Battle of Arras (IWM 1917 film) with a new Choral / Orchestral Score
Music by Laura Rossi
Conducted by John Gibbons
Performed by The Chamber Orchestra of London and The Guildhall Session Singers
Music & Film Excerpts
‘Battle of Arras’ world premiere at Pordenone Silent Film Festival, Italy, 8th October 2025
Performed by Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone & Coro del Friuli Venezia Giulia, conducted by Andrej Goričar.
Rehearsal at Pordenone
Recording Session – End Credits Sung by Neyland (WW1 veteran)
REVIEWS
The Imperial War Museums have restored 1917’s The German Retreat and the Battle of Arras; Laura Rossi has composed an astonishingly rich, poignant score, incorporating songs and poetry. This is embedded, but plotted, sometimes even you might say performed, frontline filmmaking. Raw but not unfiltered. There is pain, camaraderie, reflection, and devastation, but no chaos. The landscape of northern France is here ripped apart, and we know both how the grass will grow back, and what future horrors will advance and retreat in years to come. The screening was very powerful, almost reverent in tone. Rossi’s score was performed by Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone and Coro del Friuli Venezia Giulia, conducted by Andrej Goričar. My spine tingled when those voices soared to the top of the auditorium. As the camera panned up the derelict Arras Cathedral, and the train station too, in the moment it felt as if the theatre had too been transformed into some kind of monument.
Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2025 – Pamela Hutchinson, Silent London
Made when the Great War looked like it might be winnable and has a propagandist purpose beyond earlier films in showing the changed momentum of the conflict to those back home. It is also historically significant for the events it memorialises, the techniques it uses to do this and its intent.. Geoffrey H. Malins was director of photography as he had been for the two Somme films and this film is another great technical achievement and awe-inspiring in the greater context. It didn’t feel triumphant though, more grimly determined to help complete the job and this was partly down to the excellence of Laura Rossi’s musical choices.
Laura has scored for the other films and was on hand to hear her new composition played in the Teatro Verdi by the Orchestra di Pordenone & Coro del Fruili as conducted by Andrej Goričar. Her score enabled us to really see the film, devoid of any post-facto contextualisation, in ways that were connected to the original intent. She allowed us a bit of both but underscoring the documentation on display to allow our own interpretation – a most historical musical agenda, incredibly effective and created.
Elements of poetry and songs of the period, from all sides, were used as connective themes but also providing contrapuntal lines to neutralise more pointed segments. It enabled us that more conscious consumption of the film than might otherwise have been possible. A sobering end to the day and brilliant work from all concerned.
Le Giornate Del Cinema Muto – Paul Joyce, Silent Film Blog
ABOUT THE FILM & MUSIC
‘The German Retreat and Battle of Arras documents the British Army’s great offensive on the Western front during the Easter period in 1917. This third instalment in a trilogy of official films on the French and Belgian campaigns was the most visually successful, as evidenced by the new digital restoration undertaken in a collaboration between the London Imperial War Museum (IWM) and the University of Udine.
The images of the Battle of Arras were filmed by four operators lead by Capitan J.C. Faunthorpe, officer of the military intelligence directorate and military director of the official cinematographers. An unusual feature of this documentary is its use of colour: hand coloured sections and red intertitles spotlight explosions while, to underscore realistic naturalism, blue is used for the river and sky, and brown for the ground. The score by British composer Laura Rossi for choir and chamber ensemble was inspired by poetry and texts written by soldiers who fought in the battle. In the film’s closing credits, we hear the recorded voice of a soldier talking about the songs he and his comrades sang, eventually breaking into song with these words: “When this wicked war is over” a very poignant ending to this moving film.