For the Fallen: rehearsal part for

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About Opus 51: For the Fallen

About this work

In 1915 (the second year of the First World War), composer Cyril Rootham grasped this poem by Laurence Binyon and set it to music. Rootham was trying to express the mixture of pride and sorrow which Britain felt as an entire generation was slaughtered on the battlefield.

This recording

This recording is not a live concert: it's simply a set of synthesised MP3 files which choirs can use for rehearsal purposes. If you would like to hear a concert recording, try our alternative web page with the Chiswick Choir in 2011.

Published score

The sheet music for Rootham's "For the Fallen" is in print and available from Cathedral Music under catalogue reference C 1086. The vocal scores can be purchased from Cathedral Music, and the full score and orchestral parts are available for hire.

Rehearsal figures

The numbered rehearsal figures available under the audio player match the rehearsal numbers printed in the vocal score.

Acknowledgement

A note of thanks: it's worth pointing out the important role of pioneering conductors Robert Tucker (Broadheath Singers, 1995) and Alistair Jones (Chiswick Choir, 2011) in getting this neglected work back into the repertoire, available as a recording and available in print. The recording by the Broadheath Singers can be heard by appointment at the British Library if you are a Registered Reader.

Planning a performance?

If your choral society would like to perform Rootham's "For the Fallen", do please contact Dan Rootham through our Feedback page. Dan will be glad to provide advice and support, practice CDs and so on.

For the Fallen

by Laurence Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.