War Music (poem)

War Music (film) is David Porteous's documentary film, in which he followed the footsteps of World War Two soldiers throughout Europe, filming the entire journey and writing music along the way.

For music heard during battle, see (for example) Soundtrack to War.

War Music is both British poet Christopher Logue's ongoing project to create a modernist poem based on Homer's Iliad, and the name of one volume of that project.

The project began in 1959. The first volume published was the Patrocleia. GBH and Paxmake up the rest of the core poem known as War Music, along with Kings and The Husbands. Since the publication of the War Music collection, Logue has also written two additional volumes, All Day Permanent Red and Cold Calls, the latter of which won the 2005 Whitbread Poetry Award.

Logue's work has created controversy among classicists since Logue does not know Ancient Greek, and instead bases his work on other translations of the Iliad, notably Chapman, Pope, Lord Derby, A.T. Murray, and E.V. Rieu, according to the Author's Note to War Music.

The work features a modernist, Imagist style and forsakes most of Homer's notable stylistic features for a looser structure. It also alters the plot and characters in many minor points.

In June, 2001, Verse Theater Manhattan (VTM) presented a two-man production of "Kings," adapted and directed by James Milton. In September 2001, VTM opened a production of "War Music" featuring a cast of three women and also adapted and directed by Mr. Milton. The production, in Greenwich Village, closed down because of the 9/11 attack, but was revived and went on to play tours of both the Midwest and the United Kingdom. Review at: http://old.nationalreview.com/contributors/stuttaford032102.shtml

American playwright Lillian Groag was commissioned by the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco, California to write a musical play based on the material. Groag directed and premiered the play, also called War Music, at the ACT in early 2009.