This is a brief presentation about Musical Nationalism during World War II.

1. Culture and Music:
Musical Nationalism
in
World War II

2. Background:
Musical Nationalism refers to
the use of musical ideas
that are identified with a specific country,
region, or ethnicity, such as folk tunes
and the melodies, rhythms, and
harmonies inspired by them.

3. World War II was the first armed conflict
to take place in the age of
electronically mass distributed music.
By 1940, more than 96% of
Northeastern American urban households
had radios, which became a primary source of
news and information about the war,
as well as the primary source of entertainment.
As a result, music became a highly important
cultural element during the war.

4. In Poland:
The music of Polish composer
Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) was banned in
Poland by the occupying Nazi regime during
World War II because much of Chopin’s
music is so strongly nationalistic.
During his own lifetime, Chopin’s music
represented the struggle
of the Polish people for freedom
against the rule of the Russian Empire.

5. In Finland:
The music of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius
(1865-1957) is extremely nationalistic. This is
particularly true of his famous tone poem
for orchestra, Finlandia.
Finlandia is Sibelius’ best-known work,
which he composed in 1899 to protest Russian
cultural censorship in Finland.
Today, Finlandia is considered to be one of the
foremost examples of musical nationalism
in the history of music.

6. In The United States:
The music of many of America’s composers is
highly nationalistic. Most prominent among these
is the “Dean of American Composers,”
Aaron Copland (1900-1990).
During the 1920s, Copland emerged as a leader in
the generation of early 20th century American
composers that also included such “mainstream”
composers as Howard Hanson, (1896-1981) a
champion of American classical music,
and the avant-garde composer
Charles Ives, (1874-1954) who used American folk
tunes and patriotic songs as the melodic material
for his very modernistic symphonies.

7. During World War II,
Copland composed his famous
“Fanfare for the Common Man”
in 1942, which has become highly
identified with American nationalism.
Other nationalistic works by Copland
include Lincoln Portrait,
also composed in 1942 and the ballet
Appalachian Spring, composed in 1944.
These are Copland’s best-known works.

8. In American popular music,
unabashedly patriotic popular songs
such as “God Bless America”
by Irving Berlin and
“Over There” by George M. Cohan
(along with many others)
dominated the radio airwaves
during World War II.

9. The “Big Band” style of Jazz also became
a major influence in American Culture during
World War II.
Big Band songs, with titles such as “G.I. Jive”
and “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
(of Company B)” and songs with more
generic titles such as “Moonlight Serenade”
and “In the Mood” helped to unite the
American public during the war.
When the war was over, Big Band music
rapidly declined as American culture
moved forward into the 1950s.

10. In Great Britain:
Because Great Britain was the leader
among the Allied Forces
(Great Britain, Poland and France)
in the early years of World War II,
nationalism of all forms
became a unifying force
in British culture.

11. Nationalism became especially important
in Great Britain after the German army defeated
of Poland in 1939 and France in 1940.
From mid-1940 to late-1941, (when the United
States entered the war) Great Britain was
the lone opposition to Hitler’s aggression.
During this time, musical nationalism became
extremely important in British culture.
Popular songs, such as “Lilli Marlene,”
“There'll Always Be An England” and
“I’ll Be Seeing You” were unifying cultural forces
for the British during the war.

12. In Germany:
Musical nationalism also played
a significant role in the rise of Nazi Germany
before and during World War II.
With centuries of great music to draw upon
by such composers as Beethoven, Weber,
Schumann, Brahms and Wagner,
classical music was used by the
Nazi regime as a symbol of supposed
German cultural superiority.

13. In Germany:
The music of Richard Wagner in particular became
a sort of “soundtrack” of the Nazi party.
Of course, Wagner and most of the other
composers whose music was used to promote the
Nazi regime were no longer alive to protest
the use of their music for this purpose.
Even so, more than 70 years after
the end of World War Two, the reputation
of Wagner and his music are still tainted
by their association with Adolph Hitler.