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2016 The Sounds They Associated with War Came from Pianos, Not Guns: Anglo-Canadian Sheet Music and the First World War
Wedel, Melanie
Wedel, M. (2016). The Sounds They Associated with War Came from Pianos, Not Guns: Anglo-Canadian Sheet Music and the First World War (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28386 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/3086 master thesis
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The Sounds They Associated with War Came from Pianos, Not Guns:
Anglo-Canadian Sheet Music and the First World War
by
Melanie Lisa Wedel
A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN HISTORY
CALGARY, ALBERTA
JUNE, 2016
© Melanie Wedel 2016 Abstract
The study of wartime popular sheet music produced by Anglo-Canadians is vitally important, as it illustrates what was popular in society and demonstrates how
Canadians reacted to the world around them. During the First World War, the medium of patriotic sheet music catalysed the management of morale during on the home front, as it offered an emotional outlet for thousands of people in desperate need of a diversion from the grim reality and toll of the war overseas.
The cover illustrations, lyrics, and musical scores of hundreds of patriotic songs
offer a useful lens into contemporary Anglo-Canadian society in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as composers immortalized popular
conceptions of war, identity, and responsibility on the pages of their songs.
Patriotic sheet music therefore demonstrates the popular trends that led so many
young boys to war in 1914, and helps to explain how Canadians reacted to the war
on the home front.
ii Acknowledgements
I am grateful to my family and friends for their support over the long course of this project. In particular, I want to acknowledge the wonderful people I have had the privilege of meeting through this program over the past few years: Kim Main, Shannon Murray, Will Pratt, Beau Cleland, Aylin Atilla, Mikkel Dack, and Stuart Barnard. I cannot thank each of you enough for providing me with an outlet from writing with your friendship. I would also like to acknowledge Andrew McEwen for his love, friendship, and unwavering support. Andrew, you are my rock and my best friend; thank you for always being there for me. Finally, I would especially like to thank my parents, Rick and Laurie, for their unwavering love and support. I could not have gotten to where I am today without the both of you. I am eternally grateful for everything you have given me.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to Dr. Glenn Wilkinson for helping me to discover this project in 2010; to Dr. John Ferris for the title of this thesis; and to Dr. Patrick Brennan for his many years of insightful conversations and encouragement in my studies. However, without the constant advice, patience, and guidance of Dr. David Marshall, this often-challenging project would never have blossomed into what it is today. I am extremely lucky to have worked with him for so many years, and cannot thank him enough for his support in my academic pursuits.
I would also like to acknowledge the staff at the Glenbow Library and Archives in Calgary, Alberta, as well as to the staff at the Provincial Archives of Ontario, Toronto for their assistance in this project. I would like to thank Dr. Jonathan Vance for allowing me to access the vast collection of popular First World War artifacts held in the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection at the University of Western Ontario. Finally, I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Calgary, and the Government of Alberta for their generous financial assistance.
iii Dedication
To my Mom & Dad; without them, I would not be here.
iv Table of Contents
Abstract ...... ii
Acknowledgements ...... iii
Dedication ...... iv
Table of Contents ...... v
List of Figures and Illustrations ...... vi
INTRODUCTION: CULTURE, MUSIC, AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR ...... 1
CHAPTER ONE: A MUSICAL CANADA? TRACING TRADITIONS, LANDSCAPES, AND THE IMPACT OF THE “PEOPLE’S LITERATURE” ON WARTIME CANADA ...... 21
CHAPTER TWO: EMPIRE, IMPERIAL RESPONSIBILITY, AND NATIONAL DIGNITY: ENGLISH CANADA GOES TO WAR ...... 53
CHAPTER THREE: MANAGING MORALE AND KEEPING THE FAITH: ANGLO-CANADIANS RESPOND TO THE GREAT WAR...... 85
CHAPTER FOUR: AT WAR’S END, 1918-1919 ...... 120
CONCLUSION ...... 130
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 140
v List of Figures and Illustrations
Figure 1: Sheet music cover, Goodbye My Soldier Boy...... 40
Figure 2: Sheet music cover, Hail, Mighty Empire ...... 75
Figure 3: Sheet music cover, The Best Old Flag on Earth ...... 80
Figure 4: Sheet music cover, The Call ...... 95
Figure 5: Sheet music cover, We’ll Love You More When You Come Back than
When You Went Away ...... 99
Figure 6: Sheet music cover, Canada, Star of the Empire ...... 137
vi
Introduction: Culture, Music, and the First World War
“In childhood day, we’d sing and play/ A game we loved so well,/ ‘I oh! the cheer oh! the farmer in the dell;’/ But since the war, the words of yore,/ Have changed to fit the times,/ the melody is the same to me but the kids have changed the rhymes.”1
- The Worst Is Yet to Come, by Samm Lewis and Bert Grant (1917)
The prominence of music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century offered an appropriate creative and emotional outlet for Canadians, as it influenced everyone’s life in some form or fashion. In urban and rural areas,
Canadians bought sheet music and sang patriotic songs in their parlours, concert halls, theatres, and church basements. They heard stirring renditions by marching bands at public rallies and parades.2 As the song The Worst Is Yet To
Come by Samm Lewis, Joe Young, and Bert Grant suggests, the pre-war years were cheery and carefree, and allowed children to “sing and play” games for merry entertainment. However, as the song demonstrates, not only did popular rhetoric change during the First World War, so too did the music: “But since the war, the words of yore,/ Have changed to fit the times,/the melody is the same to me but the kids have changed the rhymes/.”3 Indeed, the onslaught of the war
changed everyday life by implementing new ideals and realities. That the “words
of yore” were “changed to fit the times” illustrates this transformation culturally,
1 Samm Lewis, Joe Young, and Bert Grant, The Worst Is Yet to Come, (Canada: Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co., 1917), “Sheet Music,” the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 2 Edward Moogk, Roll Back the Years: History of Canadian Recorded Sound and its Legacy: Genesis to 1930 (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1975), 57. 3 Lewis, Young, and Grant, The Worst Is Yet to Come. 1
as the standard melodies that existed before the war had their rhymes changed to reflect the new, harsher reality that came with the slaughter of Canada’s youth.
While the song is also indicative of the musicological transformation that was brought on by the war, the lyrics themselves convey the cultural impact of the war on Canadian society.
Lyrical composition, as a distinct form of popular culture, allowed amateurs and professionals to articulate their musical creativity. When hostilities erupted in Europe in 1914, Anglo-Canadian writers transferred their energies to the creation of patriotic, heroic, jingoistic, or solemn songs, to glorify the sacrifices of, and participation in, the war effort.4 As popular songs aimed to
champion the Allied fight for international democracy and justice, composers
helped to uphold the war effort in Canada by producing inexpensive pieces of
sheet music that reached thousands of individuals. As music evokes collective
emotions by provoking or arresting the senses, it captivates mass audiences and
nourishes their fears and desires. This “collectivization of emotion” was essential
during the tumultuous era of the Great War, as it helped to make Anglo-
Canadians responsively equal.5 Indeed, as musicologist Edward Moogk noted, nowhere was the nation-wide wave of patriotic fervour at the outbreak of war
“more manifest than in music and song.”6 The prism of patriotic sheet music
4 Barbara Norman, Music on the Home Front: Canadian Sheet Music during the First World War, 2001. 5 Ernst Fischer, quoted in Robert Giddings’ “Delusive Seduction: Pride, Pomp, Circumstance, and Military Music,” in Popular Imperialism and the Military 1850-1950, ed. John M. Mackenzie (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 35. 6 Moogk, Roll Back the Years, 57. 2
therefore reflects the social, cultural, and emotional values of Anglo-Canadians, as it illuminates their experiences during the Great War.
While music was an important aspect of popular culture in the era of the
Great War, “the issue of what constitute[d] [a] suitable subject matter for war music” confronted many individuals.7 Historians Kate Kennedy and Trudi Tate
outlined in their study on “Literature and Music of the First World War” that
composers followed a selective process when determining “what of the sounds of
war were appropriate for musical treatment.”8 These composers “used their
creativity to document their experiences, speak on behalf of others of their generation, or exorcise their own traumatic memories through their art.”9 They endeavoured to create “soothing and dignified” songs because they gave people an emotional outlet needed to keep up the fight while trying to keep faith with those who died. As historian Jonathan Vance argued, popular music augmented morale because it offered a diversion from the desperate realities of the war, in addition to reiterating what the war was about and issues that were at stake.10 In addition to Edward Moogk’s assertion that “[t]he songs from Canada came from the heart, not Tin Pan Alley,”11 historian John McKenzie also argued that while
music raised group consciousness and acted as a stimulant for those depressed by
the loss of a loved one, it also aroused patriotism, heightened reality, and offered
7 Kate Kennedy and Trudi Tate, “Literature and music of the First World War,” in First World War Studies: Vol 2, No. 1 (March 2011 pp. 1-6), 4. 8 Kennedy and Tate, “Literature and Music of the First World War,” 4. 9 Kennedy and Tate, “Literature and Music of the First World War,” 5. 10 Jonathan Vance, A History of Canadian Culture (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2009), 220. 11 Moogk, Roll Back the Years, 59. 3
spiritual comfort.12 Sheet music therefore provided an infusion of hope and a
positive spin on the long and costly war of attrition for those on the home front.
Due to its “musical vocabulary [that was] understood by everyone,”13 the production of patriotic sheet music took on a vitally important role during the
Great War, as the sounds that Anglo-Canadians associated with the war came from pianos, not guns.
During the First World War, Canadians produced over 300 marches, patriotic, and war songs. As this was the highest number of these songs ever produced before or after the war, musicologist Helmut Kallmann believed that this “vast output of music” erupted because the Great War was the largest military engagement to date.14 Kallmann defined most of the music composed
during the First World War as “A survey of songs and other music written in
immediate response to armed conflicts in Canada or involving Canadians on
foreign soil.”15 In addition to these songs on “Wars, rebellions, and uprisings,”16 patriotic songs were also popular during the war, as they were songs that expressed “love of a country and [were] usually intended for group singing, in unison or harmony.”17 These songs can be categorized thematically: imperial
unity and responsibility to Britain; masculinity and militarism; the relationship
12 John M. MacKenzie, “Introduction: Popular Imperialism and the Military,” in Popular Imperialism and the Military 1850-1950, ed. John M. Mackenzie (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 12-13. 13 Charles Hamm, Music in the New World (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1983), 233. 14 Kallmann, “Wars, Rebellions and Uprisings,” 986. 15 Kallmann, “Wars, Rebellions and Uprisings,” 986. 16 Kallmann, “Wars, Rebellions and Uprisings,” 986. 17 Helmut Kallmann, “Patriotic Songs,” in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, eds. Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 729. 4
between mothers, daughters, and wives with their male loved ones overseas; the prudence of managing morale and keeping faith with those who died; and overall, a fundamental belief in the justice of the cause. While many of these songs were simplistic and typical of others within the genre, they shared similar messages despite the location of their composition and publication throughout the dominion during the war.
Due to the diverse musical landscape within Canada prior to the outbreak of war, many different musical traditions informed and dictated popular compositions. However, as will be seen, these traditions, while fundamentally important to the musical history of Canada, culminated in the production of a genre of music that encompassed the majority of Anglo-Canadian communities throughout various regions of western and eastern Canada. While the messages and tone of these songs changed over the course of the war, they nevertheless remained both compositionally and thematically similar and therefore representative of their linguistic and cultural counterparts across most of Canada.
However, it is important to note that the popular sheet music of wartime Canada was in no way a reflection upon the opinions French Canadians, ethnic minorities, or of individuals vehemently opposed to national involvement in a foreign war. My approach does not indulge in the vast array of trench songs or protest music of the times, but rather, aims specifically at the composition and employment of war songs on the Anglo-Canadian home front. As Anglo-
Canadians comprised the majority of the Canadian population by the outbreak of the First World War, my study focuses solely on music produced in support of the
5
cause. While the possibility exists for a broader study of other forms of music produced during the war, a concise study of English patriotic sheet music most clearly demonstrates the transformation in Canadian popular culture brought about by the First World War.
Canadian loyalty to the British Empire was the predominant ideology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Stemming from a long history of
British control and immigration, the majority of the Canadian population shared sentimental and emotional ties to the Mother Country. Thus, as Carl Berger noted in his classic study A Sense of Power, there was a popular assertion that Canada would grow into a great nation within the British Empire, as Canadian interests, ambitions, pride, and hopes for glory would be fostered within the arena of the
English sphere of influence in the world. Songs produced during 1914 especially glorified these ideals, and drew specific attention to the Union Jack. Constant references to “the Old Red, White, and Blue” in these songs demonstrates how pervasive and ubiquitous imperial sentiments were at the outbreak of war, as will be demonstrated in Chapter 2.18 Moreover, these songs consistently appealed to
notions of imperial duty amongst Canadians, but were often idealistic and
simplistic, catering solely to the duty of men from a dominion of the British
Empire. Cover illustrations often depicted lion cub imagery, as Canada, along
18 Major sources on this debate are: Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974); Carl Berger, The Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, 1867-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971); Mark Moss, Manliness and Militarism: Educating Young Boys in Ontario for War (Don Mills, Ont: Oxford University Press, 2001); Gordon L. Heath, A War with a Silver Lining: Protestant Churches and the South African War, 1899-1902 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill- Queen’s University Press, 2009); and Jonathan Vance, Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain, and Two World Wars (Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2012). 6
with Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, answered their mother
Lion’s call to arms.19 This innocence largely faded as the war progressed, mainly
because the messages of the songs shifted from focusing on Canada as a daughter
of the Empire to Canada as an active and equal participant in affairs overseas.
This transition is clear when one evaluates the songs produced in 1915 and 1916.
As will be seen, the shift to a more pro-Canadian message of many songs
reflects the changing nature of the war, and the growing realization of its
magnitude for many on the home front. In effect, composers changed the
language they used in their lyrics to reflect the need for spiritual comfort amidst
lengthy lists of the dead, the needs of children, and acknowledge the work of
those who stayed behind, especially women, as the war progressed. While the
lyrics of the songs remain largely simplistic and offer little insight into the reality
of war at the front over the course of the conflict, the music produced with each
subsequent year of the war evolves to display the increasing “Canadianization” of
Anglo-Canadian society as a direct result of events overseas. This indicates that
Canadians were aware of what was happening overseas, and in turn, endeavoured to use popular culture as a means to maintain support for the war effort and manage morale at home. Music produced during this period reflects not only the
new challenges and demands many Canadians faced, but also, the growing voice
of Canadian nationalism brought about by the experience of the war at home and
abroad. However, music produced over the course of 1915-1918 also served the
19 A. C. Murray, Hail, Mighty Empire (Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce, & Co., 1913) Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 22138791, MUSCAN – A – 211-16 http://www.nlc- bnc.ca/obj/m5/f1/csm05644-v6.jpg (accessed 15 December 2015). 7
purpose of managing morale and helping Canadians to keep the faith with those who died.
Despite the environment and context of the times that informed songs throughout the course of the war, naivety remained a prominent facet of songs in order to offer comfort and provided an emotional outlet for Canadians. In effect, many songs offer little to no insight into the reality of the war, but rather focused on notions of hope that the soldiers would return home again one day. In order to counter any disillusionment with the war, many composers created uplifting and motivating songs to offer comfort for Canadians by providing the public with an emotional outlet through song. In effect, many songs offered appeals to the soldier’s humanity and innocence. This was especially important, as Canada was an inherently Christian country upon the outbreak of war. Equating the war to a
“religious crusade” in which the sacrifices of the soldiers mirrored the sacrifice of
Christ on the Cross offered spiritual comfort and closure for many individuals grappling with the loss of their sons.20 The need for God’s protection emerges
specifically after the events of 1915, therefore further demonstrating the pivotal
experience of the Second Battle of Ypres in Canadian society.
However, what is perhaps most telling about the perseverance of many
Canadians is the fact that the music remains relatively cheery over the course of the war. As the lyrics insist upon keeping up the fight, the music also indicates the steadfast attitudes of Canadians in their determination to carry on and keep
20 David Marshall, Secularizing the Faith: Canadian Protestant Clergy and the Crisis of Belief, 1850-1940 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 158, 159-162. 8
faith with those who died. This adherence to cheery and uplifting music over the course of the war offers interesting insights when examined in the later songs from 1917 and 1918. Songs start to focus on homecoming, and the well-deserved acclaim of Canadians on the battlefield. While the music is sometimes more somber when conflated with the lyrics, it is also still martial and often even more upbeat than songs from 1914. It is in this aspect that the true importance of music as an emotional medium can be seen, as the happier tunes were necessary to give hope to people playing and composing the songs amidst the growing toll of the war.
As the historiography suggests, this dichotomy between knowledge of events overseas and the effect they had on the home front remains one that deserves attention in light of this study. In Propaganda and Censorship in
Canada’s Great War, Jeffrey Keshen maintained that “pre-war imperialist, romantic and racialist philosophy” was “stimulated throughout the conflict by privately-controlled propaganda like newspapers, editorials, books, advertisements, movies, songs, church sermons and classroom lessons.”21 While
Keshen leaves little room for the transmission of the reality of the war through the echelons of the Canadian home front, he does demonstrate why and how the pervasive impact of pro-war sentiments continued to manifest themselves in wartime popular culture. From 1914 to 1918,
Thousands of newspaper editors, journalists, advertisers, theatre owners, church leaders, academics, authors and book publishers
21 Jeffrey Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship in Canada’s Great War (Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press, 1996), x. 9
all helped convince Canadians that they had a legal and historical obligation to aid the mother country, a moral responsibility to uphold democracy, and a right if not obligation to suppress those legitimately assumed as unpatriotic.22
Influenced by decades of jingoistic and imperialist thought that championed
romantic notions of warfare through popular culture, sport, public ceremonies,
and education, Anglo-Canadians rallied to the cause in 1914.23 However, Keshen
maintains that they ultimately failed to fathom the horrors of trench warfare
because they were presented with a sanitized version of events overseas from
individuals like Sir Max Aitken and at home by Canada’s chief censor,
Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Chambers. Keshen’s examination of how both were
intent to preserve heroic and romantic notions of warfare through official
dispatches and press censorship demonstrates how the events of the war were presented to Canadians.
