When the Boys Come Home

On this Veterans Day,  I wanted to post this recording of me singing an amazing song titled “When the Boys Come Home.”  I included this on my 2014 faculty voice recital,  which commemorated the 200th anniversary of the day that Francis Scott Key penned “The Star Spangled Banner.”  The program consisted of various patriotic songs,  some of which were quite obscure.  I first became acquainted with this song through a collection of patriotic songs recorded by opera stars from the early 20th century.  One of my favorites from that disk was “When the Boys Come Home” sung by a great German contralto named Ernestine Schuman-Heink, who had sons fighting  on both sides of the First World War.  She, more than most people, understood the gratitude of a parent who is able to welcome back a son from combat.  (Far too many parents over the generations have faced the heartbreak of losing a child to war.)

The music is by Oley Speaks and is really gratifying to sing.  But what made me most excited to sing this on my recital was because of an exciting Carthage connection with the lyricist, John Hay.  He was a secretary to Abraham Lincoln (and is believed to have penned some of the president’s most important and eloquent letters and public statements.)   Hay was a Carthage graduate, and later became a trustee of the college (as was Lincoln himself).   As a matter of fact, when you drive into campus from the north entrance,  you will drive right past two statues:  One figure is Abraham Lincoln.  The other figure,  who is seated  and listening to Lincoln,  is John Hay.  (The work is called “A Teaching Moment.”)  I was glad to be able to sing this song and give people a little deeper understanding of who John Hay was.

I think this song is sometimes misunderstood as being a cheery,  naive whitewashing of the harsher realities of war.  I don’t agree.  I think if one really looks closely at the words,  one gets a very clear sense of the unimaginable sorrow that one experiences when our soldiers don’t come home- as well as the incredible relief a parent or other loved one feels in that moment when a soldier who was in harm’s way is welcomed home at last.   That’s what this song is about-  and it speaks to something just as real today as it was when Hay first penned these words during the Civil War.