Enjoyed the article, Marc. Thank you.
Was Twitter that reminded me it was the 9th April though (Lee’s surrender); is the holidays still, so have my hands full.
Which power had the best MUSIC in World War II?
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Which power had the best MUSIC in World War II?
I vote for Russia:
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Pfftp Russia.
German Music was PURE.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCmI52VsDcMAnd who can disagree with the Panzerlied!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JDkdc246QQ -
It’s not a war song, but I like “Moscow in May”, which can be heard in part at 9:37 of Frank Capra’s “The Battle of Russia”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCBb60FHKZ0
The first movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 (the Leningrad Symphony) is good too, though in a very different style.
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I remember my Italian grandmother breaking in to Fascist songs at the dinner table and her 18 year older pre war army volunteer husband telling her to stop. Saddened me as she was in her element remembering herself as a 14 year old again. Nonno experienced the hard end of Italian colonialism in Abyssinia and the reality of an unprepared army in Russia over the winter of 41/2.
He would cry when she forced him into retelling stories.
The present Italian anthem is jolly and bloody stirring.
Do like hearing German WW2 songs too. -
this might be a classic nbr 1 Hit!!!
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I am the only one that voted for the UK!?!?!?!
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Tibet 8-)
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Hi FMG. Remind me what did they have?
Not relevant to era, but the national anthem is total arse! -
I am the only one that voted for the UK!?!?!?!
I don’t know, but when I think about British war songs the first one that pos to mind is usually the one that goes:
It’s a ticklish sort of job making a thing for a thing-ummy-bob
Especially when you don’t know what it’s for.
But I’m the girl that makes the thing that drills the hole
that holds the spring that works the thing-ummy-bob
that makes the engines roar.
And I’m the girl that makes the thing that holds the oil
that oils the ring that works the thing-ummy-bob
that’s going to win the war. -
Thanks. I vote UK too!
Is “it’s a long way to Tipperery” one? Wherever that is.
I think I remember the tunes being jolly. Something to do with the honest Tommy and his laid back attitude, almost as if he expected to be captured and spend years in a POW camp. -
@wittman:
“it’s a long way to Tipperery”
Ah, yes. Ironically, the most memorable performance I’ve ever heard of that British song is the one by the German sailors in “Das Boot.”
I once read about some British factory workers on a wartime night shift spontaneously breaking into a rendition of “Land of Hope and Glory.” It could just be an invented propaganda story, but the song does have a nice ring to it.
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That is why I remember it so fondly: Das Boot. Great film.
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The great thing about British war tunes, is that most of them are funny. The Brits always made light of the situation and it comes through in the music.
Incomplete list but some good ones!
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/british-wartime/id386404533
“We’re going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried line” One of my favorite “phony War tunes”
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USA by far. Andrew Sisters, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland - game over!
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The question is subjective… what the heck does “best” mean?
Anyway the music that was most identifiable to the citizens who fought in the war came from the Soviet Union.
Here is one such song of which the struggle to liberate the Soviet Union from the jackboot had a palpable tone. When this song is played everybody stands up out of respect of what this song meant to those who fought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUHwbppl00s&feature=related
Germany had alot of propaganda based music and i would rank them very close. “Forward to the East” comes to mind as a tune sung during Barbarossa Campaign.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lyPvjkXi3Q
UK really produced “coping” songs that carried humor for the troops on the front. USA basically focused on “happy” tunes not really music directed for the war, but enjoyed just the same. Japan made a number of propaganda songs, but these are marginal to listen to.
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Here are a couple of other nice marches to add to the list. The first is "“Preussens Gloria” (“Prussia’s Glory”), by Johann Gottfried Piefke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_6AQA4uzD0
The second is a march which incorporates parts of “En passant par la Lorraine”, but adds other elements to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtkgiUZSU2s
Note that it’s not the same as the “Marche Lorraine” by Louis Ganne, which also quotes the original “En passant par la Lorraine” and which was apparently was popular in WWII with the Free French (whose emblem was the Lorraine cross).
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@Der:
USA by far. Andrew Sisters, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland - game over!
I’d have to agree completely, but you left out Swing, Jazz, Jive and Big Band.
Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Glenn Miller, etc. that music still works.
France had Edith Piaf, but otherwise I don’t think many would choose Wagner over The Duke.
Tipperary was WWI.
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