John Williams - Hymn for the Fallen

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, perhaps better known in most of the Globe as Remembrance Day.  It is a day for reflection on those who gave that last measure of sacrifice for home and hearth, for King and country.  The world is filled with the graves of the fallen, and will likely see new ones until the World is remade.

This weekend, we are called to reflect on these men.  Art, at its best is there to help lead the way.  Classical music used to offer many selections for solemn days like this.  Fortunately, Classical music has found a niche where it yet thrives, with talented composers writing new music for the cinema.  Perhaps the greatest of these in our age is John Williams.  He wrote this for the film Saving Private Ryan, where it played during the final credits.  Music like this makes it worth waiting through the last scrolling text.



Today and tomorrow think on those that went into that maelstrom of fire and blood.  We honor the ones who returned home.  We remember those who did not, who today rest in foreign graves.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

- LTC John McCrae, No. 3 Canadian General Hospital, Dannes-Camiers, France