The composer writes: I composed Five Poems From the Great War (2018) for the Collegium Ancora of Providence, Rhode Island, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Between 1914 and 1918, an astonishing amount of poetry was written about “The Great War” – the largest and bloodiest conflict the world had yet seen. This body of poetry is diverse in the extreme: including works of pro-war patriotism and glorification, and anti-war poems about the horrors and futility of the conflict.
 
For this cycle of a-cappella choral miniatures, I chose four poems that present the thoughts and experiences of soldiers in battle; the fifth poem offers a retrospective voice in remembrance of the fallen troops. The texts are by the American Alan Seeger, a New Zealander identified only as “M.R.” and the English poets Robert Nichols, Harold Monro and Laurence Binyon.