Music and the Remembrance of War

By Patrick Garrity
Dickinson College
Carlisle, PA

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All history majors at Dickinson College must complete a Senior Seminar to graduate. My seminar is titled "War & Remembrance," and for my final project in the seminar I have decided to write on music's impact on remembering war (primarily in America) in the 20th century.

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THESIS

Music is a discipline which can be intricately related to almost any other field.  The artistic emotion with which music is created can be applied to almost any situation. Its primary focus is to trigger a response, or to share an emotion such as happiness or joy, sorrow or loss.  But the ability to touch any listener at any time is what sets it apart from most other forms of artistic expression.  One can visit museums and galleries to see paintings, but outside of the moment of view, the experience does not always stay fresh in the memory.  We can hear a poem or short story, but can we truly say we remember more poems in our society than songs?  Music illuminates our society today and has for years.  It is always fresh in our minds, and a part of our every day life.  In turn, because of this, music becomes part of our memories as a society. The attachment we have with music is what brings us closer to those memories.

So in looking at the topic of "War and Remembrance," what better tool to use than music?  What helps our society to remember war more effectively than anything else? One could argue that film is a medium in which our society remembers war effectively, but take out the music behind the movies, and what do you have?  Would Saving Private Ryan or Patton be remembered as vividly in our society if we had the "mute" button pushed throughout the picture?  Music is the fabric which most tightly holds together our memories of war. Would the common American's image of war be more likely influenced by reading a memoir or listening to John Fogerty's Fortunate Son?  Is a book written by well known literary critic Paul Fussell more likely to spark remembrance of war than The Army Air Corps Song?  The answer for the most part, is no.  War music is so universal, such a cry to society at the time it is produced, that it is easily what stays with our memories the longest.  The music of and about war in this century is a reflection of the times, and that is why it is one of the most effective tools in remembering war.  In this paper, I intend to look at a sampling of music from World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and now, to compare how our society (and all societies involved in the particular war) remembers war through music. Touching on numerous styles, from sing-alongs, to folk songs, to big band songs, to classical pieces, to pop music, to acoustic ballads, my project will encompass the feelings and issues our country dealt with at the time of those wars, and look at what it meant, why the songs were written, and how.  I will also look at the actual music itself, and speculate why composers wrote the kind of melodies and lyrics they did. Also, I will share the insight of professional musicians who are also students of this topic. What would someone who is trained in writing and performing music think about how war is remembered?

Each war's music was just as unique as the conflicts themselves. Certainly songs written in the 1960's will have different angles and reasoning behind their messages than those written during and immediately after World War I in 1919. And those songs which reflected society after World War II wouldn't be anything like songs written today about war. After looking at these three periods in detail, I intend to look at more contemporary artist's songs about war. What do writers in a generation after Vietnam have to say about war? Can they really write on the subject never having been in a war? Could their songs be considered a reflection of today's society? All of these questions I hope to answer.

The first section of this project will look at the music of World War I in America. How did it effect the nation, and what it meant?  The best reflections of society perhaps are in classical pieces. One collection published in 1999, entitled War's Embers, looks at songs of composers who perished or suffered during World War I.  For example, Ernest Farrar's Wanderer's Song tells the story of a soldier in a foreign situation, unaware of his surroundings and duties.  He keeps wandering, wondering what his purpose is. Another example is Farrar's The Ship, which adds no glory to the vessels of war. One lyric suggests "There was no song nor shout of joy," while another describes "Her sails were brown and ragged."  Ivor Gurney's Sleep, uses this idea to get away from the war, saying "Come sleep, and with a sweet deceiving, lock me in delight awhile." Another piece entitled Even Such the Time, looks at war's effect on the younger generation. "Our youth, our joys, our all we have, and pays us but with earth and dust. Who, in the dark and silent grave, when we have wandered all our ways, shuts up the story of our days."
 
Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring perhaps best captures the essence of World War I society with its frightening music, giving the listener images of war in note after note, from soldiers marching to bullets flying, from death to decay. Truly one of the most remarkable pieces of culture and of war ever written.
 
There are other, less morbid looks at the first World War however. In a compilation by National Public Radio entitled The Great War: Classical and Popular selections from the time of World War I, there are many more strident songs, including the well known Over There, and also the Military March No. 1 in D: Pomp and Circumstance both performed in this collection by the New York Philharmonic.
 
Still, despite this, World War I's music seems to be mysterious and unfamiliar. As a reflection of the society, the music is dark and questioning, peculiar as to its purpose and intent. This style of music on war was new to Americans, just as the style of war, and the war itself was to them. But it was a beginning, and as it will be seen, music will become very influential on American society.

World War II music reflects popular culture at the time as well, and the general feeling in this country was one of optimism and content. Life was good, and one can hear that message in the music. One of the musical styles which took precedence in this period was Big Band music. Bing Crosby, Mel Torme, and numerous others lent their voices to the cause, and let Americans know that everything was all right. Crosby sings about a Road to Victory on which every American should get on, and "buy another bond today." He also popularized the famous Army Air Corps Song, as well as crooning the classic Yankee Doodle Dandy.
 
