ABSTRACT
This chapter covers the American musical response to World War I. Starting with background on the American remembrance of World War I, the chapter addresses some of the challenges faced by American composers during the war—from anti-German bias to attempting to respond to a war of unprecedented violence and bloodshed. Different forms of popular music—sentimental, patriotic, and comic—are discussed, concentrating on how these songs related to changing attitudes toward the war itself, from the early years of isolationism to the period when the United States actually joined in the conflict. The chapter also discusses the works of art music (“classical music”) composers and concentrates on three vocal settings of John McCrae’s famous poem “In Flanders Fields” by three prominent American composers: John Philip Sousa, Arthur Foote, and Charles Ives. The chapter seeks to show that while all of these responses were artistically valid, few, if any, were ultimately able to encompass the war as a whole.
