Fran Schultz / Blog
My First Suite
WWI Memorial Suite**ECHOES OF THE PAST* MEMORIAL**BATTLE OF ARGONNE FOREST
I wrote the following to announce three new pieces of music prior to Memorial Day 2011. The three movements were so related and connected that someone dubbed it "The trinity Suite". Reading this will provide the backdrop and inspiration for this work. I have since re-named it the World War I Memorial Suite.
" Memorial Day is fast approaching in the United States of America and in recent years it has come to mean much more to me than going to or having a barbeque. It has had me thinking about the personal connections I have had with great battles & Wars. Of particular note is that everywhere that I have lived has been near the site of a great battle of a great war. I was born on the western outskirts of Philadelphia where we had the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As a child I remember going with my grandmother, Aunt & cousin to the little house where Betsy Ross made the first US flag. Not far from there to the north is Washington's Crossing on the Delaware. I pass it every time I go to Pennsylvania. Where I grew up, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, is about 15 miles north of Gettysburg. Camp Hill was an encampment for the soldiers prior to their march to Gettysburg. We moved then to near Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. I visited the Park many times & could visualize the soldiers walking in the snow leaving a trail of blood because they didn't even have shoes. I stood in the house that George Washington stayed in and where Martha may have visited him. I lived in Boston and New York City, saw many monuments, & now I am living near the Monmouth Battlefield in New Jersey, where they do re-enactments. I live also near some current mega-bases for the Air Force, the Navy, and the Army. Not too far from here is Lakehurst where the Hindenberg crashed and burned and in the early 1930's my grandfather was in the Navy living just off the base with my grandmother & their five children, one of which was my mother. My father, Thomas V. O'Connor was the lead airplane mechanic on the USS Intrepid in the Pacific during World War II. He was named after his mother's brother. Only recently I found out that my Great Uncle, Born in 1892 in Philadelphia, Thomas V. Flanigan, Jr. was killed in World War I in the Battle of Argonne Forest in France on October 5, 1918. WWI - Dubbed "The War to End All Wars." - The Meuse-Argonne offensive would be launched by the American First Army, under Gen John Pershing & French 4th Army under Gen Henri Gourand. Thomas V. Flanigan is buried with thousands of others who perished, at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery and Memorial in France, which covers 130.5 acres in which rest the largest number of our military dead in Europe, a total of 14,246. This Memorial Day I pray for an end to Wars. I pray that humanity will rise above any call to war against their neighbors. Of course I honor all those who gave their lives. I just think that now it's about time we changed our ways and thought of the mothers, the daughters, the grandmothers, the sisters, the young sons and infants that never got to see their loved one's again or who witnessed their loved one upon their return as someone unrecognizable, crippled, maimed, suicidal, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. My music is not to honor wars. It is to honor people who have suffered in them and from them. It is a call to understand and look at history, find ways to reconcile differences so that we do not continuously find ourselves at war, especially with the types of weaponry that exists today. Everything is at stake, not just a piece of land. The entire planet is at stake. Some pertinent links: http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_meuse_argonne.html http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ma.php http://ncronline.org/blogs/where-i-stand/remembering-our-past-and-who-we-truly-want-be Peace and love, Fran Schultz nee O'Connor
Links
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fran-Schultz/336627930658
http://www.indiemusicchannel.com/profile/FranSchultz
http://www.liquidaudio.org/fran_schultz
http://www.myspace.com/franschultz
http://www.makeastar.com (Contest Winner - Spirit Flight)
New Music and a Holiday Arrangement of an old favorite
I've just added Determination 12/16/09
I've also added a favorite holiday tune of mine:
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing