Knowledge of Place in Three Popular Music Representations of the First World War

This paper traces the relationship between music and national feeling which permeated popular education during the latter part of the nineteenth century, culminating in the publication ofThe National Song Book(Stanford, 1906). By the First World War there was hardly a school in the country which did not possess a copy. The roots of the idea of national songs are traced back to Herder and Engel, and in particular to William Chappell'sPopular Music of the Olden Time(1858–9). The paper argues that music educationists developed distinct theories about the educative value of such songs in developing notions of nationhood, patriotism and racial pride. Specifically a line of development is traced in the development ofThe National Song Bookthrough Charles Stanford, W. H. Hadow and Arthur Somervell, while taking cognisance of the dissenting views of John Stainer and Cecil Sharp. The paper concludes thatThe National Song Bookproclaimed the hegemony of the literate tradition as opposed to the oral, and considers the view that national songs contained within them the danger of the manipulation of patriotism.

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‘Caught in a whirlpool of aching sound’: the production of dance music in Britain in the 1920s

Popular Music ◽

10.1017/s0261143000001549 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 7-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mark Hustwitt

Keyword(s):

Popular Music ◽

First World War ◽

British Society ◽

Dance Music ◽

World War ◽

The Social ◽

The First World War ◽

The Usa ◽

First World ◽

The Way

In the years between 1910 and 1930 there occurred a number of changes in the forms of popular music enjoyed in Britain, in the ways this music was produced and disseminated, and in its use for pleasure and profit. In this article I am concerned with mapping together themes which have hitherto been investigated in isolation; I focus on the relation of musical forms to their users, bandleaders, musicians, dancers, ‘jazz fans’, record companies, etc., rather than on any single aspect of popular music. I investigate the way in which the importation of new forms of music and dance from the USA, the social disruptions of the First World War and the more general trends in British society and its economy coalesce to re-orientate musical pleasures during the 1920s. I begin by examining changes in music and dance immediately before and during the First World War.

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