Men Against Fire

Listen to the work here!
 
Men Against Fire is a work for solo bass drum, inspired by the episode of the same name of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror, which is in turn named after a book by S. L. A. Marshall. In the episode (spoiler warning!), an unnamed military uses futuristic brain implants to improve soldiers’ combat abilities; however, the brain implants also alter soldiers’ perception without them knowing – they think they’re fighting mutated “roaches”, but are actually carrying out a genocide against normal human beings. The episode explores how propaganda and social conditioning are used to rationalize acts of war, and how human empathy is naturally opposed to violence, and I have tried to capture the characters, narrative, and themes of that episode in this piece. On first viewing, the themes and plot twist of this episode resonated with me in a deeply profound way, and seeing as the cold justification of unspeakable cruelty is something that still persists in the world today, I wanted to approach this piece as an opportunity to speak out against genocide and needless warmongering.
 
This work and four other solo percussion works constitute The Empathy Cycle,
connected by their themes of love, understanding, and the resilience of human
kindness. Men Against Fire was commissioned by Tanner Day for his senior percussion recital at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.