However, as Ian Miller demonstrated, his argument does not divulge how
Canadians digested the information they were presented. While Keshen maintained Canadians produced “privately-controlled propaganda like newspapers, editorials, books, advertisements, movies, songs, church sermons and classroom lessons,”24 he failed to acknowledge that the production of these
various forms of “propaganda” might have been influenced by the ability of
Canadians to actually comprehend the war, even amidst political authorities
aiming to control the dissemination of information about events overseas. By
22 Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship, 24. 23 Mark Moss, Manliness and Militarism: Educating Young Boys in Ontario for War (Don Mills, Ont: Oxford University Press, 2001). 24 Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship, x. 10
refusing to offer individual volition to the people he is criticizing, Keshen’s claims that Canadians had been duped by years of imperialistic, jingoistic, and romantic notions of warfare “leaves no room for the possibility that people were willing to fight for God, King, and Empire.”25 As Miller demonstrated, Torontonians were
fully aware of the war’s costs and risks and endured through victory nevertheless,
as they were an informed populace who were “deeply committed and engaged in
a life and death struggle.”26 Compounded by devastating lists of the dead that
stretched endlessly from April 1915 and the presence of the maimed and
wounded after 1915, Torontonians committed themselves to the war effort,
endured the sacrifices, and continued to enlist in the fight:
Accounts of front-line life, ubiquitous casualty lists, exhausting victory and patriotic fund drives, coal shortages, and the loss of loved ones reinforced the dedication of Torontonians to winning the war. Throughout four and a half years of conflict, the response of citizens was both informed and committed. They knew the details of the campaigns fought on the Western Front and elsewhere. They understood the costs in men’s lives. They read and talked about peace initiatives and continued to support a policy of total victory.27
While Keshen argued that the information available to Anglo-Canadians dictated
their actions and attempts to inculcate their fellow Canadians in support of the
cause over the course of the war, Miller asserted that “the impact of the war on the lives of the citizens as it was happening” also remains a key aspect in the reality of the war for those on the home front. It is therefore important to look at
25 Ian Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief: Torontonians and the Great War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 6. 26 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 14. 27 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 199. 11
what ideals and trends influenced popular public opinion in the years leading up to the Great War, and how Canadians ultimately distilled that perceived form of national identity into their eventual actions and support for the war effort from
1914 to 1918.
Wartime popular culture in particular illuminates how previously engrained ideals manifested themselves throughout the war. However, in light of studies like Ian Miller’s examination of Toronto, attention also needs to be paid to why Canadians continuously needed emotional outlets like music in times of great struggle. Jonathan Vance outlined the importance of studying non- traditional historical sources in Death So Noble by arguing that we “cannot appreciate how a society remembered an event simply through a narrow band of traditional sources, for these forms of expression alone cannot tell us all we need to know.” Rather, he maintained that historians need to “look for the war’s impact” in places and ways that “would have touched the lives of average
Canadians” the most at the time, not merely in sources produced in posterity.28
While Vance is writing about the importance of studying contemporary sources in order to discern how “average Canadians…were responsible for the myth” of the war, his methodical emphasis on the importance of studying wartime society and popular culture cannot be overlooked.
28 Jonathan F. Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 6. 12
Ernst Fischer noted in The Necessity of Art that the content of music lies within “the experience which the composer [wishes] to communicate.”29 In order
to understand why a composer produced a specific piece of music, Fischer argued
that one must “try to discover…the manifold ways in which the content and the
musical form of a particular work correspond to a social situation.”30 By quoting
Hegel’s theory in The Philosophy of Art that the nature of music is “to put soul…into the sounds arranged in particular tone relations…[so as] to elevate expression into an element made only by art and for art alone,”31 Fischer
demonstrated that the experience of producing music is in actuality “not purely
musical but also personal and social, conditioned by the historical period in
which [a composer] lives and which affects [them] in many ways.”32 Indeed, for
“to hear ‘nothing but music in music’ [is] to dismiss what the composer has
‘elevated’ into music…and is of a banality even more crass than to analyse a work
in purely sociological terms without regard for its quality of form.”33 In other
words, Fischer is criticizing individuals who simply listen to music and accept its
meaning at a base level without considering the factors that led to its creation. To
ignore the background behind the production of a piece of music negates the
importance of its content, as it ignores what the composer wished to convey and
the importance of its production amongst past generations. As will be seen, the
29 Ernst Fischer, The Necessity of Art: A Marxist Approach (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1963), 182. 30 Fischer, The Necessity of Art, 182. 31 Hegel, The Philosophy of Art (Routledge, 1892), as quoted in Fischer, The Necessity of Art, 181- 182. 32 Fischer, The Necessity of Art, 182. 33 Fischer, The Necessity of Art, 182. 13
study of popular music from the era of the Great War is equally as important as the examination of the reality of the war for many Anglo-Canadians.
Likewise, historian Kenneth Ames noted in his study on Victorian culture that “music is a central cultural form” that benefits present studies because historians are able to “know other people and other times through their music.”34
This is particularly true of the First World War, as the lyrics embodied upon the pages of sheet music serve as an integral prism for historians to examine the fears and desires of many Anglo-Canadians. Producers, performers, and consumers therefore need to exercise responsibility when engaging with a piece of music, as they need to understand the base factors underlying the music to realize the true purpose of the song. Indeed, as Fischer also noted in Hegel’s Philosophy of Art,
“music…is…concerned with…the specific content of which is most closely related to the particular character of the emotion aroused, so that the mode of expression will, or should, inevitably assert itself with essential differences, according to the varied nature of the content.”35 With respect to the First World War, then,
Hegel’s assertions encapsulate the experience and feelings of many Anglo-
Canadians for two reasons. Firstly, some songs utilized tunes from earlier decades that were popular but changed the music to fit the context of the times.
Others also incorporated lines of music from popular songs such as “God Save the
King” into their melodies in order to invoke feelings from happier times and to convey the reality of the situation during the war. Secondly, the “character of the
34 Kenneth L. Ames, Death in the Dining Room and Other Tales of Victorian Culture (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), 150. 35 Fischer, The Necessity of Art, 184. 14
emotion aroused” that change with the “varied nature of the content” emerges in songs that invoked hope that loved ones would return or songs that offered an outlet for grief. Indeed, the tone and messages of these songs vary based on the message, intended audience, and ultimately, events that influenced the composer to produce the song initially. While Hegel and Fischer are mainly concerned with the producers behind the music, it is also important to evaluate how the music influenced those who performed it and listened to it as well.
The narrative of the First World War therefore can benefit from the study of popular music produced by Anglo-Canadians during the war because it offers significant insights into the popular rhetoric and established beliefs of the times.
Indeed, as many prominent individuals began to realize, “culture was incredibly important as a powerful propaganda weapon” because it “could be mobilized for the cause.”36 As it “could stand as a symbol of everything that Canadians believed
they were fighting for,” culture became dramatically more important because it
garnered monetary, spiritual, emotional, and societal support for the war effort.37
Patriotic causes and fundraisers benefitted from the utilization and employment of cultural practices like music, art, and theatre in the early years of the war. As
Vance demonstrated,
There were so many causes to support – relief for Belgian civilians, the Canadian Patriotic Fund, the Red Cross Society, and dozens of other charities large and small. There was probably not a single one of them that didn’t take advantage of local artistic talent to raise money.38
36 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 217. 37 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 217. 38 Vance, A History of Candaian Culture, 219. 15
In effect, public events such as the “Belgian Relief Fund Basket Social and
Concert” organized by the town of Scugog, Ontario on 13 November 1914 charged fifteen cents entrance and showcased “Patriotic Songs and Instrumental Music” by “Local Talent” in support of the Belgian cause.39 Likewise, local composers
took it upon themselves to raise funds for organizations through their music. Pte.
H. E. Ellerton devoted “one half of the proceeds to the Red Cross or Patriotic
Purposes” from his Song Khaki Lads: Why Our Soldier Boys Are Fighting
(1916).40 Frank O. Madden also dedicated his song I’ll Come Back To You When
My Fighting Days Are Through (1916) “To the 201st Battalion, To whom the
profits from the Sale of this song go for recruiting purposes.”41
However, the importance of culture ultimately transcended the
importance of money raised during the war because it stimulated morale. While it not only provided an outlet from the “needs of the conflict,” Canadians also used it as the means to trumpet “the values represented by the Allied cause.”42
Indeed, as historian John Herd Thompson noted in his study of Western Canada during the war,
39 “Funds for Belgian Relief,” admission ticket, Belgian Relief Fund Basket Social and Concert, Town Hall, Scugog(Ontario), Friday Evening November 13, 1914 (as found on http://wartimecanada.ca/document/world-war-i/charitable-organizations/funds-belgian-relief 03/09/2013). 40 Pte. H. E. Ellerton, Khaki Lads: Why Our Soldier Boys Are Fighting (Winnipeg, no publisher, 1916), Glenbow Library and Archives, Sheet Music, File 13, Western, World War I 1915-1919. 41 Frank O. Madden and Jules Brazil, I’ll Come Back To You When My Fighting Days Are Through (Toronto: W. R. Draper, 1916), “Sheet Music,” the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 42 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 220. 16
Canadians did not have to be persuaded to support the Great War by a sophisticated propaganda ministry. Pro-war propagandists emerged spontaneously at the community level, and had little convincing to do. When a Westerner heard about the issues involved in Canada’s participation it was from a member of his own community in a speech or a sermon, in a newspaper, or a novel, or even in a song.43
To be sure, many Canadians took it upon themselves to create cultural products
that reflected their personal experiences and the environment in which they
lived. However, as historians such as Paul Litt have suggested, this was not
simply because they chose to enhance the war effort. Rather, it was out of
necessity because other forms of wartime popular culture that explained and
epitomized the Canadian experience simply did not exist. In an environment
dominated by British and continental cultural industries prior to 1914, the
outbreak of war did not immediately render an aversion to imported culture
from the United States and abroad. As will be shown in chapter two, the
complicated nature of importing and exporting culture rested upon decades of
conflict over copyright issues, which ultimately dictated the choice of many amateur Canadian composers during the war to publish their songs simply for domestic consumption. However, a brief discussion of the cultural landscape that existed at the outbreak of war is warranted here.
As the Americans did not enter the war until 1917, their cultural productions failed to illustrate the war from a personal viewpoint. Rather, they
“treated it as a topic of great contemporary interest rather than an all-
43 John Herd Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 1914-1918 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1978), 43. 17
encompassing cataclysm.”44 In effect, many Canadians could not derive a sense
of personal connection to the forms of continental popular culture produced in
the early years of the war, as it failed to “address the cultural needs of a nation engaged in total war.”45 While British cultural products counterbalanced the
lack of wartime American culture in the Canadian market, it too “could not
directly address Canada’s unique experience of the war.”46 As Canada’s wartime
experience was “dominated by the successful defence of Ypres in 1915, the
capture of Vimy Ridge in 1917, and the triumphant Hundred Days that preceded the Armistice of 1918,”47 foreign cultural products “could not directly address
Canada’s unique experience in the war.”48 This was especially important, as
Canadians responded by utilizing their “own resources for information and
commentary” and created a form of culture that took advantage of this “rare
opportunity to provide a distinctive product valued by their national market.”49
With specific reference to sheet music, Litt notes that the newfound Canadian
market for domestic culture “temporarily made music publishing a more viable economic proposition”50 as publishers could forgo concerns about costly fees
associated with the existent copyright legislation and focus on producing pieces
of music directly intended for Canadian consumption. Thus, in light of Canadian
44 Paul Litt, “Canada Invaded! The Great War, Mass Culture, and Canadian Cultural Nationalism” in Canada and the First World War: Essays in Honour of Robert Craig Brown, ed. David MacKenzie (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), 334. 45 Litt, “Canada Invaded!,” 333-334. 46 Litt, “Canada Invaded!,”334. 47 Vance, Death So Noble, 11. 48 Litt, “Canada Invaded!,” 334. 49 Litt, “Canada Invaded!,” 334. 50 Litt, “Canada Invaded!,” 335. 18
markets that were previously saturated by cheap, imported continental and foreign culture, the war offered the opportunity for domestic productions to succeed and garner “a comparative advantage over American cultural products.”51
Despite this newfound sense of “accomplishment, identity, and
independent destiny” brought about by the war,52 Vance argued that there were
many pitfalls with the boom in culture during the war. While there were great
works of art produced during the war by Canadians, “little of it was distinctly
Canadian.” In effect, much of wartime popular culture lacked a specifically
Canadian character, as it had deep roots in previous decades and traditions.53
However, this dichotomy ultimately “provided an unparalleled opportunity” for
Canadians, as many came to the realization that they had been through something traumatic and monumental, and therefore believed that the experience of the war “both demanded and encouraged the creation of a distinct
Canadian culture.”54 Referring to the newfound sense of “cultural nationalism
and confident patriotism” that emerged over the course of the war, a cultural renaissance had effectively occurred by 1919 as domestic productions illuminated a “vibrancy…that had not been seen in decades.”55 In effect,
Canadians reverted to traditional forms of culture because “many observers
connected modernism with Germany” and equated it as “a challenge to the
51 Litt, “Canada Invaded!,”335. 52 Litt, “Canada Invaded!,” 340. 53 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 218, 237. 54 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 241. 55 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 245. 19
existing order” that they were unwilling to contend with in light of the struggles they had faced over the course of the war.56 While the stability of traditionalism
inherently meant a reliance on inherited norms that arguably could negate the
emergence of a distinctly Canadian form of culture, the impact of the war
ultimately ensured that the way those traditions were utilized was Canadian in
character. As people who reacted to what they heard and saw in their lives
created the cultural products that emerged from the First World War, they
illustrate the reality of the war on the home front in ways that other historical
sources cannot convey. The study on sheet music that follows will therefore
demonstrate how Canadians utilized established traditions, transformed them,
and ultimately created their own record of the war through their musical
reaction to the world around them.
56 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 238. 20
Chapter One: A Musical Canada? Tracing Traditions, Landscapes, and
the Impact Of the “People’s Literature” On Wartime Canada
A plethora of different musical compositions and forms of performance existed in Canada prior to 1914. Included in this list were operettas, orchestral performances, and oratorios.57 Many of these works were produced either by
foreign composers or by immigrants in Canada who inherited these musical
traditions directly. In turn, there was a “lack of national character in musical life”
in Canada before the First World War, due to the absence of a quantifiable,
distinctly Canadian musical effort. In effect, “there was no national opera house…no national music school, [and]…no nation-wide musical organizations.”58 Indeed, the lack of a distinctly ‘Canadian’ sound across all
musical genres and geographical regions in the late nineteenth to the early
twentieth century represents the heterogeneous character of Canada that existed by the outbreak of the war in 1914. As Helmut Kallmann summarized, “the whole
history of music in Canada…was simply the sum total of many local and regional
histories, histories which unfolded in similar patterns but quite independent[ly]
from one another.”59 Moreover, despite the expansion of communication
networks in the mid-to-late-nineteenth century, there was no organized effort or
“attempt to coordinate the arts of…various areas” throughout Canada.60 Clifford
57 Helmut Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960), 238. 58 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 266. 59 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 266. 60 Timothy J. McGee, The Music of Canada (Markham, ON: W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1985), 62. 21
Ford also echoed this assertion by arguing that as the “lack of communication and transportation between regions and because of the differing steps of development from one region to another, musical progress on a national level was difficult.”61 The advent of phonographs and radio alleviated this situation, as
the younger communities in the west were able to “develop as literate a listening
audience as those in the older communities to the east.”62 However, the
dissemination of music, brought about by technological advancements, would not
help to formulate similar musical tastes throughout Canada until the post-war
years, leaving the landscape of Canadian music disparate when taken altogether
by the outbreak of war in 1914.63
As the historiography suggests, it is in the dichotomy between the old and new regions of Canada that this divergence in the music is most apparent, and therefore requires a closer examination to demonstrate the truly pervasive role the war played not only on the Canadian home front, but on musical culture in
Canada as well. The diverse and unequal history of music in Canada prior to the
First World War existed because of “the establishment of a musical culture by immigrant pioneers, some professional, but mostly amateur” in the newer regions of Canada. This effectively established “several musical communities across the country,” varying in education, style, and skill.64 Indeed, during the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the patterns of settlement dictated this
61 Clifford Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey (Agincourt, ONT: GLC Publishers Limited, 1982), 103. 62 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 103. 63 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 102. 64 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 103. 22
disparate situation, as the lack of a “common Canadian heritage among the different ethnic sections [ensured that] there were no songs from or about
Canada sung in all regions of the dominion.”65 In effect, “the development of
music during this period remained on a regional level”66 and ensured that most
songs that were composed by Canadians “were in smaller forms and were meant
for practical use in church, military parades, dance halls, or music lessons rather
than for concert performance.”67 For this reason, a closer examination of Anglo-
Canadian sheet music is required, as it allows for a microcosmic study on a body
of popular music that was largely representative of its counterparts throughout
the geographically dominant group in Canada by the outbreak of the First World
War.
Apart from linguistic, ethnic, and cultural differences, musical traditions
differed greatly, and therefore fostered the creation of unique pieces independent
of other groups. For example, Timothy McGee argued in The Music of Canada
that in the years after Confederation, “Canadian music began to flourish” along
the lines of European and American traditions.68 With specific reference to
Ontario, musicians derived many examples from English composers, but still
“chose topical Canadian subjects as their inspirations.”69 While Kallmann noted
that there was a “lack of national character in musical life” in Canada prior to the
65 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 266. 66 McGee, The Music of Canada, 62. 67 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 238. 68 McGee, The Music of Canada, 81. 69 McGee, The Music of Canada, 81. 23
First World War,70 he did maintain that the “years from Confederation to World
War I... were the time when the seeds for the love of great music were planted.”71
During this period of progress, Canadian-born musicians began to entrench themselves in the musical landscape of the country, alongside the ranks of immigrant musicians who had brought their European traditions with them.
This, in turn, led to many “important musical achievements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,” such as:
[T]he existence of larger and more stable musical societies, a vigorous concert life, the formation of bands and orchestras, regular visits of opera troupes and occasional productions with local talent, a modest output of composition, the establishment of conservatories and music journals, the development of piano and organ factories, and the propagation of the European standard concert repertoire among a rapidly growing musical public.72
Kallmann ascribes this success “to individual professional musicians and
countless amateurs whose love of music refused to succumb to discouraging conditions.”73 Indeed, the flourishing nature of Canadian music during this
period, as derived from various traditions and changing circumstances,
demonstrates the roots of the pluralistic nature of the Canadian musical
landscape, as composers “drew on the mixtures of musical traditions to be found
within the country.”74 A closer examination of the history of music in western
Canada helps to better illustrate the pervasive impact of European traditions on
70 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 266. 71 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 119-120. 72 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 119-120. 73 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914 , 121. 74 Elaine Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity (Kingston: McGill- Queen’s University Press, 2008), 143. 24
Canadian music during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and how it influenced sheet music produced during the First World War.
