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Rebecca Farthing, born 2000, is a composer, cellist and a winner of the Ģ������Ƶ Proms Inspire Competition 2017 (Upper Junior category). As part of her prize Rebecca Farthing was commissioned by the Ģ������Ƶ Proms to write a new piece for Aurora Orchestra, taking inspiration from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of German folk poems set for voice and orchestra. Rebecca took part in a series of workshops with mentor-composer Martin Suckling and Aurora Orchestra to create her final piece. We Soldiers Must March received its world premiere by Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Stark, as part of the Ģ������Ƶ Proms Inspire Concert at the Ģ������Ƶ’s Radio Theatre, New Broadcasting House on 22 August 2018. “I have used musical material from two songs from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, ‘Where the Fair Trumpets Sound’ and ‘Reveille’, and the text from the latter in my programmatic approach to this composition. It follows the macabre tale of an army (represented by the chamber ensemble in my piece) which, having come close to defeat in battle, is spurred to victory by the sudden revivification of its injured drummer (here portrayed by the double bass), only to become ‘skeletons’ by morning when it reaches the house of the drummer’s sweetheart (whose perspective is heard in the opening and closing sections). Unlike Mahler’s interpretation, which to me emphasises the heroism of the drummer and the romanticism of the tale, I have focused on the more realistic aspects of war as well as the grim aftermath.”