This was taken in Coventry Cathedral up by the altar. That wasn’t our first stop of the day, but I spent a lot more time there than out in the St. Michael ruins. However, the few minutes I spent in the ruins were more moving to me than the hours I spent in the Cathedral.

Here lay the crux of our trip, in Coventry, in the very cathedral where half a century ago Britten’s War Requiem premiered. Everything we’ve been studying converged right here.

In the ruins, there was a bronze cast of Josefina de Vasconcellos’ Reconciliation, which shows a man and a woman embracing. Another bronze cast was placed in Hiroshima, where we sent the first atomic bomb. For years after the end of the war babies were born with birth defect due to the radiation. Civilians there have been directly affected by the war, and it was nice to see that acknowledged, as well (especially since England wasn’t involved with the Pacific theater during WWII).

During the Coventry Blitz in 1940, the Luftwaffe (German air force) bombed and destroyed St. Michael’s, Coventry’s centuries-old cathedral (pictured here). This resulted in over one thousand casualties, and what now remains is a symbol for the damage of war and a plea for peace. I think I had expected to be hit with the gravity of this monument right away and noticeably, to feel something of the devastation of war as I always tried to carry with me. But no such feeling came. Instead I snapped pictures for almost the whole time I was out there, without thinking; not until later did I begin to ponder its depth.

Even then, it was difficult to know how I felt or what I thought. The main image that kept returning wasn’t the sight that lay in front of me, actually… it was the sight of the lonely ruins without the Coventry Cathedral. For over two decades it stood thus, exposed, a testament to the horror of war. I see things in images, though I know not their significances. Reparations take such a long, long time. Germany only just finished paying off its Versailles debt a few years ago. Apparently WWII still had Europe in a daze ten years after the war ended. I’ve read somewhere that colloquially, WWI and WWII are known as “The war before Hitler’s” and “Hitler’s war.” In America, there was a strict divide of “Before the war” and “After the war” for everybody involved in WWII. WWII impacted everybody greatly; that much is apparent. And I guess by sticking with the image of that old cathedral without the new one, I’m wondering just how much of WWII is still unresolved today.

On 15 November, the day after St. Michael’s was destroyed, Jack Forbes saw two pieces of wood shaped like a cross in the rubble. He lashed these together into the Charred Cross, below, which stands in the current Coventry Cathedral on the staircase.

Some years later, Britten was commissioned to write something for the new Coventry Cathedral. In 1962, his War Requiem premiered at the new cathedral. Coventry Cathedral was beautiful, of course, but I wasn’t all that interested in it outside of the War Requiem context. After seeing Evensong in the cathedral, we got to talk to the music director afterward, who told us about his experience conducting the War Requiem and where he would place everybody in the cathedral according to what made the most sense. (He didn’t know the original placement.) The boys’ choir, for example, is symbolically farther away and harder to hear… it says so in the score.

Based on what he said:

Placing a few of the ensembles near the ruins ensures that the audience will turn around and see them, looking out to the St. Michael’s ruins just outside in the process. As the Requiem illustrates the consequences of war, the ruins would be appropriate. Besides, acoustics are better in this part of the hall.

During the “Libera Me” when the organ finally comes in and everybody plays/sings, the audience is being hit by sound on both sides. Great way to end it all.

Too cool!

Also, here’s some stained glass (because all cathedrals have it).

Speaking of great endings, I had vegan pub grub for dinner!!! What are the chances?!?!?!