Musical instruments often made the long and tumultuous journey across
Canada with the different waves of settlers. Like the people transporting them, musical instruments “experienced incredible hardships on their way across the prairies and the Rocky Mountains.”75 For example, in 1870, a family from
Winnipeg journeyed with their piano from Winnipeg across the North
Saskatchewan River. The piano was a prized possession, and offered the family
solace the night before crossing the river:
Before going to bed, they threw off the blankets and heavy quilts which had protected the little piano from the long journey. While the mother played the old familiar tunes, the rest joined in with their hymns of thanksgiving and the sound of their voices floated in the cool night air across the length and breadth of the valley.76
Their journey across the river the following morning also demonstrated the importance the piano had to the family. They spared no efforts to transport it safely to their new home:
The ferry, packed to the sides with their household goods, was making the last journey across the Saskatchewan. Just as it reached the farther side a sudden jolt dislodged the precious piano and over it toppled into the shallow water along the edge of the ford. It was so quickly rescued that the wetting could not have been too severe. The wood did not warp and it could still be played, and when the first piano tuner arrived from Winnipeg during the following year he soon set it right again. This musical instrument served its owners faithfully for many years until the
75 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914 , 160. 76 Dorothy Elizabeth Hartshorn, “First Piano to Cross Saskatchewan River is Located at Edmonton: Yellowed Keys of Tiny Rosewood Instrument Is Reminiscent Early Days,” in The Calgary Herald (No issue, 27/2/32), Glenbow Library and Archives, “Pianos.” 25
winter of 1930, when the death of the last family saw its departure for the back room of an auctioneer’s shop.77
Kallmann describes events such as the one by the family in 1870 as typical, for
“pianos were essential amenities in [that] atmosphere.”78 Indeed, as J. E.
Middleton noted, “on the prairies, pianos and pemmican had a priority rating.”79
The West had a greater tradition of amateur composition than did the
East, due in large measure to the nature of new settlement villages and the hardships people faced when traversing the prairies. While many brought previously established traditions with them, the west lacked the older institutions of the east. The replication of these organizations emerged slowly, as “individual music lovers, military establishments, and churches” began to lay their foundations. While these groups were “feeble and short-lived,” they ultimately allowed for the establishment of “musical organizations of a more mature character” in the following decades.80 Despite these hardships, “the need for
music and the capacity for its enjoyment [were] intensified rather than thwarted.
Music is not a luxury but a natural mode of human expression.”81 For example,
the most popular form of musical entertainment during the early twentieth
century was festivals that highlighted “amateur activity” as the cornerstone of
western life. In new societies that were often sparse and lonely, music festivals
not only allowed musicians to exhibit their talents, but also provided a gathering
77 Hartshorn, “First Piano to Cross Saskatchewan River is Located at Edmonton.” 78 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 162. 79 J. E. Middleton, “Music in Canada,” Canada and Its Provinces (Toronto, 1914), xii, quoted in Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 162. 80 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 168. 81 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 172. 26
place and an outlet for social activity that many coveted amidst the isolation that dominated the early years of settlement in the west.82
Music was such a prominent facet of many people’s lives that “it was a rare
day when the living-room piano stood silent, [and] a rare week when a band or
choir could not be heard in public.”83 While public events such as music festivals
or concerts served as popular outlets for musical expression and consumption,
private productions also nourished peoples’ desire for musical entertainment.
Indeed, the widespread ownership of pianos amongst most middle-class
Canadian families in the early twentieth century ensured that “[music] was a part
of most people’s lives.”84 As George Proctor noted in his study on Canadian
Music of the Twentieth Century, “music at this time was one of the favorite parlor
activities and such songs and piano pieces provided many hours of happy
entertainment for performers and listeners alike.”85 However, as will be seen,
technological advancements also fostered the rising popularity of musical
entertainment by making the act of performance more easily accessible.
Coinciding with “the development of the piano [that] made home
performance a possibility for many,”86 the demand for keyboard instruments also
increased, as they became “a new status symbol for the home.”87 Victorian norms
82 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 172. 83 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 200. 84 Jonathan Vance, A History of Canadian Culture (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2009), 222-223. 85 George A. Proctor, Canadian Music of the Twentieth Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), 3. 86 Judith Flanders, Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain (Hammersmith, London: Harper Press, 2006), 356. 87 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 185, 127. 27
dictated that amongst the proper social etiquette expected of young women was the ability to play the piano as part of the accomplishments curriculum.88 As
Kallmann noted, “Playing an instrument was admitted as a pleasant pastime and a definite asset for marriageable daughters-on the same plan as baking or embroidery….[however]…a musical career was generally discouraged and frowned upon.”89 While Kallmann noted that the “cultivation of serious music in
the home was far from universal,” he did concede that many middle-class
families owned a piano or parlour organ. Moreover, the growing popularity of
“home music” prompted women to learn to play as well, as it was “seen as a new
domestic skill” that enabled them to “accompany others and amuse their families.”90 Despite the fact that these families might not have learned to play at a professional level, they had a rudimentary understanding of basic scale notation and that enabled them to play “pretty pieces.”91 This growing popularity of
musical entertainment ultimately led to further developments in terms of the
production of musical instruments and the creation of a wider array of
individuals that were able to produce and perform new pieces of music.
During the early twentieth century, advertising campaigns ensured that the piano industry thrived. Unlike the social norms of the nineteenth century, campaigns were devised to “stir interest in the piano among the members of the average family,” rather than simply amongst the “genteel young ladies” of earlier
88 Johanna Selles, Methodists and Women’s Education in Ontario, 1836-1925 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996), 106. 89 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 112. 90 Flanders, Consuming Passions, 356. 91 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 112. 28
decades.92 For example, the Canadian Bureau for the Advancement of Music
“gradually made a piano seem [like] an integral part of life” by employing slogans
such as “A Piano for Every Parlor,” and the “Music in the Home” campaign.93 The success of these campaigns were augmented by the growing prominence of amateur musicians and the player piano that used piano rolls of current popular songs to provide “effortless musical recreation at home.”94 The demand for new
mechanical technologies such as pipe organs, cabinet organs, recording devices,
player pianos, parlour organs, and most importantly, pianos, “allowed Canadians
access to a wider range of music” during this period, as the demand for keyboard
instruments “led to further development not only of importation but also of
manufacture” by many new Canadian manufacturing firms.95 As Florence Hayes
and Helmut Kallmann noted in the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, “over 100
piano manufacturing companies, individual builders, and makers of accessory parts flourished at some point during the peak era of the industry, ca 1890 to
1925.”96 From 1900 to 1912, “the number of pianos manufactured in Canada
more than doubled, increasing from about 12,000 in 1900 to about 30,000 by
1912.”97 Coincidentally, this boom in acquisition also led to increased demands
92 Florence Hayes and Helmut Kallmann, “Piano Building,” in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, eds. Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 753. 93 Hayes and Kallmann, “Piano Building,” 753. 94 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 185; Hayes and Kallmann, “Piano Building,” 753. 95 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 127, 129-30. 96 Hayes and Kallmann, “Piano Building,” 753 97 Hayes and Kallmann, “Piano Building,” 753 29
for musical education, as those who had purchased pianos desired to learn how to play them.98
As early as the 1840s, musical education “began to assume a regular place
in the education of the middle classes, and music teachers were engaged by many
of the ‘higher ladies academies.’”99 By 1847, Toronto began offering musical
instruction in the public school system with Halifax following in 1867, and many
schools in other larger cities offered music classes by the turn of the twentieth
century.100 Music clubs also served as a popular venue for burgeoning young
amateur musicians to “hear and create music and to learn about a wider range of
musical expression.”101 In effect, the clubs served as a site not only for musical
instruction, but also as a means to improve that musical instruction. For, “In
order to perform, amateur musicians needed access to music teachers, published
music, and instruments.”102 This growing demand in turn fostered the diversification and specialization of the musical process in Canada, as independent music teachers and stores “for the sale of publications and/or instruments” began to emerge.103 Moreover, with the increase in the sale of musical instruments, more families began to seek teachers to instruct their
children. While the quality of music teachers varied, the growing demand led to the creation of more music studios and in turn, began to improve the quality of
98 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 127. 99 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, 112. 100 Timothy J. McGee, The Music of Canada (Markham, ON: W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1985), 73. 101 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 117. 102 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 121. 103 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 121. 30
instruction available to the public, and led to the possibility “for more Canadians to consider a career as a professional musician.”104
However, musical instruction was still by no means universal. Gordon V.
Thompson, a prolific publisher and composer during the twentieth century who
“wrote and published about 60 songs, usually supplying both the words and the
music,” throughout the twentieth century,105 wrote about the impact music had
on his life when he recounted his “school days.”106 Particularly, Thompson noted
the disparity in “the vast development of music in the field of education” between
public school and his private high school, Harbord Collegiate, in Toronto. For
example, “while we did some singing in public school I do not recall singing a
single note at Harbord Collegiate….There may have been some musical activities
in connection with the school work but certainly I was not involved in them, or
impressed by them.”107 Thompson believed that this was detrimental, for “the
study of harmony and counterpoint can be equally effective and, at the same
time, provide a basis that will help in the appreciation of orchestral and vocal
arrangements – even for those who do not become professional musicians.”108
Clifford Ford demonstrated in his study on Canada’s Music that this disparity in education existed in the late nineteenth century because “the teacher-training program in the Normal Schools [in Ontario] was neither comprehensive nor
104 Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity, 123. 105 Helmut Kallmann, “THOMPSON, Gordon V.” in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, eds. Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 914. 106 Gordon V. Thompson, “Autobiography,” Library And Archives Canada, MUS44 1974-3, 86. 107 Gordon V. Thompson, “Autobiography.” 108 Gordon V. Thompson, “Autobiography.” 31
universal” because “most school teachers were not…qualified to teach the subject.”109 These trends were characteristic of the other provinces according to
Ford, who claimed that despite advancements in musical education prior to the
First World War, “no systematic development was possible until the
provinces…appointed provincial directors of music” after the war.110 A closer examination of one student’s testimony in 1915 about the state of musical education also exemplifies the problem Canadians faced in light of European musical traditions, and deserves specific attention when one considers the state of Canadian culture that existed by the outbreak of war in 1914.
As Jonathan Vance noted in his study on A History of Canadian Culture,
“a lack of cultural development in the late nineteenth century” led to the importation of many foreign teachers and the exportation of Canadian students.111 One student named Irene Heffingway from Toronto wrote to the
Everywoman’s World magazine in May 1915 to discuss “What a Toronto Music
Student Thinks About Studying Music At Home.”112 In her piece, Heffingway
argued that the onslaught of the First World War would benefit Canadian music,
as young aspiring musicians were being forced to stay within Canada to learn
how to play, rather than travelling to Europe as many had done in the past. The
exportation of students was harmful to the Canadian musical landscape, as:
109 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 54. 110 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 54. 111 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 185. 112 Irene Effingway, “Getting a Teacher: What a Toronto Music Student thinks About Studying Music At Home,” in Everywoman’s World (Toronto: Continental Pub. Co., May 1915), Vol. 3, No. 5: p. 11, http://eco.canadiana.ca.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/view/oocihm.8_06802_29 accessed on 04/06/2014. 32
In Europe we expected our students to get or complete their education in such a way as was, we thought, not possible here. We neglected our own musical possibilities to build up others at our own expense. Doing this, we lost in reputation, in music, and in money; our loss was the gain for Europe, to which we had got accustomed to look for the final seal and stamp of approval in music. This is to be changed. We can train our musicians in Canada; we are going to do so.113
By keeping aspiring Canadians at home, Heffingway believed that Canadian
musicians would gain money and prestige by training young musicians, therefore
increasing the legitimacy and reputation of the Canadian music scene. While the
author acknowledges that the creation of strong musical societies in Europe came
about by the atmosphere of patronage, she argues that Canadians, as part of “a
democratic nation,…have to look after arts and sciences ourselves and [incite] our
government [to] initiate movements that in older and wealthier lands have been started by individuals.”114 While the author is arguing that government
intervention would help to unify the Canadian musical landscape and help to
stimulate the evolution of a distinctly Canadian sound, her emphasis on the war
as the galvanizing event behind the cooperation of Canadian musicians illustrates
precarious production of any form of culture that was arguably distinctly
Canadian in the years leading up to and including the Great War. As mentioned
in above, Johnathan Vance demonstrated that for many like Toronto’s Irene
Heffingway, this connection and continuation with older forms of cultural
productions was unacceptable in the face of the war because “Canada had become
a nation on the battlefield” and therefore “needed its own distinct, indigenous
113 Effingway, “Getting a Teacher,” 11. 114 Effingway, “Getting a Teacher,” 11. 33
culture to express that nationhood.”115 While many struggled to discern and
grapple with solutions to previously entrenched traditions in Canadian society
during the war, these traditions nevertheless are inherently important and helped
to shape the nature of Canadian music produced over the course of the Great
War.
While musical education remained largely limited to vocal music, other
advancements in the availability of songs enabled more Canadians to participate
in the popular pastime. The introduction of Canadian publishers amongst the
ranks of American and European companies in the 1840s ensured that
domestically composed pieces were more readily available, and in turn, more
encompassing of Canadian society and culture.116 In addition to the different
musical influences dictated by the various settlement patterns throughout
Canada, Canadians were also exposed to music that was “originally published
abroad and reprinted in Canada.”117 However, with this opportunity came serious
ramifications for Canadian composers in line with copyright legislation enforced
by Great Britain. As Patrick O’Neill noted in his article on The Impact of
Copyright Legislation upon the Publication of Sheet Music in Canada, Prior to
1924, reproduction stipulations outlined in numerous copyright acts over the
nineteenth and early twentieth century ensured that “Canadian composers had
115 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 218. 116 Keillor, Music in Canada, 159-160. 117 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada, 114. 34
difficulty locating publishers for their works.”118 This issue was exacerbated by
the fact that:
In addition to the cheap pirated American editions of European works which were sold throughout Canada, composers here had to contend with the competition of European works published by Canadian publishers, American works printed in the United States, and pirated American works printed by Canadian publishers.119
The Chace Copyright Act of 1891 further compounded these issues as “the absence of an international copyright agreement between the United States of
America and Canada” became abundantly clear.120 Under the Act, “the Canadian
market was gradually surrendered to American interests so that the British
composers and music publishers would receive more favourable consideration in the US.”121
Moreover, after the “Canadian government refused to amend the Canadian
Copyright Act to coincide with the Berlin Revised Convention of 1908,” it became
“even more advantageous [for Canadians] to publish in the United States” in
order to ensure copyright protection for their songs in the US and the Berne
Convention countries. For, if they chose to copyright in Canada, they would lose
their copyright protection for “mechanically reproduced music.”122 An article
from the magazine Music World about Gordon Thompson’s experiences
epitomizes this struggle:
118 Patrick B. O' Neill, "The Impact of Copyright Legislation upon the Publication of Sheet Music in Canada, Prior to 1924," Journal of Canadian Studies. Fall 1993. Vol. 28, Iss. 3; 117. 119 O' Neill, "The Impact of Copyright Legislation,” 105. 120 O' Neill, "The Impact of Copyright Legislation,” 117. 121 O' Neill, "The Impact of Copyright Legislation,” 118. 122 O' Neill, "The Impact of Copyright Legislation,” 119. 35
At the time Canadian songwriters had no mechanical protection, so he could not receive one cent of the royalties due to him. In those pre-radio days the bulk of a songwriter’s income came from phonograph recordings, and the fact that Canadian songwriters were not entitled to any mechanical rights – under the copyright laws then existing – was a grievous blow.123
Indeed, as O’Neill noted, “musical composers in Canada…[earned] their
living…from their teaching and performances, not from their compositions.”124
While O’Neill does not address the fact that this difficulty led to decision of many
Canadians to forgo copyrighting their songs and instead privately published them in support of the war effort, his study does illuminate the precarious situation of
Canada’s cultural landscape amidst foreign influences outlined in Chapter One.
While there were minimal productions of “collections of religious music, instruction…and song books” in Canada by the nineteenth century, the increase in music education led to further developments in Canadian music publishing as more individuals learned to read and perform sheet music. This increase in skilled consumers by the mid-nineteenth century encouraged “music dealers to venture into the local production of sheet music” and accounted for various publishing firms that originated from other companies.125 Indeed, “the firms pioneering in this field were not exclusively music publishers but usually importers and dealers in instruments and sheet music of other publishers.”126 For example, the Anglo-Canadian Music Company, established in Toronto in 1885
123 “Silhouette: 1. Gordon V. Thompson,” in Music World (Toronto: June 22, 1957), Library and Archives Canada, MUS441974-3, 86. 124 O' Neill, "The Impact of Copyright Legislation,” 117. 125 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada, 113-114. 126 Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada, 114. 36
after its parent firm was established in London, endeavoured to print, publish, and sell “British music copyrights in Canada, counteracting cheap US reprints of such copyrights, which were being exported to Canada and hence to Britain.”127
The Anglo-Canadian Music Company eventually expanded beyond copyright concerns, and was an important publishing firm that marketed and sold locally composed Canadian patriotic sheet music during the First World War. The
Canadian Music Trades Journal also exemplified the shift towards Canadian composers during this period. While the composers of songs in the Canadian
Music Trades Journal catalogue were initially “all British or continental
European,” the 1890s saw the inclusion of “songs and dances by Canadians” in the catalogue, therefore offering Canadian composers a venue to market their work.128
Helmut Kallman’s A History of Music in Canada (1960) demonstrates
that economic motives drove the evolving music industry of the time, which
commissioned public and private individuals to compose popular music. With the
help of publishers such as the Toronto-based firms, Whaley, Royce & Company,
Musgrave, and the Anglo-Canadian Music Company, sheet music became a
rapidly published form of entertainment and mode of personal expression.
Indeed, Gordon Thompson’s belief in the importance of music culminated in 1911
when he officially went into the music business by opening the Thompson
127 Helmut Kallmann, “The Anglo-Canadian Music Company,” in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, eds. Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 21. 128 Helmut Kallmann, “Canadian Music Trades Journal,” in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, eds. Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 21. 37
Publishing Company in Toronto. By the outbreak of the First World War, over
200,000 copies of Thompson’s sacred songs had been sold. However, he transitioned from jaunty parlour songs to the composition of war songs, and devoted “all of the profits from his songs to [the] Red Cross and recruiting
[campaigns].”129 Another example of a homegrown publishing firm was the
Toronto based music dealer and publisher, Musgrave Bros. In 1909, brothers
Charles E. Musgrave and George A. Musgrave opened their enterprise, and
published “some 50 patriotic and popular pieces” that “were notable for their
coloured cover illustrations.”130 The appeal of these covers ultimately helped the sales of their songs, as the pictorial illustrations often spoke just as loudly as the lyrics and music within the pages.
