2018 Concert Series Gallipoli to the Somme | Page 13

Because you can’t go on
Because it is your turn]
7. Christmas at Gallipoli, 1915 – Baritone solo and choir. Text by
Alexander Aitken, from Gallipoli to the Somme. Based on The First Noel .
“I brought up the violin which for weeks had lain in the empty
dugout of the Australian stretcher bearer, he himself by now
being ill or wounded. Each night we had a muted concert in the
largest dugout. There was no room for the sweep of the bow
arm, while the Humouresque or anything like it was out of key
with Gallipoli, but Christmas was near, and carols with muted
obligati were softly intoned. In its time The First Noel will have
been sung in strange places; this dugout under Chunuk Bair
must have been one of the strangest.”
8. All the Hills and Vales Along – Chorus. Text by Charles Hamilton
Sorley, soldier and poet, killed in France, 1915. In The Collected Poems
of Charles Hamilton Sorley (1985).
All the hills and vales along
Earth is bursting into song,
And the singers are the chaps
Who are going to die perhaps.
O sing, marching men,
Till the valleys ring again.
Give your gladness to earth’s keeping,
So be glad, when you are sleeping.
….
Earth that never doubts nor fears,
Earth that knows of death, not tears,
Earth that bore with joyful ease
Hemlock for Socrates,
Earth that blossomed and was glad
‘Neath the cross that Christ had,
Shall rejoice and blossom too
When the bullet reaches you.
Wherefore, men marching
On the road to death, sing!
Pour your gladness on earth’s head,
So be merry, so be dead.

From the hills and valleys earth
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