From: The Battle Cry / A Tragedy
Category: Choral Music / A Cappella
Instrumentation: SATB chorus a cappella
Duration: 1.5 minutes
Difficulty: Lower advanced
Text / Source: Poem by Thomas Hardy

Coda is a short, through-composed a cappella movement for SATB chorus. The text asks, with dramatic urgency, “by whom and when the Law of Peace, brought in by that Man Crucified, was ruled to be inept, and set aside?”

As the closing movement of The Battle Cry, Coda turns the cantata from personal grief and battlefield tragedy toward a broader moral and spiritual question. Its chromatic writing gives the music intensity and tension, bringing the work to a stark and searching conclusion.

This movement is lower advanced because of its chromaticism and exposed a cappella texture. It requires secure intonation, careful tuning of dissonance, and a strong sense of textual purpose.