This edition was prepared by Douglas Walczak — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
A Dirge for Two Veterans
Staff Notation • Secular, Laments
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A Dirge for Two Veterans by Gustav Holst — Lyrics
The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finished Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a newmade double grave.
Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the housetops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.
I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming fullkeyed bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they are flooding,
As with voices and with tears.
I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.
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About A Dirge for Two Veterans
Gustav Holst composed this moving TTBB setting of A Dirge for Two Veterans, a secular English text by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The poem reflects on the burial of two soldiers, father and son, in the aftermath of war. Holst’s music captures the solemnity of the occasion, from the opening imagery of the fading light on a newly dug grave to the overwhelming sound of the funeral procession, marked by the heavy beat of drums and the lamenting call of bugles. The composer’s setting powerfully conveys the grief and immense loss described in the text, making it a profound choral elegy suitable for remembrance ceremonies or memorial occasions.