Indeed, during the First World War, sheet music was effectively employed as a marketing tool. While titles and texts sought to boost recruitment, heighten morale, and inflict guilt upon those abstaining from war-related efforts, pictorial cover illustrations also encapsulated the emotional spirit of the song. For example, Herbert H. Kohler’s popular song “Goodbye My Soldier Boy” leaves little to the imagination as to content of the song. Complete with a detailed depiction of a couple waving their handkerchiefs in farewell to each other as the sweetheart boards a train destined to take him overseas to fight, the cover illustration of Kohler’s song offers a dignified and romantic depiction of Victorian respectability entwined with a wartime atmosphere. Indeed, as Celia Kingsbury
129 “Silhouette: 1. Gordon V. Thompson,” in Music World. 130 Helmut Kallman, “Musgrave,” in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, eds. Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 655. 38
noted, “sheet music complete with patriotic covers provided songs for inspiration,” as they illustrated appeals to liberty, pride, and heroic figures that were seminal to the mobilization of public opinion.131
131 Celia Malone Kingsbury, For War and Country: World War I Propaganda on the Home Front (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010), 8. 39
Fig. 1: Herbert H. Kohler, Goodbye My Soldier Boy (Toronto: Musgrave Bros., 1916), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 21681698 MUSCAN – A – 151-9.
40
In addition to local stores and vendors that sold sheet music and musical instruments, mail order services owned and operated by venues such as the
Timothy Eaton’s Company marketed and distributed new songs primarily in the form of sheet music. 132 While gramophone records were also popular, and in turn revealing of the popularity of songs initially produced in the form of sheet music
(as only the most popular songs were transcribed for record production), the advent of the mail-order catalogue system greatly enhanced the reception of this music throughout the Canadian West. Indeed, the distribution of a wide variety of “popular” sheet music and folios throughout the west ensured that music that was popular in the east began to reach western audiences, therefore beginning to amalgamate the landscape of Canadian-born music across much of English
Canada.133 Moreover, Eaton’s two annual editions of their catalogues, spring/summer and fall/winter, were successful in reaching low-and-middle-
income buyers throughout Canada.134 However, it is impossible to ascertain sales
figures for individual pieces of sheet music sold by both Eaton’s stores in
Winnipeg and Toronto, as well as through their mail order catalogue system from
1913-1922. The only listed statistic for sheet music as an independent City
Department (D9) was in the city stock book. However, after 1922, the musical
instrument department (D2) was amalgamated with the sheet music department
(D9), and any sales records strictly pertaining to the sheet music department
132 Paul Litt, “Canada Invaded! The Great War, Mass Culture, and Canadian Cultural Nationalism,” in Canada and the First World War: Essays in Honour of Robert Craig Brown, ed. David Mackenzie (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), 330. 133 Keillor, Music in Canada, 159. 134 G. de T. Glazebrook, “Introduction,” in A Shopper’s View of Canada’s Past: Pages from Eaton’s Catalogues 1886-1930 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), viii. 41
were non-existent. It must be noted that no sales statistics were listed for individual songs, only for the sheet music department itself. Moreover, with reference to the mail order catalogue stock book, sheet music was never listed as its own category. Its records were amalgamated with stationary, books, and musical goods, therefore prohibiting any detailed breakdown of pieces sold. In turn, the only effective way to understand what pieces of music were popular is through an examination of the pages of Eaton’s catalogues that list each individual title under various headings.
Indeed, as Helmut Kallmann noted, “It is difficult to single out the most successful among the songs, but certain titles turn up more often than others in piles of old sheet music and recordings.”135 One such example of this challenge to
determine the popularity of certain songs was Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies
by Morris Manley (composed and privately published in Toronto in 1915). Eaton’s
distributed Manley’s Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies for fifteen cents under
the heading of “Patriotic Songs” as found on pages selling “Popular Sheet Music
and Folios Vocal and Instrumental” such as in the Fall and Winter 1918-1919
catalogue.136 Jonathan Vance claimed that Manley was a professional songwriter
and already well-known to the Canadian populace, and in effect, increased the
135 Helmut Kallmann, “Wars, Rebellions and Uprisings” in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, eds. Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981), 986-987. 136 “Popular Sheet Music and Folios Vocal and Instrumental,” in Eaton’s Fall and Winter Catalogue 1918-19 (Winnipeg: The T. Eaton Co. Ltd., 1918), 441, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cmc/009002-119.01- e.php?&page_ecopy=nlc005411.441&&PHPSESSID=lc8a31jvjvvf9sgqrutklort30 (accessed January 10, 2012). 42
sale of songs such as “Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies.”137 Moreover, the
widespread popularity and appeal of Morris Manley’s song led to its recording for
the first time during the war years by companies such as Columbia and Victor
records.138 According to Edward Moogk, the recording of Good Luck to the Boys
of the Allies for the gramophone was a highly successful production that Eaton’s
also sold in their catalogues.139 While Moogk did not divulge statistical sales figures for Manley’s song, it was nevertheless popular enough to be revived in
1939 for the Soldier’s Songs of Canada folio published by G. V. Thompson, and later included in “Musical Toronto: A Concert Party” in 1984.140
After the Battle of Second Ypres in 1915, the Canadian public needed an infusion of hope and a positive spin on what clearly would be a long and costly war of attrition. The lyrics of Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies were a simple but powerful attempt to capture the imagination and support of listeners on the home front. Manley gives the listener optimism that the local “boys” would come home, safe and sound, and invokes patriotism and a call to Empire at the same time. He ties in the belief that the Allies were fighting for the cause of democracy and justice with the notion that the troops were very courageous and manly. Most
137 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 221. 138 Herbert Stuart, Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies, recorded by Columbia Records, 24 November 1915, distributed 1916 by Columbia Gramophone Company, New York. http://amicus.collectionscanada.ca/gramophone- bin/Main/ItemDisplay?itm=000031386235&coll=24 (accessed 10 November 2015). 139 Edward Moogk, Roll Back the Years: History of Canadian Recorded Sound and its Legacy: Genesis to 1930 (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1975), 58; “Talking Machines and Records.” In Eaton’s Fall and Winter Catalogue 1918-19 (Winnipeg: The T. Eaton Co. Ltd., 1918), 447.; “Organs, Victor Records and S.I.V. Taking Machines,” in Eaton’s Fall and Winter Catalogue 1918-19 (Winnipeg: The T. Eaton Co. Ltd., 1918), 444. 140 Florence Hayes, “Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies,” The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/emc/good-luck-to-the-boys-of-the-allies (accessed 19 February 2012). 43
interestingly, however, is how the song begins with a line of music from the
British and Canadian anthem, God Save the King, as well as the inclusion of the lyric “God save our gracious King,” in the chorus. While Manley ultimately aimed to invoke patriotism and allegiance to the monarchy, these references to older, popular songs that were extremely pervasive during the early twentieth century demonstrate that the new environment brought about by the First World War also began to change the Canadian musical landscape as well.
The impact of the war on music can be seen most clearly through the
American war song, The Worst Is Yet To Come, with words and music by Samm
Lewis, Joe Young, and Bert Grant. The first verse of the song clearly demonstrates the changes in the songs published during the war through a combination of new, wartime lyrics with old, established tunes:
In childhood day, we’d sing and play/ A game we loved so well,/ ‘ I oh! the cheery oh! the farmer in the dell;’/ But since the war, the words of yore,/ Have changed to fit the times,/the melody is the same to me but the kids have changed the rhymes/.141
Moreover, the tune for this song was loosely based on the children’s songs, “The
Farmer in the Dell” and “Jack and Jill Went up the Hill.” The words have been
changed to provide a stern warning to the Kaiser (“Old Kaiser Bill, went up the
hill,/ But he came tumbling down,/ Oh! Chateau Thierry oh!/ That’s where he
lost his crown;”) that even after the lost battle at Chateau Thierry, the worst for
him was yet to come. The first four bars of the piano prelude are to be played
141 Samm Lewis, Joe Young, and Bert Grant, The Worst Is Yet to Come, (Canada: Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co., 1917), “Sheet Music,” the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 44
forte, or loudly. The last chord in the fourth bar is to be played forzando, or with specific emphasis. This leads to the last two bars of the prelude, which are to be played piano, or softly. The last two bars are to be repeated several times until the vocalist is ready to sing. This has the effect of creating suspense and drama to the first line of the lyric. Aside from several small decrescendo markings, the composer does not provide any dynamic markings for the vocalist to follow. The singing is therefore quite straightforward, and meant to be a little childish and sarcastic. Perhaps most indicative of popular songs that influenced music during the war was the way the sequence and repetition of the music was affected by the
“verbal forms of the text, [or the] rhyme scheme, line length, and stanza structure” of the song.142 The first verse contains some sarcasm aimed at the
Kaiser, and the second verse contains some dire warnings that the “Kaiser better
order his coffin, because he’s going to die!” The chorus repeats the warning over
and over again that “the worst is yet to come” for him at the hands of the Allies.
This repetition demonstrates the influence of American stylistic developments
that led to the introduction of choruses in Canadian popular music.143
By the end of the nineteenth century, Canadians shifted away from folk
songs of the earlier period to ballads and parlour songs that more fully expressed
“contemporary life.”144 As Timothy McGee summarized,
The ballads and parlour songs popular during this period…have simple and rather sentimental texts; the phrases are short and of regular length; the melodies have a relatively narrow range and
142 Keillor, Music in Canada, 186. 143 Keillor, Music in Canada, 186. 144 McGee, The Music of Canada, 63. 45
are easily remembered; and the piano accompaniment parts are easy enough for amateurs to play.145
Musicologist Elaine Keillor expanded upon this assertion further in her study on
Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity by explaining that most
of these popular and folk songs of the nineteenth century had “a strophic form,
with each stanza followed by a short refrain.”146 Grove Music Online, a division of
Oxford Music Online, defines strophic form as “a term applied to songs in which
all stanzas of the text are sung to the same music.” Composers can modify
strophic songs by “slighting changing the vocal line from stanza to stanza or by
varying the figuration of the accompaniment” or by setting “one or more
stanzas…to different music or with a change of tonality.”147 In effect, many
popular songs during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries were
typically simplistic and commonly had “regular four-bar phrases” that were
modeled on English and Irish strophic songs.148 The simplicity of these songs
remained important for patriotic music produced during the South African War
of 1899-1902, as well as the music produced during the First World War, as
composers generally favoured simplistic, uplifting melodies in their pieces. Thus,
a further examination of the impact of the war on Canadian sheet music is
required.
145 McGee, The Music of Canada, 63. 146 Keillor, Music in Canada, 186. 147 Michael Tilmouth, “Strophic,” Grove Music Online, (Oxford Music Press 2007-2014) http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/subscriber/article/grove/music/269 81?q=strophic&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit (accessed 10 May 2014). 148 Keillor, Music in Canada, 159. 46
In their study on “Literature and Music of the First World War,” Kate
Kennedy and Trudi Tate maintain that it “is impossible to generalize how music…was affected by the war.”149 However, when one compares pre-war
patriotic and jovial parlour songs to songs of a similar fashion produced during
the First World War, the transformation and progression in the complexity of the
music emerges. Perhaps most importantly, the pre-war music that focused on
strong messages of support for Mother England did not have the same level of
dramatic interpretation as did the war songs from 1914-1918. While songs
championing Great Britain included dynamic markings, or instructions for the
performers, in pre-war patriotic songs, a definitive shift emerges in the songs
popular during the First World War as composers endeavoured to indicate where
specific emphasis was to be placed in order to reinforce the messages of the
songs. The incorporation of dynamic instructions, such as crescendo’s,
decrescendo’s, rallentando’s (slowing down), and fermata’s (hold the note a little
longer or sustain it), all helped to make the music much more dramatic. A closer
examination of Gordon V. Thompson’s song from 1919 demonstrates the
importance of these dynamic markings.
Gordon V. Thompson composed the song You Are Welcomed Back At
Home Sweet Home (1919) to exemplify the reunion of families in the immediate
aftermath of the First World War. While the stanzas of the song boast of the
accomplishments and trials of Canadian soldiers overseas, the dynamic markings
149 Kennedy and Tate, “Literature and music of the First World War,” 3. 47
in the chorus help to demonstrate how many composers intended their songs to be played:
You are welcome back at home sweet home,/ Laddie boy who sailed away across the foam,/ By your sweetheart true and your mother too,/ And ev’ry pal that wish’d the best of luck to you!/ You are welcome back at home sweet home/ And you’ll never have to wander or to roam,/ You’re the boys who saved the nation, won our love and admiration!/ You are welcome back at home sweet home.150
The chorus is marked with a pianoforte (PF) notation that alerts performers that
the music will start soft, but get loud immediately. The lyrics boast how grateful
and welcome the soldiers are back home, claiming that sweethearts, mothers, and
pals wished them nothing but good luck and that their adventuring days are
finally over because they’ll “never have to wander or to roam” again. However,
the deliberato marking alters the pace over the lyric “You’re the boys who saved
the nation, won our love and admiration.” This marking clearly exemplifies the
message of the song, and sentiments present in Canada upon the conclusion of
the war that gallant, brave young men fought the war and that their sacrifices
were not to be in vain. The deliberato marking therefore ensured that the
importance of the lyric was conveyed, as it provided performers and audiences a
spirited chance to participate in the celebration of Canadians’ sacrifices in the
war. Indeed, the song returned to its original pace with the marking a tempo over
the concluding line the song: “You are welcome back at home sweet home.” This
150 Gordon V. Thompson, You Are Welcomed Back At Home Sweet Home (Toronto: Thompson Publishing Company Toronto, Can., 1919), http://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/You%20Are%20Welcome.pdf (accessed 04 July 2015). 48
helps to cement the importance of the message of the song, namely, that the war was over and that everyone who stood bravely by as their loved ones went off to war were waiting to welcome the soldiers home with open arms.151
Interestingly, many historians and musicologists fail to acknowledge this change in the music during the war. Clifford Ford, in his study on Canada’s
Music, investigated the “Value of imports of Printed Music (1877-1917) in thousands of dollars.”152 Ford’s data was designed to show that coinciding with
musical education in the 1880s, “the need for teachers and performers was
increasing but the need for [Canadian] composers…was not.”153 Ford uses the
figures on the value of imports of printed music to prove that Canadians were
wary of composing music for profit, as it was cheaper to import music from
abroad. However, Ford does not explain why this trend increased dramatically,
nor does he explain why it declined abruptly during the war years. With respect
to the increase in musical education, and therefore production and composition
by the early twentieth century, the rapid importation of music can be explained as
more Canadians were musically literate and therefore demanded an influx of
musical material during that period. Ford believed that technology impacted this
trend, as economic motivations of the publishing industry led many Canadian firms to “compete for an ever-diminishing market” amidst the introduction of the player piano, the gramophone, and the phonograph, inevitably relying on foreign
151 Thompson, You Are Welcomed Back At Home Sweet Home. 152 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 61. 153 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 60. 49
pieces of sheet music that were cheaper to produce.154 However, based on the
rapid output of Canadian pieces of sheet music during the war years, I believe
that the sharp decline in the importation of foreign music emerged because of the
efforts of Canadians on the home front.
As noted earlier, Canadian publishers emerged after the 1840s and began
to foster an easier acquisition of domestically composed pieces of music that
helped to more fully encompass Canadian society and culture.155 As both
Jonathan Vance and Helmut Kallmann noted, the late entrance of the United
States into the war in 1917 ensured that “Canadian composers enjoyed a virtual
North American monopoly on patriotic music for almost three years.”156 Indeed,
as Vance noted, this newfound “demand appeared to be inexhaustible.”157
Nevertheless, Ford’s data detailing the economic motivations of the publishing industry does explain the importance of the introduction of new technological developments in the Canadian market, as “the musically illiterate” were finally able to experience “the same satisfaction from musical entertainment” as their musically literate counterparts.158 This remains important because it helped to
alleviate the aforementioned disparate history of musical development in Canada
prior to the early twentieth century, as popular Anglo-Canadian songs could be
heard throughout the various regions of Canada. Indeed, as Ford also illustrated,
the importation and sale of phonographs, records, and accessories spiked
154 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 105. 155 Keillor, Music in Canada, 159-160. 156 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 221.; Kallmann, “Wars, Rebellions and Uprisings,” 986-987. 157 Vance, A History of Canadian Culture, 221. 158 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 60. 50
dramatically from around 1915 until around 1920.159 As many popular war songs
were transcribed onto gramophone records and marketed through magazines,
newspapers, and other popular media sources, even those individuals who were
unable to play the pieces could still participate in the atmosphere of the war
musically, thereby fostering the emergence of a stronger, more confident, and
autonomous form of Canadian nationalism during the war years.
As will be seen, the importance of the transformation and evolution of
amateur compositions during the war was inherently tied to the growing
realization of the realities of war and the fundamental need of many Canadians
for some sort of an emotional outlet to relieve their anxieties. Despite the
disparate origins of music in Canada, patriotic sheet music produced during the
First World War was typically representative and similar across many Anglo-
Canadian communities. As these localized experiences dictated and formulated
the vast musical landscape in Canada in the years before the First World War,
they became an integral facet in the development of such a popular, published
musical literature during the war.160 Regardless of musical education, class, or
region, Anglo-Canadians poured out their hearts into song in order to cope with
the aggressively progressing war. While the messages and complexity of the
music evolved throughout the war, the importance of sheet music as the “people’s literature” continued to offer sufficient diversions from the developing state of
affairs overseas. It is therefore with supreme importance that the medium of
159 Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, 105. 160 Hamm, Music in the New World, 233. 51
Anglo-Canadian sheet music is examined, as it illuminates and reflects the social, cultural, and emotional values of Canadians in ways that no other genre of popular culture can convey.
52
Chapter Two: Empire, Imperial Responsibility, and National Dignity:
English Canada Goes To War
“Then give three cheers,/ Three British cheers/ For the old Red, White and Blue./ Let the world all know/ That Britain’s foe/ Is Canada’s foe too./ Across the sea/ In Germany,/ Our boys, they will prove their worth/ For the Maple Leaf/ Our emblem dear/ And the best old flag on earth.”161
- The Best Old Flag on Earth, words and music by Charles F. Harrison (1914)
By the outbreak of the First World War, the majority of the Canadian population had ties to Great Britain, as many people were British-born or of
English descent. Imperialistic ideals and affiliations were manifold in the public, political, and social spheres, as to the desire to be a part of the British Empire engendered a sense of loyalty and identity that was unsurpassed by any external factors. While Canada’s colonial status meant that it was legally and simultaneously involved in Britain’s wars, Canada’s participation in the First
World War was viewed as not only as an act of duty and responsibility to Britain, but also as an act of national self-determination. Indeed, as will be seen, the rising voice of English Canadian nationalism that emerged because of the causalities on the battlefield and the efforts of civilians at home slowly subverted the vehement and ubiquitous pre-war rhetoric about the glory of the British
Empire and Canada’s place therein. Charles F. Harrison’s song from 1914 epitomizes the relationship between imperialism and nationalism in the late
161 Charles F. Harrison, The Best Old Flag on Earth (Toronto: Musgrave Bros., 1914), the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 53
nineteenth and early twentieth century. Illustrating the prominent belief that
Canada was an imperial nation, and therefore derived a part of its own power and place in the world in direct relation to its place in the Empire, The Best Old Flag on Earth exemplifies how deeply rooted the connection to the British Empire was in Canadian society in the years prior to 1914. While tensions over Canada’s maturation in world affairs emerged on political, economic, and social levels, the connection to England nevertheless remained the central facet of debate and popular rhetoric. Sheet music in particular demonstrates how ubiquitous and important these strains of popular imperialism were on Anglo-Canadians in the years leading up to the outbreak of war, as the songs produced in 1914 refer to little else than Canada’s place in the empire. In effect, the study of why Anglo-
Canadians rallied so enthusiastically to the cause in 1914 cannot be understood without first examining the pervasive impact of the decades of jingoistic and imperialist thought that championed romantic notions of warfare and English superiority through popular culture, sport, public ceremonies, and education that preceded the First World War.
Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook argued in Canada 1896-1921: A
Nation Transformed that Canada’s transformation between the periods of governance of Sir Wilfred Laurier and Sir Robert Borden was monumental on political, economic, and social levels. However, this transformation did not occur from a sole galvanizing event, but rather, was the product of “seeds planted in
54
previous decades [and] even centuries.”162 While immigration, settlement, and
the impact of industrialisation and urbanization influenced the transformation of
Canada geographically, they could not have succeeded in removing “sectional
frictions,…class conflicts,…and ethnic hostilities” without the corresponding
“backdrop of global change.”163 When combined with tensions between French
and English Canadians, in addition to fears about American control and
annexation, Brown and Cook argued that English Canadians were faced with
“deep differences over what…[the future] connection should be” between Britain and Canada.164 While “Britain was the home of English Canada’s culture and institutions,” as well as the home for many close relatives of the English Canadian population, the tumultuous environment of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries resulted in widespread speculation over Canada’s future involvement in the British Empire and the world. It is therefore important to understand what the roots for these ideals were, as their pervasiveness continued throughout the years leading up to, and including, the First World War.
For many Anglo-Canadians in the 1880s, the answer to Canada’s national and international role was found in some form of imperialism. In The Sense of
Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, Carl Berger argued that
imperialism meant the “movement for the closer union of the British Empire
through economic and military co-operation and through political changes which
162 Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974), 1. 163 Brown and Cook, Canada, 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed, 4-5. 164 Brown and Cook, Canada, 1896-1921: A Nation Transformed, 5-6. 55
would give the dominions influence over imperial policy.”165 In effect,
imperialism became “a form of Canadian nationalism that rested upon a ‘sense of
power,’ an interpretation of history that foresaw great things ahead for the
Canadian nation.”166 However, a great distinction existed between those who
favoured imperialism from those who favoured nationalism:
What divided those who called themselves nationalists from those who preferred to be known as imperialists…was [the] disagreement over how these powers [over Canada’s own affairs] were to be acquired and for what purposes they were to be employed. The imperialists saw the British Empire as the vehicle in which Canada would attain national status; the anti- imperialists were so convinced of the incompatibility of imperial and Canadian interests that they saw all schemes for co- operation as reactionary and anti-national.167
By believing that Canada’s future lay solely within the Empire, Berger maintained
that the “promoters of imperial unity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries were really Canadian nationalists.”168 However, in order to understand why these individuals adamantly believed in the necessity of maintaining the
imperial connection in order to foster Canadian growth and development, a
closer look at the appeal of unity with the Empire is warranted.
Imperial unity was the belief that “Canada could attain national status only
by maintaining the connection with the Empire and by acquiring an influence
165 Carl Berger, The Sense of Power: Studies in the Ideas of Canadian Imperialism, 1867-1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), 3. 166 John English, Borden: His Life and World (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1977), 24. 167 Carl Berger, ‘Introduction,’ in Imperialism and Nationalism, 1884-1914: A Conflict in Canadian Thought, ed. Carl Berger (Toronto: The Copp Clark Publishing Company, 1969), 4-5. 168 Robert M. Stamp, "Empire Day in the Schools of Ontario: The Training of Young Imperialists,' Journal of Canadian Studies, 8 (3), August 1973, 32-42. 32. 56
within its councils.”169 Proponents of this belief maintained that only within the
British Empire could Canada realize its national potential and therefore
advocated for a more assertive role in order to ensure future influence in imperial
affairs. Imperial unity was especially rooted in the late 1880s, as the “prolonged
economic depression” led many to favour closer economic ties to Britain through
Imperial Federation. This perceived solution entailed “preferential tariffs [that]
could secure markets for Canada’s goods,” as well as thwart continental unity
with the United States through reciprocity. Fearing that reciprocity would
diminish “the qualities that made Canada distinct,” supporters of Imperial
Federation “turned to the imperial connection as the best way to improve trade
while protecting Canadian traditions and institutions.”170 Leading intellectuals of
the late nineteenth century such as Colonel George T. Denison, George R. Parkin, and Rev. George M. Grant believed that while “unrestricted reciprocity might bring prosperity it would also ultimately end in political extinction.” As Berger noted, it was this commitment to British traditions and institutions that “made the Canadian nationality worthy of preservation” as “imperial unity began as a defence of Canada.”171 While imperial unity originated from economic and
political platforms, “the appeals of those who underlined the necessity for Canada
169 Berger, ‘Introduction,’ 1. 170 Susan R. Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land: English-Canadian and the First World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), 79. 171 Berger, ‘Introduction,’ 2. 57
to maintain and strengthen the British connection [ultimately] transcended commercial and economic arguments.”172
The economic depression that had struck Canada in the late 1800s ended
by 1896, and with it brought a new wave of growing prosperity and changing
sentiments. The revival of the ‘good times’ inherently meant optimism, self-
confidence, and a new desire to assert the Canadian state on the world stage.173
This renewed vitality of the Dominion coincided with a demand for a more adamant assertion of national objectives within the Empire, and in turn led to the pursuit of imperial adventure.174 As John MacKenzie noted in a study on popular
imperialism and the military, “all the British wars between 1815 and 1914 were
colonial. During this period there was scarcely a year when the British were not
fighting a campaign, however small, somewhere in the world.” These constant
campaigns ensured that “the cultural depiction of war often remained rooted in
the nineteenth century,” not only for Britons but for Anglo-Canadians as well.175
Indeed, as the historiography suggests, colonial wars carried out in the nineteenth century were deemed to be moral because they offered “the image of war, without its guilt and only five-and-twenty per cent of the danger.”176 John
MacKenzie argued that these campaigns “fitted perfectly [with] a number of
172 Berger, ‘Introduction,’ 2. 173 Desmond Morton, Canada and War: A Military and Political History (Toronto: Butterworth & Co., Ltd, 1981), 39. 174 Frank H. Underhill, The Image of Confederation (Toronto: CBC Learning Systems, 1964), 37. 175 John M. MacKenzie, ‘Introduction: Popular Imperialism and the Military’ in Popular Imperialism and the Military 1850-1950, ed. John M. Mackenzie (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), 3. 176 Robert Smith Surtees on hunting, quoted in MacKenzie, ‘Introduction: Popular Imperialism and the Military,’ 3. 58
cultural and literary traditions of the period – the enthusiasm for knightly virtues, the adventure tradition of heightened moral absolutes, a fascination with individual heroic action in the service of the state, and the developing dominance of martial conventions” in popular culture.177 In effect, colonial wars were not
only justified by politicians and economists, but were also tolerated by many
Anglo-Canadians who were influenced by set traditions and methods of
instruction in the late nineteenth century.
This fascination and support for colonial wars reached its zenith with the
outbreak of the South African war in 1899, as Canadians engaged in their first
official military endeavour overseas. Many Anglo-Canadians supported this
involvement, as they believed that Canada had a fundamental obligation to
assume a greater sense of responsibility both for her citizens, and for imperial
aid. As historians Robert Bothwell, Ian Drummond, and John English noted in
their study on Canada: 1900-1945, “the Conservative press in English Canada
rallied British Canadians to the cause of British Africans,” as altercations between
the British Utilanders and the Dutch Afrikaners led many to believe that the
British were being denied their fundamental rights.178 The importance placed on
upholding the constitutional rights of the British Africans drove public opinion,
as many believed that the fundamental rule of law integral to the foundations of
both Canada and England needed to be upheld. Indeed, as Carl Berger noted, the
South African War was “the decisive event in the history of Canadian
177 MacKenzie, ‘Introduction: Popular Imperialism and the Military,’ 3. 178 Robert Bothwell, Ian Drummond, and John English, Canada, 1900-1945 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987), 42. 59
imperialism” because it “marked the entry of the Dominion into world politics.”179 While Canada’s involvement in the war “was not a matter of aiding
England,” many French Canadians opposed the war because they believed it to be
yet another foreign war that had no bearing on life at home. However, many
Anglo-Canadians enthusiastically supported the war because they believed it was
finally time “to take up imperial obligations and be accorded a voice in Empire
affairs.”180
While traditions and popular beliefs in the justness of the cause emerged in England, they influenced Anglo-Canadians through cultural and societal
practices that began to emerge in support of British imperial endeavours. Anglo-
Canadians responded emotionally to the Boer War, as it “came to occupy a pivotal place in both [their] public and private lives.”181 In addition to the
production of cultural paraphernalia, monuments, public celebrations, and
popular outdoor movements,182 the urge to impress British civility upon the globe
found a haven in the arena of manliness, which had gained substantial
prominence in the ever-expanding Empire and developing colonies abroad.183
Indeed, as the war progressed, “patriotic sentiment became the order of the day” and “provided a spur to Canadian nationalism” through the symbol of the
179 Berger, ‘Introduction,’ 3. 180 Berger, ‘Introduction,’ 3. 181 Mark Moss, Manliness and Militarism: Educating Young Boys in Ontario for War (Don Mills, Ont: Oxford University Press, 2001), 39. 182 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 39. 183 James Walvin, “Symbols of Moral Superiority: Slavery, Sport and the Changing World Order, 1800-1950,” in Manliness and Morality: Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain and America, 1800-1940, eds. J. A. Mangan and James Walvin, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), 246. 60
Canadian soldier “who was seen as stronger and tougher and more self-reliant than the British Tommy.”184 For example, H. H. Godfrey’s song “Jack Canuck’s the Lad” from 1900 epitomizes the courage of Canadian volunteers and unquestionable support of the British cause:
The month was bright October, the year was ninety nine, when Jack Canuck first left his home, and joined the British line. He knew that he was wanted; never asked the reason why,/ But took his gun, and on the run, bid all his friends good bye./ Our Johnny asked no favors, but tried to keep in front, and ev’ry time the scrimmage came why? Johnny bore the brunt./ John Bull looked on in wonder, all amazed at Johnny’s pluck,/ Then raised his hat and cried aloud God bless you Jack Canuck.185
Lyrics such as the ones in Godfrey’s song demonstrate the popular belief that
Canadian boys had more “pluck” than their British counterparts did as they
“whipped the Boer and wiped the floor with enemies of the Queen.”186 As Mark
Moss noted in his study on Manliness and Militarism, this was especially important “for a country as young as Canada [because] the hero…became the model of the supreme citizen.”187 As such,
Military heroes, in particular, became linked to the glory of the nation. The narratives they inspired – in novels, histories, newspapers, and textbooks – took on the stature of myths…that became coherent and tangible ideas around which the nation…could rally. They could be used not only to solidify aspects of nationalism…but also as examples to be followed.188
No clearer can these inspired narratives be seen than in the lyrics of Fred W.
Adams and Chas. E. Andrews’s 1900 song “Hurrah! For Our Boys In Khaki”:
184 Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land, 80-81. 185 H. H. Godfrey, Jack Canuck’s the Lad (Toronto: Gourlay, Winter & Leeming, 1900) Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 19163321 MUSCAN – A – 106-20. 186 Godfrey, Jack Canuck’s the Lad. 187 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 54. 188 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 54. 61
We’ve heard in song and story about the soldiers of the Queen/ And of the flag for years they’ve kept unfurled/ But there’s none so dear to Canada/ As her Khaki boys in line/ To fight for British Rights against the world.189
However, the second verse of the song also illustrates the importance of these
narratives in constructing a growing sense of pride in Canadian achievements by
adding to the memory of the war:
From trench to trench ‘mid shot and shell our Khaki boys pressed on/ Brave comrades dropped, some ne’er to rise again/ They have carved the name of “Canada”/ High up on hist’ry’s page/ And crowned our dear old flag with deeds of fame.190
Events such as the weeklong battle of Paardeberg, in which the Canadians
outlasted the Boers on the anniversary of the previous British defeat at Majuba
Hill, helped to formulate these narratives. As the newspapers vociferously
illustrated this defeat as a Canadian victory, they engrained it as a lasting symbol
of Canadian glory prior to the First World War.191
However, historians such as Jeffrey Keshen criticized the coverage and
mythic status awarded to Canadians in South Africa. Indeed, Keshen maintains
that the “Dominion’s jingoistic press did not encourage diversity of opinion, but
rather fed off of an imperialist dogma” by presenting the Canadian public with
“unrealistically blithe images about trench warfare” in order to perpetuate the
notion that “armed conflict [w]as a rather majestic affair.”192 In effect, Keshen
189 Fred W. Adams and Chas. E. Andrews, Hurrah! For Our Boys In Khaki (Toronto: R. S. Williams & Sons, 1900), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 5362978 MUSCAN – A – 14-4. 190 Adams and Andrews, Hurrah! For Our Boys In Khaki. 191 Morton, Canada and War, 41. 192 Jeffrey Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship in Canada’s Great War (Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press, 1996), xii. 62
believes that the coinciding inculcation of youth through imperialistic culture was a carefully constructed mode of education orchestrated from above that ultimately hindered Canadians’ ability to understand the reality of wartime situations by 1914.193 However, as Gordon L. Heath demonstrated in his study on
Canadian Protestant Churches in the South African War, the response to the war was in fact a popular movement from the general population in accordance with the nature of imperial sentiment that existed in Canada by 1899.194 Heath’s
position is especially poignant as he suggests that the Boer War was more
transformative than suggested in the existent historiography because it was a
reflection of Canadians’ perceived notions of nationalism, rather than an
initiative concocted by elites.195 Indeed, he notes:
Neither the churches as a whole nor individual members had the memory forced on them by “elites.” Church leaders may have invented traditions and memories, but both they and individual members owned their understanding of the events and also contributed to the ongoing memory and meaning of the war.196
This established myth of the war Heath describes is important because it
provided a “meaning for the war” for many Canadians struggling to find their
place in the Empire while also trying to develop a sense of nationalism in “a world
that seemed to be filled with threats and uncertainty.”197 That the “churches supported Canada’s participation in the war for the cause of justice, for the growth of the nation, for the survival of the empire, and for the spread of
193 Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship, xviii, 23, 212. 194 Gordon L. Heath, A War with a Silver Lining: Protestant Churches and the South African War, 1899-1902 (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2009), xxiii. 195 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, xix-xxii. 196 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, xxiii. 197 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, xxiii. 63
missions” is significant, because it demonstrates the popular strains of thought present at the end of the nineteenth century.198
Heath’s study is also especially significant, as it demonstrates that the
popular reaction to the Boer War set the precedent for what was to come in 1914.
For example, in his study he argues that “religion [also] played a crucial role in
the formation of public attitudes in late-Victorian Canada.”199 The churches
supported the war because of their “concern for the empire” and the place of the
Canadian nation therein. In effect, “the unifying element in the churches’
attitude…that Canada’s future was to be realized within, not outside, the empire”
made them nation builders, as they believed that “any threat to the empire…was
not only a threat to peace and civilization worldwide but also a direct threat to
Canada.”200 The response of Canadian Protestant churches to the war through
their “active support” that included “sermons and prayers invoking God’s
blessing on the battlefield” set a precedent for future wars, as
Canada’s involvement in the war was understood to contribute to the building of the nation. From the sending of Canadian troops, to the victorious battle of Paardeberg, to the announcement of the Boers’ defeat, Canada’s participation in the war provided a grand opportunity to show that it had begun to “grow up” and act as a nation on the world stage….If the nation could learn from this lesson, the war could act as a purifying event, ultimately creating a more righteous nation and empire.201
198 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, 143. 199 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, 89. 200 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, 89-90. 201 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, 86, 50. 64
The experiences of the South African war achieved this aim, as the First World
War was a direct product of the “actions and attitudes [of Canadians]…during the
South African War.”202
Echoing the importance of looking at popular factors that influenced the
formation of the memory of the Boer War, historian John MacKenzie argued that
the “evidence for the construction, development and utilisation of myths is not to
be found in official documents or in the products of the ‘official mind’ of
imperialism. It is to be found in the surrounding culture.”203 Indeed, he
maintains that historians need to study the cultural environment in which
contemporaries produced these myths because it illustrates the reality of life in
the late-nineteenth century empire.204 While Keshen maintained heroic myths
harmed Canadian society, MacKenzie demonstrated that the didactic importance
of heroic myths ultimately benefited society instead.205 Indeed, MacKenzie noted
that the pervasiveness of heroic myths in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries illustrates broader definitions of responsibility and expectations for
those who believed in them:
Imperial heroes developed instrumental power because they…personified national greatness and offered examples of self-sacrificing service to a current generation….[In effect,] they were used as the embodiment of the collective will, stereotypes of a shared culture and promoters of unity in the face of fragmentation.206
202 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, 86-87. 203 John MacKenzie, “Heroic Myths of Empire,” in Popular Imperialism and the Military, 1850- 1950, ed. John MacKenzie (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992), 109. 204 MacKenzie, “Heroic Myths of Empire,” 109. 205 MacKenzie, “Heroic Myths of Empire,” 114-115. 206 MacKenzie, “Heroic Myths of Empire,” 114-115. 65
As such, heroic myths helped to train youth by instilling desired characteristics in their lives through moral paradigms instituted by society in accordance with the
“character, moral standards, and actions in heroic life.”207 Thus, the heroic myth
of a Canadian hero fighting for the Empire in the South African War defined what
masculine qualities Canadian society desired in the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth century, as the manly virtues explicated on the battlefield in
Paardeberg aligned with the popular rise of militarism in the nineteenth and
twentieth century.
As military service was viewed as a masculine duty in the late Victorian
and Edwardian years, “[p]ositive attitudes to warfare were deeply embedded in
the intellectual, philosophical and cultural trends of the age.”208 The British
experience rallied Canadians for war, as it illustrated that the chance for
adventure was something to be desired. Social control was exercised in nearly
every branch of society in order to condition young boys to be warriors through
“masculine” ideals.209 Confidence and pride in British achievements implied a
glorious sense of destiny for English Canadians, as it served as a pretext for the
militaristic pursuit of active “manly men.”210 Indeed, as Mark Moss noted, “war
was seen and portrayed as the supreme test of manhood as well as the defining
mark of a nation.”211 In effect, many proponents of masculinity desired to
inculcate young boys through a process of socialization that would ideally
207 MacKenzie, “Heroic Myths of Empire,” 112. 208 MacKenzie, ‘Introduction: Popular Imperialism and the Military,’ 2. 209 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 20. 210 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 25. 211 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 38. 66
produce “manly boys for manly deeds.”212 Manipulation through the school
system was a large part of this conditioning, as it allowed militarily educated
teachers to infuse young boys with desired ideals, motivations, and moral
training to ensure the formation of character based on patriotic ambitions. The
curriculum played a large role in this, but so too did instances of the drill, sports
which promoted team work, and various other activities to induce a feverish
support for war and the culture of war amongst young boys.213 While these
measures were enacted to train a generation of future soldiers, other means were
needed to galvanize the rest of the Anglo-Canadian population who did not
participate in manly exercises.
