynkoop said.

Britten combines his sources and performing forces masterfully throughout the work. In many ways each of the three groups function on separate levels; however, Britten is constantly drawing parallels from one to the other. In the final movement the tenor and baritone soloists sing together with the full and boys' choirs for the first time, bringing all the characters to resolution simultaneously as the musical tension is released by a final, satisfying resolution of the tritone interval which pervades the piece.