When Daylight Came

Baritone voice, piano | Duration c. 4'50"

Hewitt Hill Music

In 2016 I was commissioned by the Scottish baritone Niall Anderson for a work honoring his late great-grandfather, John Anderson. After some discussion, we decided that a setting of a selection of texts from John’s World War I prisoner of war diaries would make for a compelling and emotional piece of music. When Daylight Came sets John’s own words describing the carnage of warfare in the early twentieth century, specifically at the battles of Mons and Le Cateau in which John fought and was subsequently taken prisoner.

This piece is dedicated to the Anderson clan in memory of John Anderson and the struggles he overcame to survive as a private in the 1st Gordon Highlanders during World War I.