Prelude: Beginnings
The path to this volume has occupied nearly the full duration of the centennial of the Great War. The three collaborators and coeditors (who are still friends, amazingly) began by organizing a pair of international conferences: Over Here and Over There (University of York, England, February 27–28, 2015); and 1915: Music, Memory, and the Great War (University of Illinois, March 10–11, 2015). The first of these, conducted in tandem with an undergraduate module taught by William Brooks, included numerous performances, presentations, and exhibits by students and scholars, including Gayle Magee, Christina Bashford, and Deniz Ertan, each of whom has contributed to the present volume. The second conference included papers by many of the other authors represented here, with yet others in attendance; it included a performance by a Canadian troupe that re-created an entertainment given by Canada’s legendary “Dumbells” at the western front during the war and a recital by tenor Justin Vickers and pianist Geoffrey Duce, who presented multiple settings by English and American composers of the iconic text “In Flanders Fields.”...