7. “Hunger – The Lull ‘Twixt Blast and Blast” – 1st Baritone

Baritone

 

In coal, engineering and cotton towns often more than half the insured population were out of work. As communities struggled with economic migration, mass unemployment and deindustrialisation, poverty and hunger became all too real. The Hunger Marches of the 1920’s and 30’s (including the 1936 Jarrow March), saw people from depressed communities marching to London in protest. Stoking particular support from the middle classes, these demonstrations evolved into anti-fascist marches, in response to a growing threat both at home and abroad. “¡No pasarán!” – “They shall not pass!” was the rallying cry across Europe.

Roads go on
While we forget, and are
Forgotten like a star
That shoots and is gone

On this earth ‘tis sure
We men have not made
Anything that doth fade
So soon, so long endure:

Roads (Excerpt) – Edward Thomas, 1916

Yet the time will come
To the heart’s dark slum
When the rich man’s gold and the rich man’s wheat
Will grow in the street, that the starved may eat, —
And the sea of the rich will give up its dead —
And the last blood and fire from my side will be shed.
For the fires of God go marching on.

Gold Coast Customs (Excerpt) – Edith Sitwell, 1929