Dave Stewart:

>1. Owen sees the world leaders at the time as Abraham and deliberately
>destroy one-by-one the seed of europe.  Britten simply for irony's sake
>sets it against Owens old testament and the boys who are to die make their
>presence felt which gives more weight to the 'crime' of the world leaders
>as they are responsible for their deaths.

I go with 1.  The "lightness" of the "et semini ejus" is almost a
fingerprint in Britten's work: personal musical iconography for a kind of
danse macabre.  I don't know which performance you've been listening to.
At any rate, to my mind, those "et seminis" should crack like a whip.

Steve Schwartz