Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 25, 1994 TAG: 9405250183
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The composition is Bond's first for organ. It will be performed by Richard Cummins, music director at the church.
Bond agreed to write the music at the request of John Will Creasy, a Roanoke artist and D-Day veteran. Robert Slaughter of Roanoke, another D-Day veteran, helped her understand the meaning of the day, one of the major turning points in World War II.
Bond said she began with a musical theme in mind and then wove it through the composition, which consists of three parts: hymn, march and fugue.
"The mood [with the hymn] starts out very solemn and respectful, almost reverential," Bond said. The march carries a sense of great determination leading to impending victory, and the fugue is a celebration, she said.
The composition doesn't dwell on the tragedy of D-Day, when many Virginia National Guardsmen and others were killed, but rather on the victory, Bond said.
Cummins played an important role in developing the piece, Bond said. "He was an enormous help in teaching me about the organ," she said.
Anyone who doesn't play an organ must become familiar with its many idiosyncracies in order to write for it, she said. He or she must keep in mind the musical colors of the organ, with its four different keyboards and foot line, she said.
One recent morning, Cummins performed a portion of the composition for a French television station visiting the area as part of its D-Day coverage. When she heard him play for the television crew, Bond said, she was excited by the way he had transformed the music through his interpretation of it.
Cummins' performance of Bond's work is one of many events commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France in World War II, that have been scheduled during the next two weeks in Bedford and Roanoke. Bedford, Roanoke and many other Western and central Virginia communities from Martinsville to Winchester and Emporia to Wytheville share a particular interest in D-Day because of the leading role played by the National Guard's 116th Infantry Regiment.
Of the five invasion beaches on the coast of Normandy, the German resistance was the most fierce on the one code-named Omaha. The 29th Division, led by the 116th Infantry, was given the task of assaulting the western half of Omaha Beach while units of the U.S. 1st Division attacked the eastern half.
Company A from Bedford, which still had about 40 Bedford men in its draft-swollen ranks on D-Day, was one of four companies of the 116th in the first wave of infantry to land on Omaha Beach. Of the 200 men in the company, 91 were killed and all but 15 of the rest wounded or missing by the end of the day. Nineteen of the dead men were from Bedford County.
Company D, a heavy weapons company, and the regimental headquarters company, both from Roanoke, followed not far behind Company A. They, too, suffered heavy losses. At least 15 Roanoke men were dead at the day's end.
To commemorate these sacrifices, Bedford has a series of events planned for Memorial Day weekend, culminating with a public concert and wreath-laying ceremony on Monday.
In addition to the service at Greene Memorial, the National D-Day Foundation in Roanoke plans to mark D-Day's 50th anniversary with the dedication of a time capsule that will be buried June 5 at the War Memorial at Lee Plaza across Second Street from the church. The capsule will be opened in 50 years.
Slaughter, a foundation spokesman, said the intent is to keep the history of D-Day alive so that the causes that led to the great sacrifices of World War II will not be repeated.
"The skepticism of young people about the reality of the Holocaust, for example, and the indifference of Americans generally about the cost of the freedom they take for granted, or fail to think of at all, is alarming," he said.
\ BEDFORD D-DAY EVENTS
Friday, May 27
The Bedford City/County Museum hosts a special exhibit of wartime memorabilia from both the battlefield and homefront, including uniforms worn by Bedford servicemen and women.
Local theatre director Nancy Johnson directs a multi-media production at the Bedford Middle School at 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 28
Museum exhibit.
Middle school production, 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 29
Museum opens from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday, May 30
Museum exhibit.
D-Day Commemoration ceremony from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The museum and Bedford Main Street Inc. with the help of Nation's Bank will host a public concert between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the steps of the Bedford County Courthouse, featuring the 29th Division band, the Company A color guard, and D-Day veterans. The Bedford Veterans of Foreign Wars will conduct a memorial wreath laying and offer a special D-Day commemorative stamp and postmarked envelope.
ROANOKE D-DAY EVENTS
Sunday, June 5
Time capsule dedication at 2 p.m. at War Memorial in Lee Plaza in downtown Roanoke. The featured speaker will be retired Army General William B. Rosson of Roanoke. Other participants will include the 29th Division Band and colorguard.
Non-denominational services at Greene Memorial Methodist Church at 2:45 p.m., following the dedication of the time capsule The principal speaker at the service will be Rev. George Hamilton, chaplain of the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salem. Special music written for occasion by Roanoke Symphony Conductor Victoria Bond will be performed.
A procession will follow the church service to the Roanoke Valley History Museum at Center in the Square for the opening of a special World War II and D-Day exhibition.
OTHER D-DAY EVENTS
Thursday, June 2
Gov. George Allen and Virginia National Guard fighter squadron join French businessman Jean Leducq at 11 a.m. at his Prince Michel Vineyard on U.S. 29 in Leon, Va. to honor Virginia veterans of D-Day. Leducq is a former French soldier and German prisoner of war.
Saturday, June 4
Virginia Beach expects 10,000 veterans and other participants for a 50th anniversary re-enactment of the D-Day Normandy invasion.
The event will be held at Fort Story, the U.S. Army's training site for amphibious landings in World War II and today. A re-enactment by 1,000 people will include vintage tanks, artillery, aircraft and landing craft. It will last from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
The re-enactment is one of several events planned Friday evening through Sunday morning in Virginia Beach to commemorate D-Day, including a parade at 9 a.m. June 4, led by Van Johnson, star of World War II epic war movies. For more information on D-Day events in Virginia Beach, call toll free at 1-800-822-3224.
Monday, June 6
A symposium commemorating by the American First Day Cover Society at the Crystal City Day's Hotel in Northern Virginia, concluding a four-day stamp show saluting World War II. Phone 703-820-8031.
940525 STORY Events graph TOPIC D-day events KEYWORDK AUTHOR:GREGE05/25/94 5
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