Sparke, Philip - In Memoriam: For the Fallen

In Memoriam: For the Fallen was commissioned by Bolsover District Council for the Bolsover Brass Summer School 2014.
It is a setting for narrator and band of Laurence Binyon’s (1869-1943) poem, For the Fallen, which was first published in The Times in September 1914. Binyon was dismayed at the outbreak of war and especially concerned by the large number ofcasualties suffered by the British Expeditionary Force in the early months of the battle on the Western Front. Too old to enlist, he volunteered as a hospital orderly in France. The poem is known world-wide as the famous fourth stanza (They shallgrow not old…) has become a regular part of Remembrance Day and ANZAC Day services.
In Memoriam: For the Fallen is a musical accompaniment to the poem, shadowing the mood of each stanza.