Intrigued by a researcher query at my day job as YIVO’s Sound Archivist, I did some digging and found out that Yiddish song collector/singer Ruth Rubin had entered a contest promising a free subscription to Sing Out! magazine to anyone who could identify the original Russian poem Pete Seeger had based his 1950s anti-war hymn “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” on. Although British folklorist A.L. Lloyd won the contest, Ruth presented SingOut! with the Yiddish parallel, which had been published by the Yiddish folklore collector Y.L. Cahan. Times being what they are, I was inspired to set the lyrics musically as a cumulative ballad - an observance of the worldwide circle of violence which never seems to end (I wrote a verse connecting the end of the original poem to the beginning). Matt composed the inquisitively mysterious instrumental interludes that complete our arrangement, which continues to deepen with each performance.