Dreams of Peace & Freedom is a moving song cycle exploring the birth of modern human rights. The writings of David Maxwell Fyfe, Nuremberg prosecutor and champion of the European Convention, intertwine with musical settings of the poets who inspired him, with a backdrop of archive film, images and words.
Dreams of Peace & Freedom began life as a soundtrack to Under an English Heaven - a film about the life
of David Maxwell Fyfe that Tom Blackmore made for the Kilmuir Papers website. It took its’ name from the final line of Rupert Brooke's famous sonnet The Soldier, which Fyfe had quoted in his closing at Nuremberg, and comprised five songs – musical settings of poetry that inspired him.
This final cycle of songs has grown organically over the past decade, to reflect the developing show. The recording ambition for Dreams of Peace & Freedom has also grown with the project. A violin and cello have been added to the voices as a soundtrack to Dreams of Peace & Freedom : The Human's in the Telling.
SUE CASSON
Composer of Dreams of Peace & Freedom
To mark the anniversary of the signing of the European Convention on Human Rights on 4th November, we have released this official music video of 'The Soldier' from The Human's in the Telling.
David Maxwell Fyfe quoted Rupert Brooke's War Sonnet V in his closing at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
and it was the point of inspiration for
Dreams of Peace & Freedom.
Click on the buttons below to find out more about how the songs came to be in
Dreams of Peace & Freedom.
