Art is often a response to experience. It distills feeling into something tangible, provides a vehicle for stories, and encourages discussion.
It is no surprise, then, that composers have been influenced by conflict. Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano (1915), for example, was written as the French composer endured the carnage of the First World War. English composer Frank Bridge also wrote several haunting, lingering pieces that channel the anguish of that era, including Lament , which was a direct response to the sinking of the civilian ocean liner the Lusitania in 1915. More recently, Drew Baker created Stress Position (2008), a staged composition for amplified piano, where the pianist plays repeated notes at the opposite ends of the instrument. The piece addresses the topic of torture, and was a…
