Singing, Soldiering, and Sheet Music in America during the First World War

By (author) Christina Gier

Publication date:

19 October 2016

Length of book:

230 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498516006

An advertisement in the sheet music of the song “Goodbye Broadway, Hello France” (1917) announces: “Music will help win the war!” This ad hits upon an American sentiment expressed not just in advertising, but heard from other sectors of society during the American engagement in the First World War. It was an idea both imagined and practiced, from military culture to sheet music writers, about the power of music to help create a strong military and national community in the face of the conflict; it appears straightforward. Nevertheless, the published sheet music, in addition to discourse about gender, soldiering and music, evince a more complex picture of society. This book presents a study of sheet music and military singing practices in America during the First World War that critically situates them in the social discourses, including issues of segregation and suffrage, and the historical context of the war. The transfer of musical styles between the civilian and military realm was fluid because so many men were enlisted from homes with the sheet music while they were also singing songs in their military training. Close musical analysis brings the meaningful musical and lyrical expressions of this time period to the forefront of our understanding of soldier and civilian music making at this time.

Introduction: “Music Will Help Win the War!”
Chapter 1: Singing Pacifism and Preparedness—Sheet Music about the War 1914-1917
Chapter 2: Off to Battle Singing—The Gendered Politics of War Song
Chapter 3: Song Leaders and “Music in the Camps,” November 1917 to June 1918
Chapter 4: Song Leaders in the Army and African American Soldier Singing in “Music in the Camps,” July to November 1918
Chapter 5: Song Leaders in the Navy in “Music in the Camps,” July to November 1918
Chapter 6: “On Patrol in No Man’s Land”—Black Soldiers and Music
Chapter 7: Deciding Musical Morality—The Context of “Joan of Arc”
Chapter 8: “K-K-K-Katy” and Janis—Songs, Women and Performers
Chapter 9: “Over the Top”—Masculinity and Fighting in Song
Chapter 10: Postwar “Music in the Camps” and Sheet Music

The first ever in-depth study of what Americans sang during World War I, Dr. Gier’s book paints a vivid and exciting picture and provides a sophisticated explanation of the song repertoire and of the preoccupations of the US army’s team of singing masters. Not to be missed.