First World War poems inspire new music by Sussex composer

First World War poems inspire new music by Sussex composer. Music inspired by the tragic words of First World War poets and composed by a University of Sussex music lecturer will premiere in London in November. Dr Evelyn Ficarra was commissioned by the organisation Poems on the Underground to create a piece for a special performance at the London Transport Museum on 2 November 2016. War Poems; the dead returning lightly to dance , will feature in a programme that also includes readings by poet and novelist Michael Rosen and music by Strauss ( Metamorphosen ) under the title 'The Pity of War' . Dr Ficarra's work, which will be performed by the Apollo Chamber Orchestra , incorporates recordings of poems by celebrated British poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, as well as examples by European and Russian poets from the First World War. She said: "Judith Chernaik, who produces Poems on the Underground, approached me with this commission and gave me an open remit to use any poems I wanted.