In this one-hour Memorial Day special, NPR's Scott Simon hosts this new Oratorio in performance.
From the trenches of The Great War, Alan Seeger's poems, letters and diaries spring to life in the voices of the Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine. Recorded just before lockdown in the Cathedral, Patrick Zimmerli's new oratorio "Alan Seeger: Instrument of Destiny" fuses Seeger's formal writing with monkish chants and 20th Century music. Scott Simon hosts this moving hour of tribute to all those who saw combat, and those who awaited them at home.
Listen Sunday, May 30 at 7 p.m. on WRVO, on-air and online.