Crosses on the Green

The Colorado Springs Chorale commissioned this piece for their service as the official choir of D-Day commemorative ceremonies in June of 2020.  The pandemic postponed the premiere, but the choir eventually traveled to Normandy and sang on June 6, 2022.  In the meantime, an alternate version was written to include children’s choir (mostly unison, with optional 2-part sections).  This second version can also be a basis for a version for SATB chorus featuring a soloist.

Working with the Colorado Springs Chorale was an inner exploration for me, as the content of the pieces we created together centered on the American experience of war — the Civil War (Tenting Tonight), World War I (Owen’s Anthem), and World War II (Crosses on the Green).  I grew up in a household with diverse ideologies on issues of war and peace: through my mother’s side, I was raised in the historically pacifist Church of the Brethren, while my father is a life-long Marine who fought in the first Gulf War.  I myself was a Peace Studies major in college, and my highest hope was and is to help humanity leave the ideology of militarism behind us.

To prepare for writing this World War II-based piece, I read a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor who became involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler, and who was executed by the Hitler’s regime at the very end of the war.  I wanted to put myself into Bonhoeffer’s shoes and to imagine how a person with Christian ideals could — in a nation where tyranny has run amok — be moved to embrace violence as a means to a greater end.

Whatever one’s ideals, the reality is that the invasion of Normandy “turned the tide of tyranny” (to quote the song), and it was only possible because of the bravery of servicemen willing to lay down their lives to rid the world of Hitler’s tyranny.  Until humanity learns to recognize tyrants early on and prevent their rise to political power, there will be no easy ways out of the havoc they wreak and the wars they foment.