So the choir and orchestra performed The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins last night, after many months (at least two) of arduous rehearsal. The audience seemed to like it, or perhaps had been brought up to be polite and not show their true feelings; we shall never know. But the performance went well enough, and there was a lot of hearty applause, so hopefully it was the former.
It is such an emotional work, pulling together texts from many sources for its graphic depiction of war and its aftermath, and ending with a moment of consolation and hope for a better future. The message is timeless, reminding us that conflict has been a sad feature of our history for centuries past, and is unlikely to disappear in the near future, given the tensions blighting so many parts of world.
Today I feel physically and emotionally drained by it all: after all the weeks of effort, it is over and done with. It always leaves you a little deflated, but that is really just a consequence of the emotional high of the performance. These things take you out of the humdrumness of the daily routine: the highs and lows are what makes it all worthwhile.
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