There Was Peace on Earth, and Silence in the Sky

The first movement of Tarik O’Regan’s Triptych, Threnody (a wailing ode, song or hymn of mourning) consists of texts by William Penn, William Blake, Muhammad Raji Al-Bayoumi, and portions of Psalm 13. This movement, premiered on its own, was subsequently taken on tour to Jerusalem and the West Bank in December 2004.

Movements II and III were conceived as a contiguous section and premiered as And There Was a Great Calm. Texts of these movements are drawn from John Milton, Roland Gittelsohn, Rumi, 9th c. Indian Bundahishn, Edward Whinfield, William Wordsworth and Thomas Hardy. The title of the second and third section is taken from Thomas Hardy’s poem of the same name, written at the signing of the Armistice on 11th November, 1918.