"A Stopwatch and an Ordnance Map" by Samuel Barber • Washington Men's Camerata

Samuel Barber's (1910-1981) powerful setting of the poignant poem by Stephen Spender about the cost of war. Mark Latimer, timpani. Julie Huang Tucker, piano. Scott Tucker, conductor. Washington Men's Camerata in "The Dawn of Peace" concert in 2024.
A stopwatch and an ordnance map.
At five a man fell to the ground
And the watch flew off his wrist
Like a moon struck from the earth
Marking a blank time that stares
On the tides of change beneath.
All under the olive trees.
A stopwatch and an ordnance map.
He stayed faithfully in that place
From his living comrade split
By dividers of the bullet
Opening wide the distances
Of his final loneliness.
All under the olive trees.
A stopwatch and an ordnance map.
And the bones are fixed at five
Under the moon’s timelessness;
But another who lives on
Wears within his heart forever
Space split open by the bullet.
All under the olive trees.
A stopwatch and an ordnance map.
Washington Men's Camerata, directed by Scott Tucker, is DC's premier chorus performing, promoting, and preserving diverse tenor and bass choral music and camaraderie since 1984. The Camerata has performed at The Kennedy Center, The White House, Smithsonian institutions, National Gallery of Art, Wolf Trap, Strathmore, and across the region; alongside National Symphony Orchestra, The U.S. Army Chorus, Washington Symphonic Brass, Mark Morris Dance Group, Symphony Orchestra of Northern Virginia, and on NPR, PBS, and SiriusXM. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Camerata has recorded six albums and regularly commissions and premieres pieces, part of a national lending library of sheet music, The Demetrius Project, with over 200,000 scores of 3,300 works. www.camerata.com/