The War Prayer
Music by David Sampson
Libretto by Johanna Keller, David Sampson
During the spring of 1970, I was completing my first year
at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. One afternoon, upon
leaving school, I became intrigued by a book fair that was being presented
at nearby Rittenhouse Square. Entering the small park, I began to browse
through the displays of used books and almost immediately came upon
a slim, hardback edition of a book by Mark Twain titled The War
Prayer.
As I flipped the pages, reading the extended poem illustrated
with pen and ink scenes, I became caught up in its message. It spoke
of the full import of war, not just the killing and maiming
of ones own troops, but, the effect on the enemy, including
the destruction of their land and the pain inflicted on their women
and children. It spoke of religious leaders aiding and abetting the
war effort, which Twain saw as a gross hypocrisy. Since this was at
the height of the Vietnam War and I had seen the photographs and film
clips of the devastation not just to our troops but to Vietnam as a
whole, and I had witnessed the members of the Lutheran congregation
of which I was a part, vote in favor of Johnson’s Vietnam policy, the
words rang true. I vowed that someday I would set this poem to music.
As time passed and I went from student to teacher, I noticed
how quickly Vietnam was forgotten or in the case of the next generation
never remembered. I saw a high school student body ready to grab weapons
and destroy Iran because of Americans taken hostage. I saw
the vehemence and hatred in the eyes of these teenagers as war
fever again swept across the country. The message of The
War Prayer came back to me.
Shortly afterwards, I received my chance to set the poem
through a fellowship grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
and a residency from the McDowell Colony. Coincidentally, I was in the
middle of doctorate work at the Manhattan School of Music studying with
John Corigliano, who had just finished the first act of his Ghosts
of Versailles for the Metropolitan Opera. Needing guidance in
the writing of the libretto, I contacted a poet/writer/singer friend
by the name of Johanna Keller who agreed to help me shape a singable
text out of Twain’s narrative. We spent many long hours tossing ideas
around, literally piecing the text together from scraps of paper strewn
all over Johannas living room floor. I then tested out our ideas
with Vern Arens, minister at Brookside Community Church, the church
at which I was music director. We realized that as we were expanding
on the reactions of Twain’s congregation, we were really contemplating
the reactions of Brookside. The parallels were natural considering the
church was founded in 1894 in rural New Jersey and has continued to
maintain its country church flavor to this day.
With the libretto complete and a strong sense of the essential
dramatic direction, I began writing the music during the fall of 1984
and completed the work during the summer of 1985 at the McDowell Colony.
The premiere was scheduled to take place in New York the following season,
but had to be cancelled. I then experienced over the next several years
the difficulty in scheduling an opera even in concert version by a composer
not known for his choral works. While I was having great success with
my chamber and orchestral works, this piece seemed too risky. Finally,
Frances Slade, director of Princeton Pro Musica, studied the work and
indicated to me that she wanted to perform it. On May 20, 1995, in Princeton,
NJ, twenty-five years after the accidental discovery of the only poem
ever written by Mark Twain, The War Prayer was performed.
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