Among the hundreds of casualties of the wreck of the troop ship Otranto on October 6, 1918, was William Eugene Warth of Savannah. In 1919 his father, F. A. Warth, penned both the words and music of “Consolation” and dedicated it to the memory of his son and those lost with him.

In 2019, at the request of the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, Dr. Brent Runnels, director of Music at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, brought the music back to life with this linked recording. Soprano Dr. Wanda Yang Temko is accompanied by Dr. Runnels on the piano. Our sincere appreciation to Dr. Runnels and Dr. Temko for this moving contribution to the commemoration of the centennial of World War I with their performance of “Consolation,” a bereaved father’s tribute.

Soprano - Dr. Wanda Yang Temko and Pianist Dr. Brent Runnels.