Songposium In October of 1955, while traveling to Ohio, Pete Seeger wrote the song Where Have All The Flowers Gone? His inspiration was the Ukrainian Cossack song Kaloda Duda which the Nobel Prize winner Michael Sholokhov had quoted in his great civil war novel The Silent Don. At the end of each stanza there is the haunting question: ‘When will you ever learn?’ Given the dramatic situation in Ukraine, this is truly the issue of the day. The folk band Buckijit from Dresden will interpret Kaloda Duda as well as all the other songs associated with this song cycle. Songposiarch Dieter Arnold Beckert will moderate the afternoon and unfold his presentation on the large theatre screen. As an expert, folker’s former editor-in-chief Michael Kleff will provide many interesting details - not least about Pete Seeger whom he knew personally.

Is war the father of all things - as Heraclid claims in his quote (translated incompletely)? Where does the chauvinistic arrogance between peoples come from that can be found everywhere and again and again? Who is currently alpha and who is building the largest triumphal arches? Why does the goddess of love - in the mythology of the ancient Greeks - love the god of massacre, the blood-drinker Ares? Professor Ian Morris of Stanford University took up these and other questions in his 476-page book War: What Is It Good For and developed a few bold hypotheses worth discussing.

In 2023, a single song will once again be at the Songposium’s centre. A little song serving as the basis for a controversial because topical afternoon. At the end, the auditorium can sing along.

Dieter Beckert, Songposiarch
Michael Kleff, Experte
Buckijit, Musiker

Photo Silvia Hauptmann