The Song of Terezin (orchestral version)

for chorus and orchestra PremiereMay 22, 1965Cincinnati May FestivalBetty Allen, mezzo-sopranoCincinnati Symphony OrchestraStanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductorMusic Hall, Cincinnati, OH, USA Composer noteWhen I received the Cincinnati commission for a work that would include a children’s chorus, my attention was drawn by chance to a book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly (1964). This was a collection of poems, together with drawings and watercolors, by some of the 15,000 children who were brought to the Nazi concentration camp of Terezinstadt near Prague. Before World War II ended, all but 100 of these children had been put to death at various other concentration camps, chiefly Auschwitz. I at once saw the possibilities of transforming this appalling tragedy into a cycle of songs for children’s chorus, mixed chorus, solo voice, and orchestra. 1. ON A SUNNY EVENING. The form here is the Passacaglia. The four-bar theme is first heard by the basses and celli. The theme itself is actually a twe