Songs of War Time and Protest Songs
Project in Commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the Great Victory
Goals – to learn the best world songs against war (protest songs); to do research on Russian songs, which helped our soldiers to Victory, when and how these songs were created, to find out information about the composers and performers, to investigate the cultural, historical and musical connections between Russia and other countries; to study music’s influence on people’s life, their moods, mentalities, politics.
Research Fields: history, linguistics, folk culture, music, computer technology.
Project Stages:
1. Searching the best antiwar songs in English.
2. Learning the best Russian songs of war time.
3. Collecting material on the topic.
4. Analysis and systematization.
5. Holding a concert, devoted to protest songs and war songs in English.
6. Creating a presentation of pictures, videos and songs on the topic, using modern computer technologies.
Actuality. We don’t know enough songs of different peoples. Contemporary children are ignorant of our Russian songs of those war years, that is why our work is important for culture dialogue, for bringing children patriotism and attention to our culture and history. This topic is of great importance in a time of conflicts.
Introduction
“When muses talk, cannons keep silence.”
Music and songs may be more powerful arguments in peace struggles than cannons. Music unites peoples. And people all over the world fight against war with famous protest songs. They want peace, they tell us what war has brought and call on people to stop wars forever.
Role of Music in WW II
During World War II, both the Allied and Axis powers undertook a massive effort in broadcasting and producing music generally for three reasons:
– to boost the morale of troops and civilians suffering under war conditions;
– to attract enemy troops to propaganda programs;
– to express a vision of the nature of their regimes.
For humans drawn into the war the motivations would be more honest. Songs would provide nostalgia for peace, motivate them, or promise a better future.
Popular British Soldier Songs
British soldiers were paid significantly less than American troops, faced harder conditions at home, and were generally deployed for longer periods of time, preventing them from being exposed to radio productions to the same degree as the United States Armed Forces. So whereas US forces were exposed to mass media, British units often had to sing their own songs that were often disrespectful and memorable rhymes. Songs were generally based upon pre-existing well known songs.
Popular soldier songs included:
“Kiss Me Goodnight”, Sergeant Major
“The British Soldier’s Toilet Song”
“There’ll Always Be An England” (1939–1940)
“We’ll Meet Again”
This is perhaps the most famous war time song with the lines:
We’ll meet again
Don’t know where
Don’t know when
But I know we’ll meet again some sunny day
The remarkable performance of this song belongs to Dame Vera Lynn. After singing this hit song, she became an idol for all British soldiers.
American Songs
American troops had regular access to radio in all but the most difficult combat situations, and not only did soldiers know specific songs, but specific recordings. This gave a quality to American troops’ music during WWII, not as many songs sung around a fire or while marching, but, rather, listened to in the mess between combat on Armed Forces Radio.
The most famous songs were:
“Remember Pearl Harbor”, Sammy Kaye (1942)
“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (Never No Lament)”, Duke Ellington & His Orchestra
“Every Time We Say Goodbye”, Composer: Cole Porter.
This song appeared shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and America’s entry into the war. One of the first and the most classic World War II patriotic songs was written by Don Reid and Sammy Kaye. The song, “Remember Pearl Harbor”, described as a “March with spirit”, was based on the popular saying of the day and became an instant hit with the public.
Russian War Songs
The Russians suffered the most in the War of 1941–1945. And it was the song, which helped our people to withstand the hardships of the War.
The most famous, popular, beloved songs, which inspired our soldiers in the battlefields and people in the rear were:
“Sacred War”
“Cranes”
“Dark Night”
“Victory Day”
“Zemlyanka”
“Katyusha”…and many others.
“Sacred War”
The Song “Sacred War” was composed by A. V. Aleksandrov in several hours in June 1941. It was performed on the platform of the Belorussian Station, from where troops were going to the West. The history of making this song was very interesting. Alesandrov took the newspaper “Izvestia” from June 1941, looked through it quickly and paid attention to the name of poet Lebedev-Kumach. His poem captivated him at once. He put aside all his business and returned home immediately. An ensemble named “Red Banner” played this song and the song really thrilled the first listeners. Their eyes filled with tears. The intonation of the courageous call made people ready to go fight the enemy immediately.
“Cranes”
The song “Cranes”, written by Yan Frenkel based on Ramsul Gamzatov’s words, touches listeners by its depth, lyrics and music. It’s impossible to listen anything else after “Cranes”.
Besides the composer and poet, was one more creator of this song – the actor and singer, Mark Bernes. He was the first to pay attention to the poem of Gamzatov and pursuade him to make some changes in the text and certainly he is the best performer of this song.
In our research work, we have learned the history of these songs and about their composers and performers. These songs helped our people to survive during the war and, in our day, they help us to feel the atmosphere of those glorious days and to feel pride for our Motherland and our Victory.
The most famous antiwar songs, written after WW II which are in the top 10 world’s best songs, are:
“Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, Pete Seeger (the USA)
“Blowing in the Wind”, Bob Dylan (the USA)
“Give Peace a Chance”, “Imagine”, John Lennon (Great Britain)
“Child in Time”, Deep Purple (Great Britain)
“Wind of Change”, Scorpions (Germany)
“Buhenvald Nabat”, Muradely (USSR).
All of them were written after WW II, but wars haven’t stopped yet in our world. All of them cause pain and sufferings.
Bob Dylan. “Blowing in the Wind”. The song was inspired by an old negro spiritual and was written during the American-Vietnamese War. But this song became the most popular antiwar song. A lot of famous singers have sung it, even today.
One of the most popular antiwar songs “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” was written by Pete Seeger. He found inspiration for the song in October 1955, when he saw a passage in his notebook: “Where are the flowers, the girls have plucked them. Where are the girls, they’ve all taken husbands. Where are the men, they’re all in the army.” These were the words from a Ukrainian folk song, referenced in the Mikhail Sholokhov novel And Quiet Flows the Don (1934).
John Lennon – “Imagine”, “Give Peace a Chance”
Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and biting wit in his music, on film, in books, and at press conferences and interviews. He was controversial through his work as a peace activist and visual artist, along with his wife Yoko Ono.
Joan Baez – the best performer of the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”. Her beautiful voice expresses the sorrow and grief of the girls having lost forever their men in the Vietnam War, but the meaning of the song is much deeper and is universal to all mankind in a philosophical sense.
Scorpions. “Wind of Change” is a 1990 power ballad written by Klaus Meine, vocalist of the Scorpions. The song is devoted to the destroying of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the end of the Cold War. The song is currently the 10th best-selling single of all time in Germany.
The summary:
1. War songs helped Russian people to survive during the Great Patriotic War.
2. Thanks to war songs, the younger generation feels a connection with the war generation, our grandfathers and grandmothers.
3. Protest songs stand for peace and unite peoples all over the world.
The results of the work:
Speaking of the results of our work, wewould like to say that just the process of the work was very interesting.
We did a lot of research:
• We searched the songs of wartime in Russia, America, and Great Britain. We traced the history of their creation, compared different cultures. We studied war history through songs and the national spirit expressed in these songs.
• We chose the most popular songs and learned them. We stayed after classes and enjoyed singing our favourite songs. This informal communication helped us to feel the atmosphere of people’s mood during the war and to understand peoples of different countries much better than if we had learned the history only from books. And what is worth telling, is that we became closer and more interesting to each other.
• And the last thing we want to mention is that we want other pupils to enjoy these songs, so we started to perform them and made a concert program based on war and protest songs. It was at “Lingva” where we performed it for the first time and our young music group was a big success.
Working on the project was really interesting and both adults and pupils have learned a lot.
Sources:
1. Stories about songs. O. Ochakovskaya. M.: Music. 1985.
2. Muses did not keep silence during the war. Starshinov N.K. Victoriya. No. 5, 2005.
3. http://ensblagovest.ru/musyca_gizn.htm.
4. http://ru.wikipedia.org
5. http://en.allexperts.com
The Advisors: A.A. Panina (School No. 1883), G.Y. Semenova (School No. 1161)