Morning Heroes


Morning Heroes is a choral symphony by the English composer Arthur Bliss. The work received its first performance at the Norwich Festival on 22 October 1930, with Basil Maine as the speaker/orator. Written in the aftermath of World War I, in which Bliss had performed military service, Bliss inscribed the dedication as follows:
"To the Memory of my brother Francis Kennard Bliss and all other Comrades killed in battle"

The work sets various poems:
The extracts are spoken by a narrator and sung by a large choir. Juxtaposing the harsh images of trench warfare with the epic heroes of Ancient Greece, the parallels Bliss draws are essentially romantic, and the work as a whole has been criticised as being rather complacent. Bliss himself said that he suffered from a repeating nightmare about his war experiences and that the composition of Morning Heroes helped to exorcise this.

Movements

The work falls into five sections, in the structure of a palindrome, with the first movement acting as a prologue, then fast, slow, and fast movements, and the final movement acting as an epilogue. The work includes the respective texts.:
  • I: "Hector's Farewell to Andromache"
  • II: "The City Arming"
  • III: "Vigil" - "The Bivouac's Flame"
  • IV: "Achilles goes to battle" - "The Heroes"
  • V: "Now, Trumpeter, For Thy Close" - "Spring Offensive" - "Dawn on the Somme"

Recordings