Three Young Farmers on Their Way to a Dance (2025)

Program Note

Three Young Farmers on Their Way to a Dance was inspired by the photograph by the same name, taken by August Sander in 1914. In particular , I was inspired by John Green’s essay on the photograph, which also goes by the same name and which he includes in his book “The Anthropocene Reviewed.” In the photograph, we see three young men in their nest attire, turning towards the camera pausing to gaze at you, the viewer , for a fleeting moment before continuing on their journey. It’s a warm summer evening in the Westerwald mountains of Germany , and the three boys are on their way to a dance in a nearby town. What they didn’t know was that soon, Europe would be at war and their lives and the world would never be the same. 

The first movement, “What we know,” is intended as an elegy for the future that awaited the boys and the world as a whole. August Klein, pictured in the middle of the photograph, would die in March of the following year in the war at the age of 22. Otto Krieger (to his left) and Ewald Klein (to his right) would also become seriously injured. The horrifyingly gruesome scale and mechanization of the killing during the war left an irrevocable mark on history. The shock to witness the tragedy humans were capable of causing aided by technology slashed our collective faith and optimism in both, leaving a dark spot in history to which we invariably refer to a time “before” and “after.” 

The second movement, “What they know,” seeks to capture the optimism and joy I imagine the boys must have been feeling on the evening this photo was taken. The young men, despite the title of the photograph, were not farmers - they worked in an iron ore mine. I imagine the juxtaposition of thispastoral moment with the reality of their daily work and the impact of that contrast. John Green puts it best when he writes, “I love how the young men are looking over their shoulders, as if they barely have time to pause for the camera before going toward the dance and the rest of their lives. Their feet are in the mud, but their heads are in the sky , which is not a bad metaphor for being twenty. And their expressions capture the way you feel when you’re with your best friends in your nicest clothes.” All they know is the present, and don’t we all. For me, the photograph serves as a sobering reminder of this fact that rings true for us all. While what tomorrow holds for us is unknown, today , we dance.

Rose Roberts