Music video description
Another hit and song on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Poland's independence that I would like to present to you today is the 1944 song "Czerwone Maki Na Monte Cassino." The author of the words to this song was Felix Konarski, while the music was written by Alfred Schütz. The story of this song is truly unique, it was written on the night of May 17-18, when Konarski, a well-known composer and operetta singer before the war, heard explosions and sounds of fighting announcing the Polish attack to capture the monastery. He began to write the lyrics of the song and then woke up Alfred Schütz, who was a well-known conductor and composer to quickly write music to the words of his song. It is worth noting that he was also a soldier at the time, actively participating in the fighting. Given the rather complicated melodic line, this was no mean feat in his performance. The red flowers of the title are a symbol of the blood of those who died during the fighting and allude to the poppies that overgrew the hills near Monte Casino destroyed by artillery shells. When the monastery was captured on May 18, this song (in a slightly shorter version because two stanzas of the song had been written at the time, the third was added several hours later by Konarski) was performed by Gwidon Borucki with the participation of Alfred Schütz's 14-piece orchestra. While the last fourth stanza was written on the 25th anniversary of the battle. I cordially invite you to listen to this beautiful song performed by a male choir.