Besides Crosby, Lainie Nelson was also at the forefront of popular war music. Songs like They're Either to Young or too Old, and "One Certain Solider" both give a light account of what it's like to miss someone. This can also be heard in her version of the (not-always-thought-of-as-a-war-song) I'll be home for Christmas. My favorite of Nelson's though, is her Military Medley, whose chorus is "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition."
 
Besides big band, folk music really made a name for itself in this period. Not known to be subtle, folk songs truly were direct war messages with a guitar behind them. Musicians like Pete Seeger and the fervently anti-fascist Woody Guthrie sang songs like Plow Under, and the Ballad of October 16 which includes lyrics like "I hate war, so does Eleanor," and "We won't be safe till everybody is dead."  Another folk singer named Josh White sang that "nobody's gonna keep me from marching down freedom road."
 
Again, World War II songs really did reflect the times  in America well. There was an optimism in the air, and the musicians made it known in their songs. The beats were "happier," more content, and faster. They were not near as dark as the classical songs from the earlier war. The relied on major chords, which are bright and full, unlike minor chords synonymous with darker and less optimistic music. There was also a lot more instrumentation, including more brass sections and vocals in general, really almost speaking to the American public. It was a good time for war music.

Vietnam was by nearly all accounts a terrible situation for America. The conflict split the nation, as the Civil Rights Movement and Woodstock had done. The music of the time was almost unstoppable. There were no boundaries, no limits, nothing holding back the music of the late 1960's and 1970's. Songs like Richie Havens's Freedom, to Credence Clearwater Revival's Fortunate Son all made a statement and were addressed to the government or the people. In this turbulent period in American History, the music was just as eclectic as the society. There were folk songs like Played around and stayed around in Vietnam too Long which proclaimed that "Ho Chi Mihn and Johnson don't get along, and I just feel like I wanna go home."  Other folk musicians became very successful. At the forefront of the folk music scene was Bob Dylan, who gave a social commentary on the nation which many related too, and showed how powerful the folk movement had become. The folk and rock movements really took "center stage" with music about war because the songs were of the people more than ever before. Americans used the songs as their own platforms and used them to fight for their cause. The musicians were with the people during the Vietnam conflict, and because of that were able to capture the uncomfortable mood of the society perhaps more effectively than ever before.  And yet, the music was more effective as well.

George Crumb's Black Angels, inspired by the Vietnam War, is perhaps the piece which comes closest to accurately conveying what the conflict itself was like. Crumb's work eerily transports the listener to the nation and makes sounds and noises with instruments rarely heard before.

Today it seems there aren't as many songs about war as there have been in the past. Our country is not involved in a global conflict in 1999, and the society in general seems relatively stable. Yet if one looks hard enough there are some contemporary songwriters who look back at war. One of the most notable is Billy Joel. His Goodnight Saigon attempts to give a sense of what it was like in Vietnam.  One lyric bluntly says "We came in spastic, like tameless horses, we left in plastic, as numbered corpses." This vivid imagery in looking back at the Vietnam conflict certainly gives us Joel's views of the war.
 
Besides well known artists, many lesser known songwriters have written about war as well. Not necessarily a part of mainstream popular music, their messages are a very good reflection of what society now, (and those in the post Vietnam generation) thinks about war. One example of this is Jack O'Neill. A veteran writer about war, his songs seem to capture the essence of societal feeling about the Vietnam war both when it was happening, and now. One of his songs, titled March, says "but every generation makes the same mistakes, and still we send our sons away to do the same, the mothers cry and the daughters die inside and the sons like the fathers, march." Another song of his, entitled Woman as Salvation, likens the cause of a war to a woman, with lyrics like "conversion on the spot to her, woman as religion, it's time for holy war. Raise my fists above my head, to her I swore, my allegiance."  One final O'Neill song, titled Rain, tells the story of a young soldier who didn't get what he bargained for, saying "He's 19 years old he's got a gun at his side the more he looks around he knows the president lied."  These types of emotions seem to permeate our society today. Supposedly war is a glorious battle for honor and recognition, but most Americans today to see it as anything like that, but rather, and inglorious struggle for life. Another contemporary songwriter named Nathan Church writes in his song Doves Outside my Door, "...Do I do it for God, country, Unit Corps, treason, honor, peace or war, hawks are circling over me, there are doves outside my door." Though contemporary writers are a part of the post Vietnam generation, it seems like they too in their songs give a reflection of the society they live in.

This project will show the power music has on us all. By combining two of the most emotional concepts we deal with, music and war, we cannot help but see the profound effect one has on the other. The music gives us the perspective of the war, the society's feeling towards it, the society's reaction to it. The music gives us a snapshot of society at the time it is happening, and after. The war creates some of the most passionate music we as a society have ever heard.  War's effect on music is so great in fact, that contemporary writers will always write on the subject. Besides that, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Billy Joel, some of the most famous names in popular music, have all written or sung about war as well.  War and music's effects on each other are startling, and when remembering war, one has to remember music as well.