In honor of the 100th anniversary of The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D.C., opera company UrbanArias commissioned Charleston’s poet laureate Marcus Amaker and Chicago composer Shawn Okpebholo for a theatrical film set to premiere online on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, for a monthlong run.
Unknown is a multidimensional, collaborative production: Okpebholo’s song cycle layered by Amaker’s poetry set to a film by acclaimed stage director Kristine McIntyre surrounding the drama of an injured soldier, a father and a tomb guard, with scenes shot on location in D.C.
“When writing for voice, writing for a piece that includes text, I don’t do anything until I engage the text,” Okpebholo told City Paper, and in this case it meant reading Amaker’s poetry out loud and imagining himself in the perspective of the poetry.
“I don’t write a single note until I know the words and live with the words,” Okpebholo said. “Then I start with the musical form — the architecture, the structure of the piece, the overall arc.”
For Amaker, with prior knowledge of the Unknown Soldier limited to the 1968 Doors song, his writing process at first was mostly research.
Outlining the five poems featured in Unknown, Amaker asked himself, “How can I approach this subject in a way that is human?”
“I wanted to make sure I wrote about the emotion behind war and being a soldier,” Amaker said. “What does it really mean to fight for our country? To leave home? To be at home and receive a letter from a soldier? To guard the Tomb? My poems for this project are based in emotional truth, not necessarily factual experience.”
Okpebholo also did his best to put his feet in a fighting soldier’s shoes. In his work he deals largely with racial justice issues and Black pain, he said, so he switched gears to compose for Unknown. He realized war is truly an American topic.
“For good and for bad we are all affected by war. One of the main unifying elements of our country — whether you are anti-war or a military family — we all have to deal with war.”
Okpebholo’s aim was to express with his music the reality that the unknown soldiers are many different types of people.
“There are different styles, from this quasi-tango to a very soulful almost neo-soul type of movement — to represent the Black sacrifice — coupled with a post-modern version of the European waltz.”
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.