Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday, June 4, 2010, 2010

I really enjoyed our day today. We started the day by going to class and having Brother Whimmer (our tour guide, more or less) lecture on the two World Wars, focusing largely on the wars from the British perspective. I really liked that, but found myself wanting more time to go through everything (as he did). He only had about an hour to do both wars, so it was rather rushed.

We then went through two choral pieces written during and/or as a result of the wars: Vaughan Williams' “Dona Nobis Pacem” and Britten's “War Requiem.” I really enjoyed the VW piece, but I still have a hard time connecting with Britten. I can accept and appreciate his music as very intelligent and complex, but I just can't connect with him emotionally. We did a piece by him this past year, “I Loved a Lass,” which which I actually connected fairly decently, but basically everything else I've heard by him has been just a little too disjunct for my liking. I feel a bit frustrated by it, because I often pride myself on being extremely open-minded about music and can fairly easily delve into a piece of music and a composer—if it is good writing. There are plenty of composers I just can't appreciate because they simply do not write good music.

Anyway, after class, we headed home for some lunch and then we all went independently to the Imperial War Museum, which I loved. In fact, I may even go back. One thing I found a bit frustrating about it was that they had INCREDIBLE amounts of uniforms and armory, but it was sometimes a bit thin on the information about the wars. I would have preferred to receive more information about what actually happened in the wars, as opposed to just seeing uniforms, guns, armory, etc.

They did have two exhibits that I enjoyed a great deal:

One was a trench exhibit/replica/simulation for World War I. It smelled really bad—probably not as bas as the actual ones—and they did quite a good job of modeling and designing it to look fairly haphazardly constructed, as I imagine the original ones were. I felt like I got a better grasp of what trench life was, though I am probably nowhere near where I should or want to be in regard to my knowledge of what it was. I wish there were more films about WWI so we would understand it better. I suppose the US wasn't nearly as involved in that war as it was in other wars and since the majority of films that come out in the US are made by Americans, they just aren't as motivated to write scripts about it.

Anyway, the other exhibit that I liked a lot was a bomb shelter that they used during the Blitz, when the Luftwaffe bombed the living daylights out of London. They had us all go into a super small brick room with two wooden benches. We stayed in there for about five or ten minutes while we were “bombed,” which consisted in recordings of loud explosions and screaming, among sounds of buildings collapsing. They then had us move out of the room once the bombing was over and we saw the ruins of the city. It was dark and there were tons of “fires” all around us. They narrated it simply by recordings of people talking to each other about the damages from the bombs. It was pretty cool.

After the museum, friend Emily and I went to get yummy Thai food. Then I watched “Saving Private Ryan” with a few friends. I don't necessarily enjoy watching that movie, but I think films or experiences like that are essential to understanding what WWII was and what war is. I remember not really appreciating war and WWII until I saw that film. That film brought to light all the things they had to suffer through. I hadn't seen it since I was about 15 or 16, so I thought it was about time I watched it again. It's a fabulous and powerful film.

Below are my notes from class today.

140 million deaths associated with deaths in 20th century
GB had had peace for about 100 yrs prev to WWI
problems within the empire, but no wars
previously constantly at war with Frnc
most powerful and wealthy country in the world at that time
highest standard of living, healthiest people
GB believed that war was a thing of the past—that they had established peace

We (U.S.) have a tendency to view war as moral conflict b/t good and evil—God and Satan, essentially
WWI was fought b/t abt 40 mi b/t France and Belgium (trenches)
gases used in trenches
effects lasted yrs and yrs
role of U.S.:
53,000 casualties
Amer perspective: “aw crap, we've gotta go save Britain again”
Brit persp: “Johnny come late.”
not a moral war.
Ex: cooks exchanging recipes, Christmas Eve celebration
ended bc both sides were totally exhausted and couldn't suffer any more casualties
often stated that God was one of the casualties – faith

WWII:

Germany got short end of stick
blamed largely for WWI
in Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to admit guilt
$40 Bill. Reparations due from Germany
hyper inflation
Sept, '39 – May '40 – not much fighting, but some gunfire
Hitler: “Give us the continent (incl Russia) and you can have the rest of the world.”
Churchill refused
England sent armada of little boats to pick up soldiers
May 29, 1940
Britain alone against Luftwaffe
Churchill gave speech declaring their aims against Germany
Hitler hated it – began 80 day war of personalities b/t the two
began preparations for operation Sea Lion – German Navy to take out Royal Air Force
RAF – only 1200 pilots
Battle of Britain
RAF was very effective, but couldn't afford losses
for every 1 RAF loss, there were 2.5 Germ. Losses
Sept. 7 – German Luftwaffe invades, supasses London, bombs civillian areas
50-60,000 Britons killed
although many civillians were killed, it gave RAF chance to recover and rest; retrain, etc.

Vaughan Williams

brought up in very affluent family
enlisted in WWI as ambulence man – carrying stretchers
horrific experiences
people who heard his music before said his music was never the same
Commissioned to write Dona Nobis Pacem as WWII was brewing
chose texts from several scs
began with mass, then moved to Walt Whitman poem (Whitman served as nurse during Amer. Civil War)
Went around and recorded people singing English Folk songs that had not been written down
much of his music sounds like English folk songs