Combat in the Year Thousand

Edward Rushton

Commission made possible by Yuuchiro Nakajimo

Level:

Piece length: 6'
Scored for: Piano, Violin 2, Cello

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Combat in the Year Thousand is based on material from my Schubert Ensemble commission, L'An Mil. Both pieces take their inspiration in part from the writings of Rodolfus Glaber, a rebellious monk who chronicled world history and current events around the turn of the last millennium.

Banners fly, thousands of knights wield axes and swords with brutal disregard for human life. The living shout, trumpets blare, the dying scream. At night the tumult abates and there is time for peaceful meditation, but the new day is full again of the incessant sounds of combat. A thousand years later, we still hear the same sounds.

A thousand years after the Lord was born on earth of a Virgin
Men are become prey to the gravest errors. [...]
The sword, plague and famine rage all about,
And the impiety of men uncorrected spares no one.
- Rodolfus Glaber

Edward Rushton