D-DAY: FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN
BY SHANNON ROBINSON
When we look at the Americans who parachuted into enemy territory and stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, they were common men who had to muster up uncommon bravery for an extraordinary task. They are heroes.
Operation Overlord held the hope for the end of World War II in its complex hands. Its many moving parts and the pressurized promise of an Ally success rested on Eisenhower and other Allied leaders like Earth on Atlas’s shoulders. They knew this day would determine the War.
THE LANDING @ NORMANDY - PHOTO PUBLIC DOMAIN
Approximately 10,000 Allied casualties, over 4,000 dead. 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and 150,000+ men. Numbers can help you visualize the size of such an operation, but they cannot convey Eisenhower’s strategy, or the anticipation of the paratroopers as they descended under nightfall, or the agony and determination felt on the Utah and Omaha beaches that day.
With all the movies and TV series that have been made to capture the courage and brutality of D-Day, it is impossible for any civilian to understand the tremendous impact that day had.
The bearing it had on the War alone was monumental—it changed the course of history from a potentially doomed, socialistic tyranny to a future where freedom could ring. It was a day that shook the world and was the beginning of the end of World War II.
The impact it had on the soldiers was drastically life-changing. They felt the bullets, dragged their bodies through the cold Atlantic waters, watched their brothers die on those rocky beaches, and overthrew the German fortifications.
The ordinary men with extraordinary bravery moved forward with the formidable words of General Eisenhower: “You are about to embark on the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you… I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.”
One of the most recognizable orchestral pieces today, Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” premiered in the Spring of 1943. He wrote it at the urging of English conductor Eugene Goosens to commemorate and honor the men serving at the start of World War II.
The timpani boldly opens the well-known piece, resounding like a heart-beat with steady measure and courageous anticipation. Then, the solemn trumpet section presents a dignified, but not ostentation, solo. This solo is reminiscent of each individual soldier that day, clad in a solitary dignity. The trumpeters, playing in perfect unison, are soon joined by French Horns, tubas, and trombones, and like the brothers in arms that day at Normandy, the brass section swells and the timpani thunders to the musical crescendo. The uncomplicated melody persists and strengthens amid the clash of cymbals. It is an appropriate metaphor of the invasion of Normandy and the gallant men who persevered against all odds and certain death.
World War II called average men that together, in unity of one common goal, stormed the beaches or dropped through the sky that fateful day for the purpose of achieving the remarkable.
Let us remember that our world would not be the same without these common men and their uncommon bravery.