Morning Heroes is a choral symphony by the English composer Arthur Bliss.
The work received its first performance at the Norwich Festival on 22 October 1930, with Basil Maine as the speaker/orator.
[1] Written in the aftermath of World War I, in which Bliss had performed military service,[2] Bliss inscribed the dedication as follows: "To the Memory of my brother Francis Kennard Bliss and all other Comrades killed in battle"The work sets various poems:[3][4] The extracts are spoken by a narrator and sung by a large choir.
Juxtaposing the harsh images of trench warfare with the epic heroes of Ancient Greece, the parallels Bliss draws are essentially romantic, and the work as a whole has been criticised as being rather complacent.
[5] Bliss himself said that he suffered from a repeating nightmare about his war experiences and that the composition of Morning Heroes helped to exorcise this.