The Children of Jericho

In approximately 1400 BC the Israelites, believing that they were acting upon the instructions of God, besieged and then destroyed the walled city of Jericho, bringing it to the ground with war cries and trumpet blasts. They then massacred all of the people and animals living in the city, sparing only one woman, with her children, who had aided them in their preparations. History is filled with the stories of non-combatant sufferers of similar concentrated and indiscriminate violence.

This work is dedicated to the memory of the inhabitants of the city of Jericho and to those innocents of other Jerichos: Troy, Jerusalem, Vienna, Moscow, The Warsaw Ghetto, Stalingrad, Vietnam, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, the list could easily be made many times longer.

The Children of Jericho was written for the Eastman Trombone Choir, John Marcellus, director and was premiered at the Eastern Regional Trombone Workshop in Washington, D.C. March 25, 1995.

PB

1995