British descendants prior to the First World War “had a firm
understanding of who they were and where their loyalties lay.” This galvanized
Canadian society “culturally, politically, socially, and athletically” Mark Moss
argued, because “they did more than any other group to shape Canada’s
character.”214 One reason that pro-Empire support was so prevalent was that
“anyone who went to school in English Canada was educated in a system that
celebrated British culture, idealized British history, and inculcated British
values.”215 This inculcation of Canada’s youth through the school system ensured
a continuation of emotional attachment to the Empire, and in effect, perpetuated
notions of identity through union with the British Empire. Indeed, many Anglo-
212 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 5. 213 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 5-8 214 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 24. 215 Jonathan Vance, A History of Canadian Culture (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2009), 168. 67
Canadian educators in the late nineteenth century believed that one way to effectively ‘Canadianize’ schoolchildren was through the schools and pro-Empire curriculums. This was especially important by the late nineteenth century, as
Britain was engaging in imperial adventures abroad that aimed to “expand and consolidate its colonial holdings throughout the world.”216 Educators such as Sir
William Dawson believed that “Canadian schools should foster...loyalty to the
British Empire” by generating a “uniform Protestant, English-Speaking
identity.”217 Likewise, educator Alexander MacKay’s advocacy for Empire Day as
a means to foster loyalty and a “larger British sentiment” also demonstrated the
belief of many educators that “imperial loyalty[,] as an overarching faith[,]...could unite Canadians of many different backgrounds.”218
In addition to calls from educators, members of the public like prominent
clubwoman Mrs. Clementine Fessenden of Hamilton, Ontario, also called upon the school boards to introduce a “national patriotic scheme of education” that
would result in a school day every year devoted to patriotic exercises in which
children would participate.219 Mrs. Fessenden’s call for the cultivation of
patriotism amongst children appealed to Ontario Education Minister George
Ross who “persuaded his government and the education ministers of other
provinces to adopt the concept…where love of country would be encompassed
within the larger imperial embrace.” Ultimately, the event was designed to foster
216 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 25. 217 Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land, 81. 218 Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land, 82. 219 Stamp, "Empire Day in the Schools of Ontario,” 33. 68
national patriotism by emphasising “the idea of love of our country.” However, it quickly evolved into an event that venerated the idea of love of the Empire as well.220 As Empire Day was introduced on the last school day before Queen
Victoria’s birthday on May 24, 1899, the holiday “was ideal for bringing before
[the school children] the relations of Canada to the Empire [by] impressing upon their minds the great events which transpired during Her Majesty’s reign.”221 The
appeal of school celebrations such as Empire Day therefore resonated with many
Canadians who believed that children should participate in patriotic displays of
support for the Empire in order to generate a deep respect for the imperial
connection and traditional institutions found therein.222
Historian Robert Stamp argued that Empire Day “succeeded because of its
compatibility with concepts of loyalty and patriotism prevalent in turn-of-the-
century Ontario.”223 Introduced in an era when many Anglo-Canadians
adamantly desired the imperial connection, Empire Day embodied the
amalgamation of “Canada’s destiny with that of the British Empire.” While
support came from “the press, the pulpit, and the political platform,”224 many maintained that in order to sustain Canada’s desired place within the Empire, “its young male citizens must be prepared to defend it against foreign attacks.”
Militarism was therefore injected into Empire Day celebrations as a means to
220 Robert M. Stamp, The Schools of Ontario, 1876-1976 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 34-35. 221 George Ross, quoted in Dominion Educational Association, Proceedings, 1898 (Halifax: 1900), p.xxxviii, quoted in Stamp, The Schools of Ontario, 34. 222 Stamp, "Empire Day in the Schools of Ontario,” 39. 223 Stamp, The Schools of Ontario, 35. 224 Stamp, "Empire Day in the Schools of Ontario,” 38. 69
garner “wide-spread public support for the day.”225 Indeed, as W. Sanford Evans
noted in his detailed history of the first Empire Day in 1899, “Manual exercises,
military drill, fancy drill, [and] the saluting of the flag…formed the spectacular part of the programmes.”226 Likewise, during Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee
celebration in 1897, grand imperial military ceremonials took place in Canada’s
big cities, and played an important role in garnering pride in Canada’s military
alongside other troops from the Empire.227 Despite the fact that “Canada was
overwhelmingly rural” prior to 1914, many were still “able to see the militia at
work, in the sham battles that took over rural townships” in the pre-war years.228
While children were inundated with “flag-saluting, allegiance-pledging, patriotic singing, and poetry reading” on a daily basis, “national and imperial zeal” increased throughout English-speaking Canada because these holidays helped to cement notions of the Empire’s superiority and awarded English-Canadians with
“a feeling of connection to a glorious destiny that was extremely appealing, for it conferred on them a kind of privilege.”229 Thus, in correlation with the departure
of “the first contingent that left Canada for South Africa in 1899,” Jonathan
Vance argued that “what made the greatest impression” on many across English
225 Stamp, "Empire Day in the Schools of Ontario,” 39. 226 W. Sanford Evans, “Empire Day: A Detailed History of its Origin and Inception,” Canadian Magazine, XII (3), July 1899, 278. 227 Jonathan Vance, Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain, and Two World Wars (Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2012), 30-32. 228 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire, 32. 229 Stamp, The Schools of Ontario, 35; Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 25. 70
Canada was “the national and imperial symbols that were everywhere in evidence.”230
Perhaps most telling about W. Sanford Evans’ account of Empire Day was
the inclusion of both national and imperial symbols in the events of the day. For
example, Canada’s national emblem was displayed in pictures that also featured
the Queen, flags of the Empire, and national emblems of other parts of the
Empire. Maple leaves were also “very generally worn” by staff and children while
they participated in creating British flags in classrooms decorated with “the
Canadian and British coats-of-arms and maps of the world with the British
Empire filled in.”231 These attempts to highlight a Canadian identity within the
imperial connection were integral to the generation of patriotic support for
Canada’s role in the empire, as further illustrated by daily life throughout the
early twentieth century. As Jonathan Vance noted in his study on Canada’s Maple
Leaf Empire, the “sense of power” inherently tied to imperialism was experienced
in many ways:
Children grew up with it, by gazing at the wall map that showed Canada the same colour as a quarter of the globe and by reading passages in their texts that told of imperial stories. It was implicit in the meetings of community groups…where topics for discussion ranged from the Indian Mutiny to varieties of Canadian apples. It was expressed when they named their streets, their schools, and their towns after the heroes of the British empire.”232
230 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain, and Two World Wars, 25. 231 W. Sanford Evans, “Empire Day: A Detailed History of its Origin and Inception,” 278. 232 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire, 33-34. 71
As the glorification of Britain’s triumphs permeated Canadian society and culture, it generated a desire to follow in the steps of the Mother Country. Indeed, while students were already taught the language, literature, and history of the
British Empire, a renewed interest in the relationship between Canadian patriotism and broader imperial sentiments abounded over the course of the early twentieth century.233
Ultimately, the dichotomy between imperialism and imperial nationalism
manifested itself in the public realm. However, both Robert Stamp and Jonathan
Vance agree that this dichotomy was a non-issue for many Anglo-Canadians, as it was merely an accepted part of life. For example, while “the greater emotional appeal of British imperialism” subsumed the original “manifestation of English-
Canadian nationalism” inherent in the initial Empire Day design, Stamp believed
that many people “saw no difference between the two, and the so-called ‘double-
loyalty’ rested easily with them.”234 Likewise, Vance maintained that “in places
like Kitchener, BC; Wolseley, Saskatchewan; and Raglan, Ontario, few people
would have stopped to wonder if a strong Canadian nationalism could co-exist with a passionate pride in the British Empire.”235 If they did, he argues, they
“would probably have concluded that the two were in no way contradictory, or
even separate.” As H. H. Godfrey’s song “A Greeting to the King” from 1901
indicates, to be Canadian was synonymous with ties to England:
233 Stamp, The Schools of Ontario, 32-34. 234 Stamp, "Empire Day in the Schools of Ontario,” 38. 235 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire, 34. 72
Now salute we the Standard that floats to the breeze;/ ‘Tis the emblem of the free:/ And salute we proud Edward, our Lord and our King,/ For a mighty Prince is he;/ And salute we the lads of our dear Canadian land,/ Who were bred ‘neath the Maple Tree:/ They will stand for his name and will fight for his fame/No more loyal sons has he./236
Thus, because “one could glory in being Canadian without it being any less
glorious to be a part of the British Empire,”237 it is no wonder that the automatic
emotional response to the outbreak of war in 1914 by many Canadians was one of
unwavering support.
The duality of national sentiment and imperial sentiment that dictated
popular attitudes by 1899 foreshadowed the jubilant excitement many expressed
in 1914 over Canada’s opportunity to prove her worth to herself, the Empire, and
the world. The cover illustration of A. C. Murray’s song Hail! Mighty Empire
(1913) especially epitomizes the pervasiveness of Canadian identity within the
realm of the British Empire on the eve of war. As some of the lyrics indicate,
Canada, as a dutiful lion standing next to her mother England, was simply
“Waiting the Call of the Motherland/” in order to demonstrate that she was
“Ready to fight, fearless and brave/…For precious freedom’s liberty!”238 The
embellished plating behind the main image of the five lions representing the cubs
of the empire entails a sense of majesty that the lyrics of the song echo. Moreover,
the placement of the words “Mighty Empire” on the contrasting banner above the
236 H. H. Godfrey, A Greeting to the King (Toronto: Gourlay, Winter & Leeming, 1901) Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 19154438 MUSCAN – A – 106-10. 237 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire, 34. 238 A. C. Murray, Hail, Mighty Empire (Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce, & Co., 1913) Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 22138791 MUSCAN – A – 211-16. http://www.nlc- bnc.ca/obj/m5/f1/csm05644-v6.jpg (accessed 14 December 2015). 73
image draws an observer’s eye initially towards the text, before examining the steadfast lions holding bayonets waiting for the call to defend the “World’s
Mighty Empire.” As Murray composed the song the year before the outbreak of the First World War, the music was especially indicative of the majesty many
Canadians felt the British Empire embodied. Indeed, the chorus has the dynamic marking of moderato maetoso that indicates Murray intended the music to switch from the marching tempo of the verses (tempo di Marcia) to a tempo intended to be played moderately in order to emphasize the regality and majesty entailed in the lyrics. As the entire song is a testament to the strength and legitimacy of the English Empire, this transition in tempo helps to exalt the King, his flag, and his colonies. However, it also ensures that Canadians are aware that they are an integral part of the Empire, and have a shared interest in ensuring that it remains a “land of the free and home of the brave.”239
239 A. C. Murray, Hail, Mighty Empire (Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce, & Co., 1913) Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 22138791, MUSCAN – A – 211-16. 74
Figure 2: A. C. Murray, Hail, Mighty Empire (Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce, & Co., 1913) Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 22138791 MUSCAN – A – 211- 16.
75
In John Herd Thompson’s classic study of the Western response to the
First World War, he noted that “constitutional compulsion” to support Canada’s involvement in the war was not enough to encapsulate the reality of English
Canadian sentiment in 1914. Rather, “when Britain declared war, [Western
Anglo-Canadians] answered with an unquestioning enthusiasm almost like that felt in England herself.”240 Thompson believed that this was because “some of these people made no distinction between Canadian and Briton” as they “thought
of themselves as citizens of [the] Empire.”241 With reference to this lack of
separation in identity, he noted that that the refrain from the popular wartime
song, “Sons of the British Empire Unite – Your Country is Calling,” demonstrated
“the way in which ‘British Empire’ and ‘Country’ could be synonymous.”242 The
lyrics claiming that “From overseas Dominions,/ From lands both far and near,/
They rush to serve their Empire,/ For duty’s voice they hear” showed that
Canadians felt the “Sense of Power” when Britain declared war.243 Thompson
ascribes this enthusiasm to the fact that “Canada’s involvement was to identify
participation in the war as part of the duty owed to the Empire” because “some of
these people made no distinction between Canadian and Briton, but thought of
themselves as citizens of the Empire.”244 Thus, a further examination of songs
that champion Canada as a dutiful daughter of the Empire is required in order to
240 John Herd Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 1914-1918 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1978), 28. 241 Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 28. 242 Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 28-29. 243 Will R. Wright and Charles F. Harrison, Sons of the British Empire: Your Country is Calling You (Vancouver: Charles F. Harrison & Co., 1916), Glenbow Library and Archives, Sheet Music, File 12, Western, World War I 1915-1919. 244 Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 28. 76
understand why the transformation in language employed in later songs reflects the evolution of English Canadian nationalism that emerged in the years leading up to the First World War.
Music produced during the first year of the war offers a concentrated prism into the culmination of imperialistic ideals in Canadian society, as the lyrics and martial tones of the songs reflect the staunch belief in the need for
Canada to fight alongside England in order to prove her place in the Empire.
Many songs specifically reference the British flag and the institutions the soldiers were defending such as: ‘For King and Country,’ ‘Stand by the Union Jack,’ ‘The
Best Old Flag on Earth,’ ‘The Call of the Motherland,’ and “We’ll Never Let the
Old Flag Fall.’ One specific example of a song that demonstrates the veneration of
British institutions by acknowledging Canada’s place in the empire was Charles F.
Harrison’s The Best Old Flag On Earth (1914). Indeed, the song reveals the imperial-national sentiments popular in Canada by the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by proclaiming that Canadians need to help the mother country, but also that Canada is a distinct colony with her own identity:
Then give three cheers,/ Three British cheers/ For the old Red, White and Blue./ Let the world all know/ That Britain’s foe/ Is Canada’s foe too./ Across the sea/ In Germany,/ Our boys, they will prove their worth/ For the Maple Leaf/ Our emblem dear/ And the best old flag on earth.245
Apart from dedicating his song to the Canadian Overseas Contingents, Harrison
tells of the soldiers from other colonies in the British Empire who have answered
245 Charles F. Harrison, The Best Old Flag on Earth (Toronto: Musgrave Bros., 1914), the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 77
the call to arms and gone to support the Empire. This correlation would have helped echoed the assertions made in songs like Murray’s Hail! Mighty Empire that proclaim Canada to be a dutiful daughter alongside her lion cub counterparts, answering the British call with zeal.
Harrison’s song is written in the Key of C Major, in Common or 4/4 time.
The indicated tempo is marziale, or march time, with 120 beats per minute. The song starts with a simple instrumental prelude, which is to be played forte or loud. The verses start out mezzo piano, or quite softly, and there are no other volume instructions given. The words in the last bar of the third system are “They have answered the Empire’s call” and they would be sung louder by their nature.
Similarly, in the second verse, the words in the third system are very powerful.
The words “So here’s good luck, to Jack Canuck! For he’s ready to fight or fall” would naturally be sung with more force and gusto. The chorus switches to 2/4 time, indicating a shift to more martial singing, as 2/4 time gives a strong sense of soldiers marching enthusiastically. The corresponding words in the chorus lend themselves well to the steady and “persistent beat of the march,”246 as it helps to drive forward the powerful praise of the British flag and Canada’s job to protect it and her citizens. While there are no dynamic markings provided by the composer, it is difficult to think of singing the words “Give Three Cheers, Three
British cheers, for the old Red, White and Blue” at anything but a robust volume.
However, Harrison’s cover illustration also demonstrates the fact that “no one
246 McMaster University Library, Supporting the Cause, World War I Songs (March 5, 2007), http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibitions/WorldWar/file12.htm (accessed November 4, 2012). 78
wondered whether or not Canada would follow Britain to war….[for when]
Britain was at war; Canada was at war.”247
247 Ian Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief: Torontonians and the Great War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 16. 79
Figure 3: Charles F. Harrison, The Best Old Flag on Earth (Toronto: Musgrave Bros., 1914) the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario.
As the cover of Harrison’s song was comprised entirely of the Union Jack, there was little room left for interpretation that the song might be about anything other than an upbeat war song intended to rouse the fighting spirit of Canadians to rally behind the old flag and institutions of the mother country.
80
These constant notions of imperial duty and the responsibility of
England’s sons to answer their mother lion’s call were extremely pervasive, as many songs invoked the belief that Canada, as a daughter of the Empire, was finally willing to fulfill the place in the Empire that so many imperialists had clamoured for in the decades leading up to the war. For example, Edward Miller personally endeavoured to remind Canadians of their imperial responsibility in his 1914 song, “The Call of the Motherland.” In his song, Miller proclaimed that
Canadians were “Prepar'd to offer England of her best/” because “Canada no longer stands and watches from afar.” This song would ultimately have rallied
Anglo-Canadians to the colours through its powerful lyrics that refer to the rush and immediacy of responding to the call: “The hearts of her sons are beating high; They speed across the water and beneath the British star,/ And will show the nations how to fight and die.”248 However, apart from emotional appeals for
immediate imperial service, many Canadians also invoked the popular belief in
the justice of the cause to help enflame public opinion.
By the outbreak of the First World War, leading political and social figures
of the day championed the greater imperial future of Canada and her
commitment to the war overseas. Both the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden,
and the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, espoused that while
Canada was legally and simultaneously involved in Britain’s wars, the country
nevertheless shared an equal determination that “For Honour and for Liberty and
248 Edward W. Miller, The Call of the Motherland (Toronto: The Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers’ Association, 1914), http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibits/worldwar_lyrics#9 (accessed 13 April 2012). For full lyrics, see Appendix A. 81
Justice we will fight.”249 Borden justified Canadian involvement in the First
World War by claiming that Kaiser Wilhelm II had violated the norms of conduct
of civilized states. A unified Canadian effort was therefore needed to fulfill its
“duty to the world” in order to punish the German “military aristocracy” for
disturbing the peace, and to prevent it from doing so again.250 Indeed, Laurier
went so far as to call a party truce in a special war session of Parliament on
August 18, 1914:
To let Great Britain know, and to let the friends and foes of Great Britain know, that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart, and that all Canadians stand behind the mother country, conscious and proud that she has engaged in this war, not from any selfish motive…but to maintain untarnished the honour of her name, to fulfill her obligations to her allies…and to save civilization from the unbridled lust of conquest and power.251
Canadians met this call to arms enthusiastically across the country, as many
shared an unbridled belief that the only means of involvement was total
commitment to the war effort. Canadian resources, be it material or human
power, were required and demanded to ensure the ultimate goal of victory. The
common belief that “Britain is fighting for freedom men, and Britain needs us
249 Rich L. Werry and Harold Brown, England’s Daughter and a Scrap of Paper (Montreal: R.L. Werry, 1914), http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibits/worldwar_lyrics#13 (accessed 14 April 2012). For full lyrics, see appendix B. 250 Robert Craig Brown, “Sir Robert Borden, the Great War and Anglo-Canadian Relations,” in Character and Circumstance: Essays in Honour of Donald Grant Creighton, ed. John S. Moir (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1970), 204-205. 251 Oscar D. Skelton, Life and Letters of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Volume II: 1896-1919 (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1921), 433. 82
all,”252 became ubiquitous and effectively helped to unify much of Canadian
society in 1914.
