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The first part was based on the feel/sound of Rodrigo’s “Concerto de Aranjuez” ... a wonderful sad statement about “war” ...  and itself was the catalyst for writing sombre words about our continuing readiness to send the nation’s young men to war and not look after them afterwards (and, ironically, we accept young men of the same age from those war-torn country who are unwilling to fight for themselves).
I changed the meter from 4/4 to 3/4 to differentiate it a little and to be able to add some military drum marches.
I originally thought the Rodrigo piece was ‘classical’ music but later discovered it was written in the 1930’s (the Spanish Civil War) and that it is still covered by copyright, apparently fiercely protected by the Rodrigo family.  Otherwise I would have been happy to copy the piece slavishly.  My sister-in-law Anita kindly helped me re-shape it so that it was no longer a direct copy ... her ears are better attuned to such things than mine.  She felt the second part was fine.
The structure is A-A-B, A-A-B, A.   At a much later point in time, having had to listen to the track many many times, the repeating background melody in the verses was starting to grate.  so I changed it in the 2nd verse of each group ... and also I left the last verse unadorned (voice-only) for contrast.
Voice-overs are a bugger. It’s hard to know how best to pace it in and around the music and, without singing, there is no freedom to hold any word/syllable.  I also discovered that TRYING to be serious and sombre sounds really naff ... it might have worked for Richard Burton but certainly didn’t for me.  I just did it soft and unemotional, speaking just 3” from the mic, and hoped that the words/music would do the heavy lifting. 
The ‘bugle’ is a midi synth, with heaps of reverb and delay, and a ‘wobble’ at the end that mimics a human’s vibrato.

 


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