Music as an Inspiration for Combat among American Soldiers in Iraq

Throughout history, music has inspired soldiers for combat. ¹ Plato believed that music could directly affect human behavior and that certain musical modes, like Phrygian, were likely to arouse emotion and incite aggressive, members of a group sing, chant, or yell words and melodies to prepare for war or during battle itself. Soldiers of almost all cultural backgrounds have sung battle cries. Spanish soldiers, for example, shouted, “Santiago y cierra España” [“Saint James and attack, Spain”] during the Reconquista; Finnish cavalry warriors, Hakkapeliitat, cried, “Hakkaa päälle” [“Cut them down”] in the Thirty Years War (1618–48); and Japanese pilots screamed, “Bonzai” [“Ten thousand years”] as a battle cry in WWII. Certain musical instruments, like bagpipes, have historical roots in inspiring soldiers for combat. In The Piper in Peace and War, historian C.A. Malcolm claims that pipers Allester Caddell and William Steel were commended by Scottish military leader, Alexander MacNoughton, for their playing that inspired archers in a 1627 battle against France. ²