The importance of imperial rhetoric and notions of Empire cannot be
underestimated when studying the culture of the Great War in Canada, as the tie
to Great Britain was fundamentally entrenched in the identity of Anglo-
Canadians by the outbreak of war. As many Anglo-Canadians self-identified as
British citizens living in other parts of the ‘British’ world, they believed that
Canada’s future lay solely within the empire. That Canadians went so willingly to
war in 1914 only demonstrates the pervasive impact of imperial tie and the long-
established sense of national identity associated with Canada’s connection to the
British Empire. Anglo-Canadian’s vehement resolution to uphold British
institutions and ideals propelled thousands to join the fight, whether they
expected a great adventure or if they simply wished to fulfill their duty to the
Mother Country. Acceptance of Canada’s voluntary fight for democracy “did not
mean that there was no criticism of Canada’s war effort. But when it came, such
criticism was aimed at strengthening the vigour of Canada’s contribution, not at
reducing it.”253 In order to ensure that “Freedom shall live as ever,”254 songs produced in 1915 and 1916 especially heralded the triumphs and bravery of
Canadian men on the battlefields by offering romantic and naïve insights into the arena of combat that many faced overseas. As will be shown in the following
252 Edward W. Miller, Canada, Fall In! (Toronto: The Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers’ Association, 1915), the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 253 Thompson, The Harvests of War: The Prairie West, 43. 254 James A. Ross and Mary Gilmour, The Call of the King (Toronto and Winnipeg: Whaley Royce & Co., 1916). 83
chapter, the language employed by composers reflects the transition from the popular belief that Canadians were fighting solely as a daughter of the empire to the fact that they were now active participants in the war of their own accord.
This experience was integral to the management of the war effort over from 1915 onwards, as the foundations for avenues of support in recruitment, daily life, religion, and home front efforts existed because of the South African War.255
255 Heath, A War with a Silver Lining, 86-87. 84
Chapter Three: Managing Morale and Keeping the Faith: Anglo-
Canadians Respond to the Great War
“Distant drums, we hear them throbbing,/ Throbbing half a world away,/ Telling of a thousand heroes./ And who shall hear and stay?/ Fight we will, for what men cherish,/ Giving all that men may give./ What of life, if freedom perish,/ Or death, if freedom live?”256
- March of the Nova Scotia Highlanders by Mary Fletcher and M. Sterne (1917)
English-speaking Canadians experienced a “critical divergence of opinion” over the appropriate patriotic response to the outbreak of war in 1914.257
Imperial-nationalism confronted colonialism, as public opinion deviated on the nature of Canada’s involvement in the war. While many Anglo-Canadians went to war with the understanding that it was their duty to defend the British Empire as an imperial colony, others maintained that it was in Canada’s national self- interest to “do her ‘duty’” in order to garner a more prominent role in international affairs.258 Regardless of these ideals, the colonial tie to England ensured that Canadians would play an “ancillary role” in the war, as the country
was legally bound to defend the Empire through its colonial status.259 Many
Canadians were “perfectly content”260 to assume this role, as it fit the paradigm of
256 Mary E. Fletcher and M. M. Sterne, March of the Nova Scotia Highlanders (Amherst, NS: M. M. Sterne, 1917), http://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/March%20of%20the%20NS%20Highla nders.pdf (accessed 12/12/2015). 257 R. Matthew Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” in Canadian Historical Review, 61 (2), 142. 258 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 144. 259 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 141. 260 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 143. 85
the imperial mother-daughter relationship engrained in popular society by 1914.
As little disagreement occurred over the moral and legal role Canada would play in the war, the “popular belief that the conflict would be of extremely short duration” led many Canadians willingly and enthusiastically to war in 1914.261
However, despite this vehement enthusiasm that abounded in Anglo-Canadian society during the first year of the war, the loss of so many lives in 1915 brought the war home for Canadians, as it demanded a new commitment to fight for what was right. As it became clear that the war effort up to that point had not adequately kept pace with the growing demands of a long war,262 new measures
and efforts were required to increase recruitment, sustain morale, and counter
Canadians’ grief amidst such great losses. In effect, lyrics claiming that “Fight we
will, for what men cherish,/ Giving all that men may give” became the driving force behind the war on the home front, as Canadians pursued every possible avenue for support available.263
On 22 April 1915, just after sixteen hundred hours, the Germans launched
a fierce artillery barrage on the Allied lines in the Ypres Salient, followed by the
deployment of 160 tons of chlorine gas from 5,370 canisters.264 As a grey, green cloud ominously drifted upon the nearby French colonial troops, those hit by the chlorine gas choked and gasped for air as the gas destroyed their lungs. While the
Canadian lines escaped the worst of the cloud, the Germans continued to “blast
261 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 142- 144. 262 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 141. 263 Fletcher and Sterne, March of the Nova Scotia Highlanders. 264 Tim Cook, No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1999), 20. 86
the Canadian trenches with their artillery.” The 1st Canadian Brigade in reserve
“was quickly rushed up to the front” to avert imminent disaster as the Germans
tried to exploit the hole in the line which resulted from the retreat of the French
troops. The Canadians grimly defended their positions amidst German confusion
regarding their numbers, and held strong until British reinforcements arrived to
“stem the [German] advance.” When the Canadians faced another gas attack two
days later, they retreated to a defensive line. However, the German advance was
checked and the Allied line stabilized, albeit at the cost of over 6000 Canadian
causalities and 1400 more taken as German prisoners of war. Despite the heavy
casualty lists, the Canadians had proven themselves to be a fighting force that would not back down.265 The bravery of these “voluntary citizen-soldiers” who
“withstood…the first and second poison gas attacks in history,”266 was a turning
point in the war effort, as demonstrated the willingness of Canadians to die for
their Empire.
The Second Battle of Ypres, fought from 22 April 1915 to 22 May 1915, was
perhaps the most defining moment of the war for Canadians, as it bolstered the
burgeoning sense of nationalism in Canadian society and fundamentally altered
the role Canadians were to play in the war. Indeed, as Ian Miller noted, the
casualties suffered by the Canadian Contingent on the Ypres Salient “transformed
the war from a great adventure to a great crusade,” as “detailed accounts of front-
265 Cook, No Place to Run, 20-24. 266 Nathan M. Greenfield, Baptism of Fire: The Second Battle of Ypres and the Forging of Canada, April 1915, (Toronto: Harper Collins, 2007), 23. 87
line life” eliminated any romanticism that had previously surrounded warfare.267
As will be seen, composers reacted to this stark new reality by vindicating the sacrifices of the soldiers in their songs by glorifying their bravery and their pluck.
These songs were especially useful tools for recruitment, as people in cities like
Toronto, Winnipeg, and Regina learned of the devastating effects of the battle through letters and casualty lists in the city’s papers. Amid the “detailed accounts of front-line life [that] were readily available to the…public,”268 music that
glorified the sacrifices of Canada’s sons helped to offset the “chilling effect” many
experienced as they realized “the shocking cost the country would have to pay in
order to win” the war.269 Indeed, as will be shown, this shock was ultimately beneficial, as it infused the collective war effort with a fresh surge of patriotic fervour.270
Moreover, Ypres served as a turning point in the war, as the sacrifices
made by the Canadian Corps ensured that the country “could no longer be
dismissed as a bystander in the great affairs of the world.”271 Indeed, as James
Pitsula notes, “the country had won a place on the international stage; the price
had been paid in blood.” In effect, imperial-nationalism was no longer “a
declaration of independence,” but rather, an assertion and recognition of
267 Ian Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief: Torontonians and the Great War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 43, 48. 268 Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief, 48. 269 Jim Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2010), 101, 103. 270 Sandra Gwyn, Tapestry of War: A Private View of Canadians in the Great War (Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., 1992), 161; Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief, 43; Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War, 83. 271 James Pitsula, For All We Have and Are: Regina and the Experience of the Great War (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2008), 64. 88
Canada’s “rite of passage” from a colony to a proud nation.272 Nathan M.
Greenfield further summarizes this profound transformation in the formation of
a national identity for many Canadians:
It takes nothing away from the great victory at Vimy to say that the Canadian stand at Ypres was itself the crucible of nationhood. The thousands of Canadians who began to mourn when they spotted a father’s, brother’s, son’s or friend’s name among the long columns of dead did not concern themselves with the niceties of the Dominion’s constitutional status; the dead had died for “King and Country,” and…the “country” that bled was Canada.”273
While the reality of what war was like in the trenches “was a shock to many
Canadians who thought war would be more glamorous, it nevertheless gave them confidence that they too could play a role in the struggle.”274 In effect, “the sense
of direct, personal loss engendered by the horrendous Canadian
casualties…during the spring and summer of 1915 altered the focus of the
English-Canadian patriotic perspective,” as it cemented the notion that it was now their war to fight and win.275 This new sense of immediacy that emerged
following the battles in the spring of 1915276 therefore ensured that there was no
shortage of support in cities like Toronto, as the “glory and blood of its soldiers
and the grief and tears of its citizens” cemented the justness of the cause for many
Canadians.277
272 Pitsula, For All We Have and Are, 64. 273 Greenfield, Baptism of Fire: The Second Battle of Ypres and the Forging of Canada, 24. 274 Cook, No Place to Run, 12. 275 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 149. 276 James Wood, Militia Myths: Ideas of the Canadian Citizen Soldier, 1896-1921 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2010), 225. 277 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 70. 89
The stark realization that the demands of the war would be extensive and would require Canadians to become active participants in the fight motivated many Canadians to do their part to rally everyone to the fight. Edward Miller was one such individual who endeavoured to capture the new demands of the war effort in his recruiting song from 1915, Canada, Fall In!:
It isn’t enough to read the daily papers,/ It isn’t enough to talk about the war,/ It isn’t enough to say that Britain’s going to win the day,/ Or spout about the cause we’re fighting for/ It’s something more than talk today that’s needed,/ It’s something more than cheering for the flag;/ Above the battle’s din,/ Old England cries, “Fall in!”/ And Canada must never, never lag;/ And rising clear and high,/ Comes Canada’s reply./We’ve laid down the hammer and picked up the gun/ Put down the saw for the sword,/ Britons world over we are fighting the Hun,/ See where their blood is outpoured;/ Close up the ledger and put down the pen/ Hark to the trumpet call!/ Britain is fighting for freedom, men,/ And Britain needs us all./278
Miller’s song epitomized the changing nature of the war effort, as it became clear
to Canadians that more needed to be done. Indeed, Canada, Fall In! is a stirring call for Canadians to abandon their previous vocations and initial efforts in support of the war for a more aggressive and active approach that produced physical results. As the song is written with an indicated tempo of marziale, or march tempo, the music itself represents the need for soldiers through the driving beat of the score. Moreover, the piano accompaniment is a series of fast, full chords designed to match the powerful message of the lyrics in order to increase the emotional impact of the song. Perhaps especially indicative of songs
278 Edward W. Miller, Canada, Fall In! (Toronto: The Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers’ Association, 1915), the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 90
from 1915, is the onus placed on individuals to volunteer their services. Indeed, as
Gordon Thompson’s song Do Your Bit demonstrated, “If you’re a man that can join the fight/” then it was your duty to “Come do your bit for the cause that is right.”279 However, the repetition of “it isn’t enough,” “we,” and “us” in Miller’s
song alludes to an inclusivity in the fight by fostering a personal realization that
each individual who heard the song could be doing more for the war effort.
In keeping with the tradition of laissez-faire liberalism of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century, individual efforts were central to the
organization of an armed force destined for the fields of France. In 1914,
voluntary recruitment depended on local networks of civilians who desired to
support the war effort and to transpose the vast recruitment efforts of the
Minister of Militia, Sam Hughes, into civic demonstrations and endorsements of
the cause.280 Notions of responsibility were incredibly important in the early years of the war, as many Canadians believed that honour was the product of
military service and a fundamental aspect of being a responsible citizen.281 In
order to foster support for the war effort in the early years, ordinary citizens
assumed the role of organizers in both recruitment and in patriotic organizations.
Civilian recruiting associations emerged throughout Canada from 1914-1916 that
were influenced by “local military authorities” who wanted to fulfill the
“manpower commitment to the war effort” by enlisting “prominent civilians”
279 Gordon V. Thompson, Do Your Bit (Toronto: Thompson Publishing Company, 1915), http://wartimecanada.ca/sites/default/files/documents/Do%20your%20bit.pdf (accessed 15 November 2015). 280 Robert Rutherdale, Hometown Horizons: Local Responses to Canada’s Great War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004), 47-48. 281 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 15-20, 28. 91
capable of fostering large networks of support for the cause.282 Moreover, as
“enlistment and recruiting were local phenomena,” many composers aimed to
draw attention to the efforts of recruiting officers who worked to “ensure that
local men recognized their duty and went willingly to the front.”283 One example
of an individual who recruited his own Battalion was Lieutenant-Colonel Adam
Weir, the original commanding officer of the 160th Bruce Battalion.284 Composer
Muriel Farrell dedicated her song, Here’s to the Boys of the 1-6-0 to Weir in 1916,
as he recruited a battalion of 1,153 men from Bruce County, Ontario.285 This dedication was indicative of the popular trend of offering specific recognition to individual units to invigorate the war effort further through displays of local pride.286 This emphasis on local pride is especially apparent in Farrell’s
description of the 1-6-0’s pluck and resolve on the battlefield:
So here’s to the boys of the One-Six-O./ Cheer them on for they’re soon to go,/ To lick the Kaiser and fight like sin,/ And they won’t let up till they get to Berlin…They will fight and do what’s right/ For the land they love,/ And when they meet the foe,/ Three cheers for the ‘One-Six-O’ (Hurry up, hurry up, and join them).287
282 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 151- 152. 283 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 67. 284 Bruce County Military Museum, “Col. Weir OC 160th Bruce Battalion,” http://military.brucemuseum.ca/v/worldwar1/photos/Tara+Legion/A2009_202_053+- +Military+-++Post+Card+-+front+- +Col_+Weir+OC+160th+Bruce+Battalion.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1 (accessed 12 April 2015). 285 Bruce County Military Museum, “Lt. Col. Adam Weir” http://military.brucemuseum.ca/hpage_adamweir.php (accessed 12 April 2012). 286 Barbara Norman, Music on the Home Front: Canadian Sheet Music During the First World War, last modified March 29, 2001, https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sheetmusic/028008- 3300-e.html (accessed 16 April 2012). 287 Muriel Farrell, Here’s to the Boys of the 1-6-0 (Toronto and Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce & Co., 1916) Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 17577150, MUSCAN – A – 86-14. 92
Depictions of local people and places in songs such as Farrell’s was an effective recruitment tool, as it fostered a sense of community and connection to the broader national war effort. However, other appeals to local experiences were also required.
Composers aimed to do their part for the recruitment effort by utilizing memory, emotional imagery, and persuasive rhetoric to incite young men to join the colours. As Canadians had entered the war as citizen-soldiers, they were able to champion their militaristic triumph over their foe because their task was not one of permanence, but of necessity for the pursuit of justice. Composers utilized language indicative of a sense of unity in arms and camaraderie to foster masculine support for military service and to garner support on the home front.
No clearer can this be seen than through both the cover illustration and lyrics of
T. Pritchard and Jules Brazil’s The Call:
Don't you hear the bugle calling/ Calling for good men and true/ To take up their stand for freedom,/ That call is meant for you/ Some boyhood chum has fallen/ And as he stricken lies/ He appeals to you to take his place in the glorious enterprise…. Don't you mind my lads how promptly,/ You join'd in their games of yore,/ Don't let them call you slacker,/ In the sterner game of war/ And if in nobly striving/ The brave sacrifice you pay/ Your chums will proudly tell the world that you died the British way.288
While the cover conveyed a fallen soldier resting peacefully in a comrade’s arms,
it also depicts the remaining soldier in a vulnerable position by staying with his
fallen friend. The literal imagery of the illustration therefore depicts the need for
288 T. Pritchard and Jules Brazil, The Call (Goderich: Independent Publishing Co., 1914-1918), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 16789497 MUSCAN – A – 475-12. 93
other “pals” back home to answer The Call in order to help avenge the young man’s life and to help relieve the burden of his friend.289
289 T. Pritchard and Jules Brazil, The Call (Goderich: Independent Publishing Co., 1914-1918), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 16789497 MUSCAN – A – 475-12. http://www.nlc- bnc.ca/obj-m1-f1/csm1143-s2.jpg (accessed 12 November 2015). 94
Fig. 4: T. Pritchard and Jules Brazil, The Call (Goderich: Independent Publishing Co., N.D.), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 16789497 MUSCAN – A – 475-12.
95
In addition to the importance of loyalty and group pride, peer pressure also encouraged enlistments to join up. As Ian Beckett noted, the influence of
“social inheritance” significantly contributed to enlistment because of the sense of duty men felt towards the actions of their peers.290 For example, Edward W.
Miller’s 1915 tune, Canada, Fall In!, reminisces about childhood friendships in order to entice prospective soldiers to join the fight:
The friend who used to beat you playing tennis,/ The pal who pitch’d to victory your “nine”,/ They both were glad to go and do their “bit” against the foe,/ They’re both together on the firing line/ And now the need for men is growing sterner,/ And why should you be absent from their side?291
While Beckett wrote about the British experience, this concept of an individual
joining up because their friends had done so was very prominent amongst
Canadians. This sense of connection to one’s peers and sense of duty to one’s
country illustrated the notions of “acceptable masculinity” that dictated a man’s
duty in 1915. As Amy Shaw noted, “the popular idea that manhood equalled the
ability to fight for one’s country” was ubiquitous in the public and private
spheres, as “most Canadians viewed participation in the First World War as a national duty.”292 Many composers invoked this social responsibility in their
appeals for recruits, by proclaiming that: “You must face the question and must
face it like a man: ‘Is the bit I’m doing just the biggest bit I can?’/ Let your
manhood answer/ ‘Tis no time to play/ Freedom’s cause is threatened and you
290 Ian Beckett, “The British Army, 1914-18: The Illusion of Change,” in J. Turner (ed), Britain and the First World War (Unwin Hyman, London: 1988), 99-116, 104. 291 Miller, Canada, Fall In!. 292 Amy Shaw, Crisis of Conscience: Conscientious Objection in Canada during the First World War (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009), 120, 126. 96
must do your bit today.”293 However, some composers also took the rhetoric further and inflicted guilt on those who had not yet joined the colours by
incorporating the pride of one’s family.
