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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

Music in World War II

Glenn Miller (1904 - 1944)

World War II was fought not only with guns and planes, but with the arts. Both sides used music and film to advance their ideologies and drum up (sorry) popular support.

Many musicians risked their music careers to serve in the military. Singer Tony Bennett became a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, and pianist Dave Brubeck was a Sergeant in the Army. Saxophonist John Coltrane became a Seaman First Class in the Navy, but played with the swing band at his base. He had to officially be listed as a "guest performer" since the military was segregated at the time.

Even the Walt Disney got involved. "Der Führer's Face" was a song performed by Spike Jones and featured in an animated short of the same name, featuring Donald Duck having a nightmare in which he is a Nazi working for Adolph Hitler. Donald awakens from the nightmare, relieved to remember he is an American. The song mocks the style of traditional German music.

Other popular songs like the Andrews Sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" mimicked military bugle calls that would have been familiar to the soldiers, or feature patriotic or humorous lyrics about military life to raise soldiers' spirits.

Meanwhile, the Nazis had banned American music because they believed the African American origins of jazz made it inferior. While under Nazi occupation, the French responded by translating the lyrics of popular jazz standards into French and saying it wasn't American music.

Perhaps most famously, bandleader and trombonist Glenn Miller gave up an extremely lucrative private career to join the Army in 1942, even though he was too old to be drafted. He was given the rank of Captain and placed in charge of a band that would travel Europe to entertain the troops. Miller brought a new style to military music; for example, he took the 1891 march "American Patrol" and released a swing band version. He was later promoted to Major. In addition to uplifting Allied soldiers, his band also recorded songs and messages in German, which were secretly broadcast into Germany. Miller disappeared when his plane went down over the English Channel in 1944.

Compositions

Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (The Andrews Sisters, 1941)

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition (Frank Loesser, 1942)

Der Führer's Face (Spike Jones, 1942)

American Patrol (Glenn Miller, 1942)

La Vie en Rose (Edith Piaf, 1945)

Open-Ended Question

Is the value of music heightened, lessened, or unaffected by its use as propaganda?