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Behind the masterpiece

The philosophy of a requiem
by
April 2025, no. 474

The Tenderness of Silent Minds: Benjamin Britten and his War Requiem by Martha C. Nussbaum

Oxford University Press, £19.99 hb, 295 pp

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Behind the masterpiece

The philosophy of a requiem
by
April 2025, no. 474

Of Gustav Mahler’s numerous military sorties, ‘Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen’, a miniature from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, is surely the most affecting. It is the eve of battle, and a young woman is visited by her lover, distant trumpet fanfares and dull drumbeats in the air. But perhaps the lover is already dead and it is his spirit she encounters – or it is a premonition of what the morrow will bring. Regardless, Mahler evokes a mixture of tenderness and gloomy foreboding as the young soldier tells his lover that he is going to the green heath far away. ‘There where the splendid trumpets sound / There is my home of green turf.’

The Tenderness of Silent Minds: Benjamin Britten and his War Requiem

The Tenderness of Silent Minds: Benjamin Britten and his War Requiem

by Martha C. Nussbaum

Oxford University Press, £19.99 hb, 295 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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