by Daniel Hathaway
The “Christmas Truce” of 1914, the famous, spontaneous cessation of hostilities on the Western Front during “The Great War,” has inspired The Singers’ Club of Cleveland’s 2014 Christmas program, “A Season of Peace.”
On Saturday, December 13 at 7:30 at the Breen Center in Ohio City, Mel Unger will direct the 50 male singers who form the Singers’ Club in a program of music commemorating that event, when opposing troops left their foxholes to greet each other, bury their dead, exchange mementos, play games, and generally forget the horrors of war for a brief period of time.
In a phone conversation from his office at Baldwin Wallace where he is director of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Unger noted that the idea came from a committee member, but he had fun fleshing it out with musical ideas. “We’ll begin with a very imaginative arrangement of God rest ye merry, gentlemen by Mark Riese, then commingle English, German and French carols and other pieces that suggest the era, like Keep the home fires burning. [Read more…]