Jan M. Tassani - War Is Kind (Stephen Crane Poem)

War Is Kind is a poem by 19th-century poet Stephen Crane that captures the essence of the paradoxical nature of war. With this piece, I attempted to portray the sombre imagery of Crane’s poem with music. From the beginning, there is a degree of harmonic uncertainty and dissonance that aims to disorient and link to the destruction and unpredictability of war. Each instrument symbolises an aspect of war; the soprano, in a lament-like style, portrays the women the narrator attempts to calm down in the poem, the cello, with its monodic solo passages, symbolises the solitude of war and the piano creates an ambiguous atmosphere and, at points, with tremolos, symbolises the sound of machine guns firing. With all these elements, I attempted to create a profound piece in which each of the instruments has a moment of protagonism and ultimately attempts to, as Crane’s poem, display the paradoxical nature of war.
Performed Live at Sala Mompou SGAE on 13th July 2023 by Vertixe Sonora.
Soprano: Adriana Aranda
Piano: David Durán
Violoncello: Sara Chordà
© 2023, Jan M. Tassani, Spain. All right reserved.