White Rose Elegy

Elegy: a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead.

Merriam-Webster

White Rose Elegy is a composition for brass quintet written by trumpet player Caleb Hudson who performs with the Canadian Brass, one of the world’s premier brass ensembles. Have a listen:

NOTE: Embeds sometimes fail to work so here’s the link: https://youtu.be/ChToAwRgJv4https://youtu.be/ChToAwRgJv4.

For me, this composition evokes feelings of sadness, longing, tragedy, and—at the end—a sense of repose and quiet. But it’s the tragedy I’d like to focus on now because of the story behind the composition.

White Rose was a German anti-Nazi group formed in 1942 by students at Stuttgart University in Munich. Advocates of non-violent resistance, they published a series of essays of their beliefs distributed as leaflets throughout Munich. The leaders were five students (and one professor), including Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Christoph Probst.

On February 18, 1943, the core group was arrested. Four days later, on February 22, 1943, Hans, Sophie, and Christoph were executed by guillotine. Part of the tragedy was that they knew the Gestapo were closing in and decided to do one final leaflet distribution prior to fleeing the country. Eventually, dozens of White Rose members were arrested. Many were executed or imprisoned.

This type of extraordinary willingness to risk and ultimately sacrifice one’s own life for a just cause is indeed inspirational. I presume the composer was equally inspired.

References

• Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, nationalww2museum
• White Rose, German anti-Nazi group, Britanica
• White Rose, Wikipedia