As part of the remembrance of the Armistice Day Centenary, this November there will be three concert performances entitled War and the Human Heart, to be held in Logan, Utah, Chicago and Valparaiso, Indiana.  The purpose of the concert series is to commemorate the Centenary and honor veterans by communicating to the audiences what a veteran's experience is really like. 

On the concert program is Percy Grainger's We Have Fed Our Sea for a Thousand Years (1911), based on the poem of Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).  Both Grainger and Kipling knew the war first hand: Kipling’s son John was killed in action at age 18, during the First World War Battle of Loos in September of 1915.  Grainger served in 1917-19 as a U.S. Army Bandsman. 

While still a student at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfort, Grainger discovered Kipling’s poetry and began setting it to music. We Have Fed Our Sea for a Thousand Years was originally composed between 1900-1904, and rescored in 1911. As noted by Grainger’s close friend, the pianist and composer Cyril Scott, "Whenever Grainger elects to produce one of his Kipling settings . . . he becomes Kipling."

The concert dates and locations:

UTAH: Saturday, November 3 @ 7:30 pm (MT)  

Daines Concert Hall, Utah State University, Logan, Utah USA

Presented by the American Festival Chorus and Utah State University, Craig Jessop conducting (http://www.americanfestivalchorus.org/performance/2018/war-and-human-heart)

ILLINOIS: Saturday, November 10 @ 7:30 pm (CT)

St. James Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois USA

Presented by the Rembrandt Chamber Players, Craig Jessop conducting (http://www.rembrandtchamberplayers.org/events/war-and-the-human-heart/)

INDIANA: Sunday, November 11 @ 5 pm (CT)

Chapel of the Resurrection, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana USA

Presented by Valparaiso University, Christopher Cock and Jeffrey Scott Doebler, conducting (https://www.valpo.edu/music/whh/)