The Forever Sonata

The Forever Sonata

(To Frederick Kelly)

In a morning of tranquil splendor
He rowed the bay,
The air hung fragrant with peace.
He did not notice in the cut of the water
The agitation of shadows foretelling doom.

In the word “water” is the word “war.”
But who would think that?
Certainly no one
Out for a row in a morning of splendor.
And the Somme? Who would even know

What the Somme was, though the Somme was
Already calling somberly his name
In the somber roll call of the dead.
And the Somme drummed on ahead of him
As he rowed through splendor morning.

Never to know morning would become mourning,
As the Somme drummed somberly his name.
And where peace once hung fragrant in the splendor
Morning, now hung acid
Stink of the war, the acid

Odor of the dead who rowed
No more, no more.
Now across the bay a century later,
Splendor rises in the morning air,
Air through which I can sense

The dead rowing where the fragrance
Of peace laurels his brow,
Laurels with the music of his sonata,
His sonata that will play
Forever in the splendor.

Philip Kuepper
(1/21/2012)

See also "F.S. Kelly's Lost Sonata Found After 80 Years"

F.S. Kelly's Lost Sonata Found After 80 Years

Keeping HTBS going with articles almost daily demands a lot of reading, researching, and writing. Of course, this means that one feels close to some of the rowers and scullers; they become favorites, or even ‘rowing heroes’. The other day the good fellow Tim Koch sent an e-mail with a link to an article from last year’s spring about one of these ‘heroes’, Frederick Septimus Kelly (1881-1916), who was born in Sydney. Kelly was an eminent oarsman, but also a pianist and composer.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he signed up in the British 63rd Royal Naval Division and belonged to the Hood Battalion. According to the article in ABC News in Australia in May, 2011, during the Gallipoli campaign, he composed a violin sonata for a young female violinist, Jelly D’Aranyi, whom Kelly had met and played with in London. He was killed at the end of the Battle of the Somme, on 13 November, 1916. D’Aranyi played the sonata at his memorial service.

The sonata was lost for more than 80 years, but writes ABC News, “it has been rediscovered thanks to years of detective work by Chris Latham, a violinist and director of the Canberra International Music Festival”. Read the interesting article and view a short film clip about the ‘rediscovery’ here.

Jelly D’Aranyi (1893-1966) became a famous violinist. Listen to D’Aranyi playing a piece by Brahms here below: