OCR Text |
Show I i i By ELMO SCOTT WATSON mm-VER since the world began Emen have gone to war and, going, having sung songs. Among savages the singing " f war songs was an es-tt) es-tt) sentlnl part of the prep-rfyW prep-rfyW aratlon for battle, but in T kI V s"c'n"e(3 "civilized war-A war-A wJk fare," soldiers have light Svsjr ened campaign hardships or camp life monotony v aHBJlaJ singing about their officers their regiments, what thej Jiad to eat and the shelter, or lack of it, In which they slept, as well as any number of other details of their everyday every-day life. In this respect the soldiers of the American army, ever since there was euch an Institution, have been no different dif-ferent from the soldiers of other na tlons. What Is a typical American soldier sol-dier song? The answer Is: there is ' xio such thing I The type of song that vtas popular among our soldiers of one period, the soldiers of another war would scorn to sing. With but few exceptions, perhaps, the songs which were sung during one war are all but forgotten by the time another war comes along. For the soldier song is one of the most ephemeral things in the world. Fortunately for our national balladry, ballad-ry, there has recently been collected in one volume the greater part of our eoldier songs "from Yankee Doodle to Parley Voo," which are published under un-der the title of "Sound Off!" by the Cosmopolitan Book corporation of New York. The collector of these songs is Lieut. Edward Arthur Dolph of the United States Military academy at West Point and two brother officers on tlie academy staff have co-operated with him in producing a piece of work which, aside from its inherent interest, inter-est, has great historic value. They are Lieut. Philip Esner, teacher of music, who arranged the music for many of the songs in the book, and Lieut. Lawrence Schick, Instructor in drawing, who made the illustrations. In the foreword to the book, Peter B. Kyne, a veteran of the Spanish-American Spanish-American and World wars, makes the following comment: "A soldier song is, essentially, a song of tlie people. Its melody must be simple, the words either sad or humorous, and It must have a resounding chorus in which the tone-deaf can join without feni of discovery. It is for this reason that tlie most popular song of tie Worl 1 war was 'All We Do Is Sign the ray Boll,' sung to the tune of 'John Brown's Body.' Then, too, it lent itself it-self readily to improvisation. 1 remember re-member a chief cook I had. He had a bellowing baritone and was one of the funniest men I ever knew. One day, after having passed through three British rest camps, this fellow suddenly roared forth : 'All we do is go to rest camps '. A joyous shout greeted this opening line. The men knew instantly vhat was coming and with mighty vigor, Indeed, did they come in on the last line: 'And we never get a d d 1776 192.9 bit of rest!'" His song was a hit! The oldest American war ballad, according ac-cording to Lieutenant Dolph, was "Lovewell's Fight," written about 1725 in commemoration of Captain Love-well's Love-well's victory over the Indians at Pig-wacket Pig-wacket on May 8 of that year. Just before the Revolution the Americans frequently wrote ballads to express their Ideas about tea and taxation. These ballads, however, were not nearly near-ly so popular among the soldiers of the Continental army as were songs which dealt with events of the war Itself, such as the famous "Battle of the Kegs," "Mad Anthony Wayne," "Brave Paulding and the Spy," "Nearly all of these Revolutionary songs were sung to tunes borrowed from the British," says the author. "This was natural, for soldier songs are. generally sung to old, well-known tunes, or to popular music of the day. . . . It was not until many years after the Revolution that we began to have a national music of our own." It is interesting to note that the one outstanding song of the Revolution, the one which has survived longest In popular knowledge and which was the basis for other songs during all our wars, down to and including the Civil war, was written originally by a British Brit-ish army surgeon. This was the famous "Yankee Doodle." Here is the story of its origin as Lieutenant Dolph tells it: "In the summer sum-mer or early fall of 1758, during the French and Indian war, a British army surgeon Doctor Richard Shuckburgh. who had spent most of his time in America, was encamped with General Abercrombie on the old Van Reusso-laer Reusso-laer estate, near Albany. A number of provincial troops were mobilizing there. Their rustic appearance was so ludicrous that Doctor Shuckburgh, who was quite a wit, wrote a song about them and set It to an old tune which we now know as Tankee Doodle.' " To the men who served in France a decade ago and sang of "Madelon.' it may be a surprise to know that "Mudelon" was a soldier's sweetheart long before the World war. In proof of that consider this stanza from a soldier song which appeared In oDe of the earliest American songsters and was probably sung in the War of 1812: Could you to battle march away And leave me here complaining? I'm sure 't would break my heart to stay When you are gone campaigning. Ah. non, non, non.! Pauvre Madelon Could never leave her lover! Ah, non, non, non! Pauvre Madelon Would go with you all the world over. Although the War of 1812 did not produce many soldier songs mainly because the army didn't have much to boast about until near the end of thy war ! But there is one exception to this statement and it is "one genuine soldier song that will live as long ns the republic 'The Star Spangled Banner.' Ban-ner.' " For this product of the inspiration inspira-tion of a volunteer soldier, Francis Scott Key, has become our national anthem and had thrilled millions of Americans even though not one out ot a hundred can sing it all the way through. Unlike the Revolution and the War of 1812, the Mexican war produced mi great outstanding song which has survived sur-vived to the present time. In the main, this conflict saw the revival of the favorite songs of the two previous wars mentioned, although the soldiers, both volunteer and regular, seized upon up-on the opportunity offered by various events in the Mexican campaigns to compose crude songs which were sung to familiar tunes. "No other war in our country's history his-tory produced as many songs as the. Civil war," says Lieutenant Dolph. "The struggle lasted so long and the feeling on each side was so Intense that hundreds of songs of all degrees of merit appeared." Some of them seemed destined to be sung as long as the American nation lasts, for such songs as "Battle Cry of Freedom," "Dixie,'" "Battle Hymn of the Republic," Repub-lic," "Bonnie Blue Flag," "Maryland, My Maryland," have become an essential essen-tial part of the American tradition. "Not all of these songs were sung by the soldiers, however nor were they intended to be," writes the author of "Sound Off!" "Many were wholly unsuitable un-suitable for camp or marching songs, or were too far removed from the intimate in-timate details and stark realities of a soldier's daily life. ... As a rule, sentimental songs were not in great favor. ... As the first wave of feeling passed, and men settled down to the serious business of fighting, fight-ing, marching, sleeping in the mud and rain, and living on 'sow belly' and beans, their attention was more and more focused on the Immediate details of their daily life. It was then that true soldier songs were born." For it was at this time that the essential es-sential character of the American soldier sol-dier began to assert itself his ability to make a jest about danger and hardship hard-ship and to seek an emotional outlet by singing satirically about himself and his uncomfortable life. That quality qual-ity became even more apparent In the songs of the Spanish-American war and those of the Philippine insurrection. insurrec-tion. And it reached its full flower In the World war. The fact that "Hinky Dinky, Parley-Voe" is the outstanding out-standing survivor of the soldier songs sung "over there" reflects as nothing else can the spirit of tlie young man who took part in the Great Adventure of 1917-18. And lest anyone deplore the fact that the World war songs breathed none of the crusading spirit, let him consider these words of the author au-thor of "Sound Off!": "Perhaps, after all. it is a blessing that these soldier songs of '37 and '18 were light, nonsensical, non-sensical, and even bawdy. As long as soldiers sing these kinds of songs they do not become cynical and bitter, as did the French, Germans and English. The Americans came out of the war with the ability quickly to regain their normal perspective. No feeling of hale rankles in their breasts today. This fact alone is worth more than all the war songs that have ever endured." |