This edition was prepared by James Crawford — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Dulce Et Decorum Est. Choral Edition.
Staff Notation • Secular, Art songs
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Dulce Et Decorum Est. Choral Edition. by James Crawford — Lyrics
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knockkneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marche asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, bloodshod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired outstripped FiveNines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!An ecstacy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I was him drowning.
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About Dulce Et Decorum Est. Choral Edition.
James Crawford sets Wilfred Owen’s searing anti-war poem in this TBB setting. The music captures the grim, weary trudging of soldiers, punctuated by moments of desperate, terrifying action. The composer uses the texture to convey the physical and psychological toll of conflict, from the exhaustion and disorientation of the march to the shocking immediacy of a gas attack. The raw power of Owen’s text, which vividly describes the horrors of the First World War, is reflected in the music’s dynamic shifts and the visceral imagery of the lyrics. This is a potent and moving work for male voices.
