Lexington Books
Pages: 230
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-4985-1600-6 • Hardback • October 2016 • $123.00 • (£95.00)
978-1-4985-1602-0 • Paperback • August 2018 • $55.99 • (£43.00)
978-1-4985-1601-3 • eBook • October 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)
Christina Gier is associate professor of musicology at the University of Alberta
Introduction: “Music Will Help Win the War!”
Chapter 1: Singing Pacifism and Preparedness—Sheet Music about the War 1914-1917
Chapter 2: Off to Battle Singing—The Gendered Politics of War Song
Chapter 3: Song Leaders and “Music in the Camps,” November 1917 to June 1918
Chapter 4: Song Leaders in the Army and African American Soldier Singing in “Music in the Camps,” July to November 1918
Chapter 5: Song Leaders in the Navy in “Music in the Camps,” July to November 1918
Chapter 6: “On Patrol in No Man’s Land”—Black Soldiers and Music
Chapter 7: Deciding Musical Morality—The Context of “Joan of Arc”
Chapter 8: “K-K-K-Katy” and Janis—Songs, Women and Performers
Chapter 9: “Over the Top”—Masculinity and Fighting in Song
Chapter 10: Postwar “Music in the Camps” and Sheet Music
This is a richly nuanced study of music in the First World War. The book examines the role and function of sheet music during wartime and the social and cultural impacts the consumption, performance and politics of these songs had on those that wrote, performed and distributed them. An absorbing read.
— Paul Watt, Monash University
The first ever in-depth study of what Americans sang during World War I, Dr. Gier’s book paints a vivid and exciting picture and provides a sophisticated explanation of the song repertoire and of the preoccupations of the US army’s team of singing masters. Not to be missed.
— John Mullen, The University of Rouen, author of Popular Song in Britain in The First World War.