Harry Taylor’s song We’ll Love You More When You Come Back than
When You Went Away, “Dedicated to the Brave Defenders of the British Empire,”
is an especially poignant example of the popular belief that military service was a
man’s civic, national, and imperial duty.294 Inherent in the language of both the
title and the lyrics of the song is the message that men must serve their country in
order to make their families proud:
We’ll love you more when you come back then when you went away./ The Empire owes you more than R. V. C’s can ere repay,/ When thro’ your old home town you march/ From ship or trench of clay,/ We’ll love you more when you come back then when you went away./295
The cover illustration is particularly telling of the tide of enthusiasm in 1915, as it
illustrates a soldier in his fatigues standing with his mother, wife, and child. The
mother is fixing his uniform, while his wife is standing dutifully by his side. The soldier looks nervously into his mother’s eyes, while she smiles at him and gestures through her pride that it is his duty to fight. Meanwhile, the soldier’s young son, dressed in fatigues, is examining his father’s gun. This image in particular represents how deeply entrenched militarism was in Canadian society
293 Thompson, Do Your Bit. 294 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 38 295 Harry Taylor, We’ll Love You More When You Come Back Than When You Went Away (Toronto: A. Cox, 1915), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23107181. 97
by 1915, as children represented the future generation of soldiers.296 Indeed, the
son’s clothing and interest in the gun further reflects Shaw’s argument that “the
war simplified the transition from youth to manhood” as to be a soldier clearly
meant to be a man.297 Thus, Taylor’s production of this song ultimately
demonstrates the familial pressure put on every able bodied man in Canada to go
willingly to the Front in 1915.
296 Harry Taylor, We’ll Love You More When You Come Back than When You Went Away (Toronto: A. Cox, 1915). Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23107181, http://www.nlc- bnc.ca/obj-m1-f1/csm08071-s2.jpg (accessed 12 April 2015). 297 Shaw, Crisis of Conscience, 126. 98
Fig. 5: Harry Taylor, We’ll Love You More When You Come Back than When You Went Away (Toronto: A. Cox, 1915). Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23107181.
99
While these emotional appeals to a soldier’s humanity were productive recruitment tools, many composers also aptly realized that not every man of military age was fit for active service. In effect, many songs from 1915 showcased other initiatives that would benefit the war effort to ensure that “Canada’s sons who can’t man your guns,/ Will take care of the dear ones left behind.”298 Indeed, as J. Ross’s plea for Canadians to Fight or Pay outlines, anyone left at home had an obligation to do all that they could for the war, so as to offset the ultimate sacrifice of the soldiers overseas:
In their comfortable dugouts they lie, Those heroes we all love so well; Eager to live yet willing to die – for us they are going through hell. Our surroundings are cozy and nice, We are shielded from all harm and care; But we can’t realize what a price They are paying for us over there. Each is the son of some mother, Each knew the love of a friend Who cheered them away; they expect us today To cheer them right through the end. Is each of us doing his bit? Are we cheering them still on their way? For they need all the help they can get: If you can’t fight – for God’s sake, pay.299
Historian George Mosse noted that such rhetoric was essential to the
mobilization of public opinion because it conveyed that all of “those who fought
for the national cause were exemplary of the national spirit.”300 Indeed, by
emphasising a unity in the struggle, composers implored individuals on the home
front to do more for the war effort:
When a foreign foeman threatens/ Our Empire owns one flag,/ We’ll stand by you, steady, staunch, and true, not a son behind
298 Burt Dayton, Canada’s Sons (Who Can’t) Man Your Guns (Hamilton: Encore Publishing Co., 1915), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 17131579 MUSCAN – A – 71-3. 299 J. Ross, “Fight or Pay,” Glenbow Museum Library and Archives, Calgary, Alberta, “World War, 1914-1918, Posters, recruiting, propaganda, etc.” 300 George L. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 21-22. 100
will drag/ And our brothers who are fighting/ Are content and bear in mind,/ That Canada’s sons who can’t man your guns,/ Will take care of the dear ones left behind.”301
In effect, many songs begin to exemplify other ways in which Canadians could help the war effort: “So let us be up and doing,/ yes doing our bit alone,/ for we can knit socks for our soldier boys and keep the fires burning at home.”302
However, other songs were more specific in their demands, such as those that clamoured for monetary support:
Fight or Pay/ Fight or Pay,/ It’s up to you, to do one of the two/ If you want to win the day./ Your King and your Country need you/ But if at home you are forced to stay,/ Do the best you can, to get every man/ To “Fight or Pay.303
As Fight or Pay was “dedicated to the Canadian Patriotic Fund,” the song was
designed raise money for the organization that “offered the first opportunity for
Canadians, and particularly middle-class English Canadians, to demonstrate the
strength of their patriotic fervour.”304 The campaign was ultimately successful, as
many people answered these calls for support and demonstrated “their determination to win throughout the war…by donating money to the cause.”305
While these donations supported wives, children, and soldiers’ dependants, it also further demonstrates the voluntary spirit of the age.
R. Matthew Bray believes that the successful efforts of these volunteers who helped to bolster recruitment in late 1915 “marked a new stage in the
301 Dayton, Canada’s Sons (Who Can’t) Man Your Guns.
302 Farrell, “Here’s to the Boys of the 1-6-0”. 303 W. G. Knights and E. G. Woodrow, Fight or Pay (Calgary: W. G. Knights, 1915), Glenbow Library and Archives, File 13, “Sheet Music – Western, World War I, 1915-1919.” 304 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 145. 305 Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War, 207. 101
English-Canadian patriotic response to the Great War,” as it highlights the growing sense of self-determination in the war effort on the home front.306
Indeed, when combined with the growing realization that the war would be long and costly, Anglo-Canadians started to believe that they were fighting for themselves as an entity, rather than strictly as a colony of Great Britain.307 Many songs therefore emerged that championed the efforts of Canadians and glorified
Canada as place, such as The Lads of the Land of the Maple Leaf by Gwen
Roberts-Mcvity:
And they’re the lads of the land of the Maple leaf/ Who have sailed far across the foam/ And they will fight to the last in the firm belief,/ That they’re fighting for God and home/ And in our dreams we’ll see them marching, marching, with hearts and purpose true/ Oh! noble lads of our King and our maple leaf,/ Our pride and love all for you.308
Likewise, Irene Humble also outlined the pride soldiers took in their home
country in her song We’re From Canada:
“We’re from Canada, we’re from Canada,/ A land beyond compare,/ Where the sun shines bright and the stars at night,/ Look down on our fields so fair/ On to victory, on to victory,/ We will help to fight the foe,/ And the Maple Leaf is our Emblem dear,/ As marching on we go.309
However, while these songs demonstrate the importance of associating Canada
with its landscape in order to foster a sense of nationalism, the utilization of
other images in songs also helped to bring the war home for Canadians.
306 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,”153. 307 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” 153. 308 Gwen Roberts-McVity, The Lads of the Land of the Maple Leaf (Toronto: The Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers’ Assocaition, Limited, 1917), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 22623001, MUSCAN – A – 242-32. 309 Irene Humble, We’re From Canada (Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce & Co., 1915), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 20136375, MUSCAN – A – 138-9. 102
Composers endeavoured to manage morale over the war came by incorporating children into popular culture. Historian Susan Fisher demonstrates that the use of children was especially poignant, as
The injuries and suffering of child war victims in Europe, both real and symbolic, threw into relief the precious value of children at home in Canada. The Canadian child, intact and healthy, symbolized everything that was worth defending.310
Indeed, as Kristine Alexander demonstrates, composers incorporated illustrations and the viewpoints of young girls in their lyrics in order to “pressure and inspire soldiers and civilians alike.” This tactic was especially successful, as the “representations of these girls as innocent and dutiful daughters who were worth fighting for” became “ubiquitous throughout the war.”311 This purported
image of innocence ensured that children “sanitize[d] the war effort,” as they
represented the future through their roles as “the inheritors of the post-war
world.”312 For Canadians, this was especially important during the First World
War, as “this view of children as the future was closely linked to the national self- image as a young country about to emerge into glorious maturity and prosperity.”313 However, while children brought an emotional dimension to
popular music in songs such as Morris Manley’s I Want My Daddy and
effectively helped to lend “their innocence to the war,”314 the incorporation of
310 Susan R. Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land: English-Canadian and the First World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), 10. 311 Kristine Alexander, “An Honour and a Burden: Canadian Girls and the Great War,” in A Sisterhood of Suffering and Sacrifice: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War, Eds. Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012), 175. 312 Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land, 11. 313 Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land, 11. 314 Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land, 10. 103
motherhood in the popular discourse of the day began to better encapsulate the burgeoning sense of Canadian identify that came with the lengthy lists of the dead.315
Lynn Kennedy demonstrates that in the years prior to the Great War,
“motherhood…had been deemed the fundamental role of Canadian women.”316
As the “nurturing role” enacted by mothers fostered the “moral character of the nation,” it was believed that a mother’s role was to nurture Canada’s citizens and create “soldiers willing to defend their country.”317 This was especially important,
as Canada was viewed as “an infant or a child” in the imperial family. While the country showed “future promise,” its national identity “had not [yet] been fully formed” by 1914.318 In effect, the “imagery of the imperial mother-child relationship” remained popular throughout the war, as “many Canadians continued to see their service in the war as part” of their imperial duty.”319 In effect, Canadian composers utilized the motherhood motif in the first few years of the war to illustrate how so many individuals viewed Great Britain as a mother calling her child to war to defend her land and her honour. Some of these songs include England’s Daughter and A Scrap of Paper (1914), The Call of the
Motherland (1914), She’s A Dear Old Lady (1915), “Our Empire” Boys (1915), and
They Heard the Call of the Motherland (1916). However, while loyalty to the
315 Lynn Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man” The motherhood Motif in Poetry of the First World War,’ in A Sisterhood of Suffering and Sacrifice: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War, Eds. Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012), 275, 278. 316 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,”270. 317 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,”271. 318 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 274. 319 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,”277. 104
British Empire had led so many Canadians to war in 1914, “the nurturing influence of Canadian mothers provided the symbolic strength of the nation” as the war went on. In effect, the “sacrifices of real Canadian mothers began to supplant references to the imperial mother” in popular music, as the sacrifice made by so many women demonstrated that they were “not merely standing by the war effort but [were] taking an active role of their own.”320 Indeed, as will be
seen, mothers take on a much more personal and direct role in music produced
from 1916 onwards, as composers recognized the vital role that their image could play in recruitment.
In Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs, historian Suzanne Evans explores how Canadian propagandists appealed to women during the war to try to bolster recruitment numbers. As “recruitment calls began to fail” by 1916,
“propaganda departments” launched poster campaigns that “bluntly used women in general to entice, shame, and cajole men to enlist.” Mothers and sweethearts
were the focus of these posters, as they had the power to inflict guilt or lovingly
coax their men to join the colours through their personal connection with the
prospective soldiers.321 Likewise, Canadian composers understood this
connection, and therefore incorporated the viewpoint of mothers and women into
their popular songs.322 For example,
320 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 278. 321 Suzanne Evans, Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs: World War I and the Politics of Grief (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007), 79. 322 Barbara Norman, Music on the Home Front: Canadian Sheet Music during the First World War, 2001. 105
It’s easy for us women/ To stay at home and shout,/ But remember, there’s a duty/ To the men who first went out./ The odds against that handful/ Were nearly four to one,/ And we cannot rest until/ It’s man for man, and gun for gun!/ And ev’ry woman’s duty/ Is to see that duty done!323
In addition to songs that took the viewpoint of mothers, other songs expressed
the importance of men signing up because girls could not legally share the
burden: “Say, boys, your sisters would answer the call,/ But the law won’t allow
it, so you go, one and all.”324 Lindsay E. Perrin’s song is especially indicative of
this trend, as the chorus demonstrates that girls want to be soldiers just like their
male counterparts: “Give her a nice hat with feathers/ A jacket and dress of blue/
And she’ll carry a gun good as any mother’s son/ And she’ll make a good soldier
too.”325 Perrin’s song, while lacking any dynamic markings beyond the last
system of the chorus, is an impassioned song composed by a woman likely
frustrated with her lack of ability to join the colours and fight overseas. However,
the explicit reference to the ability of a girl to behave like a solider is significant
because of the notations Perrin included in the score. Indeed, over the emotional
line “and she’ll carry a gun good as any mother’s son” Perrin included a dramatic
rallentando, or gradual slowing, followed by the a tempo answer: “and she’ll
make a good soldier too.” This deliberate emphasis on the “soldier-mother”326
323 Paul A. Rubens, Your King & Country Want You (Toronto: Chappell & Co. Ltd., 1914), http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibits/worldwar_lyrics#78 (accessed 13 November 2015). 324 E. Cottington, Come! Boys! Come! (Vancouver: Western Specialty Limited, Music Printers, 1917), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 17074747 MUSCAN – A – 63-17. 325Lindsay E. Perrin, Why Can’t A Girl Be A Soldier? (Goderich, ON: Independent Publishing Co., n.d.) “Sheet Music,” the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 326 Jonathan F. Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 150. 106
relationship demonstrates how pervasive the motherhood motif was in popular culture, as it reflects the belief that mothers fostered good, upstanding citizens and helps to demonstrate why women were so successful in their recruitment efforts.
The incorporation and utilization of motherhood in the Canadian recruitment campaign demonstrated “the changing symbolism” occurring in the country, as “the use of motherhood metaphors suggests an emerging emphasis on
Canadian independence and self-reliance.”327 This change was significant for
Canadians, as “the evocation of the sacrifices of its citizenry provided a symbolic
representation of Canada’s ‘coming of age.’”328 By 1916 and 1917, this realization
was incredibly important to the war effort, as most Canadians “had to come to
understand the struggle as a battle between good and evil that would require
great national sacrifice.”329 In effect, the “ultimate sacrifice” made by mothers
ultimately highlighted the fervent resolve of Canadians to win the war at all costs,
as their willingness to lose their sons in battle demonstrated their staunch
commitment to the war effort.330 As the popular song Sacrifice demonstrates,
mothers were aware of the sacrifice they made:
Somewhere in France! A dear Mother said,/ My boy is leading his hundred men/ She bravely smiled, tho’ the gath’ring tear, told of her anguish/ Her longing, her fear./ But she willing made the great sacrifice,/ Only she knows at what a price./ Gave of her best
327 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 270. 328 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 278. 329 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 283. 330 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 280, 286. 107
for her country’s good,/ Her bright happy lad in his young manhood.331
Indeed, as Ian Miller noted, the willingness of Canadian women and mothers to
see their men off to war ensured that women “became ardent supporters of the
war effort.”332 For, to falter in one’s resolve to see the war through to the end
would have dishonored the soldiers who had gone before and fallen. In effect,
“the war effort [for these women] meant keeping faith with those men who had
already sacrificed their lives and supporting the men still at the front.”333 A closer investigation into what other approaches composers took to counteract a growing sense of despair amongst women is required.
In popular appeals to bolster the morale of women whose loved ones were serving overseas, composers gave “the figure of the soldier…the central and activist role” in many popular songs.334 In songs specifically directed to wives and
lovers, many composers acknowledged the grief these women experienced, but
implored them to keep their spirits up:
Sweetheart now don’t be grieving although I’ll soon be leaving/ I’ll return again to you with a love that’s fond and true,/ Don’t let your heart grow lonely,/ Though dark may seem each day,/ Dry your eyes for cheers, dear, are braver than tears, dear,/ When you see me march away.335
331 Lillian Lundy Green, Sacrifice (Toronto and Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce & Co., 1918), http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibits/worldwar_lyrics (accessed 13 December 2015). 332 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 127. 333 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 127. 334 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 283. 335 Sam Marks and Kennith McInnis, Kiss Your Soldier Boy Goodbye (Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association, Ltd., 1916), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 22127886 MUSCAN – A- 198-17. 108
Other songs demonstrated that the soldiers themselves do not want to leave their sweethearts, but know that it is their duty to go:
I feel as sad as any/ I’m only one of many/ With a duty brave to do for my country dear and you,/ It’s the same love and glory,/ Fought for in days of yore,/ My comrades are falling I can hear them calling,/ So kiss me good bye once more.336
The utilization of the soldier’s perspective in music was also important for music
directed towards mothers, as it helped to acknowledge that their efforts had
successfully roused “the soldier’s patriotism.”337 Bertie Aikin Green demonstrated this approach in his song from 1918:
There’s nobody just like my mother/ How well I remember the day/ Her voice was so loving and tender/ As she said so you’re going away/….There’s nobody just like my mother/ Her likeness is not in another/ Even now I can hear her say “be of good cheer”/ Oh! How well I remember my mother.338
Popular composer Morris Manley also wrote songs from the viewpoint of the
soldiers: “Good-bye, mother dear,/ It is time for us to part/ My King and Country
call me now/ Don’t grieve for me, dear heart/ And when the cannons roar/ God
bless you do not fear/…Goodbye mother dear.”339 This approach was successful
because it acknowledged the sacrifices mothers and wives made by seeing their
men off to war. Indeed, as many mothers grappled with the absence of their boys,
music offered an outlet for their longing by letting them know that their sons
knew it was the right course of action:
336 Marks and McInnis, Kiss Your Soldier Boy Goodbye. 337 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 283. 338 Bertie Aikin Green, There’s Nobody Just Like My Mother (Hamilton: Mrs. David Green, 1918), http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibits/worldwar_lyrics (accessed 13 December 2015). 339 Morris Manley, Goodbye Mother Dear (Toronto: Morris Manley, 1916) Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 22129133, MUSCAN – A – 191-9. 109
He wrote a letter from the Front/ Which read ‘Don’t worry dear/ We’ll save the flag we love so well/ Now mother have good cheer’/ His photograph up on the wall,/ She looks at it each day,/ And then her thoughts turn back again,/ To when he went away.340
However, while many women endeavored to remain steadfast and strong in light of seeing their loved ones off to war, they desperately needed an emotional outlet to help them keep faith and hope that they would see their boys again one day.
Hope became a driving force in popular culture and daily rhetoric during the latter years of the war, as it helped assuage people’s anxieties over the fate of their loved ones overseas. For example, a mother named Mrs. Lamb from
Manitoba wrote many letters to her son, George Lamb, who was serving in the
188th Battalion in France with the Motor Machine Gun Brigade.341 On 24 August
1917, Mrs. Lamb wrote to her son George from Plumas, Manitoba. In her letter, she said, “It is quite a while since we heard from you, and I have been thinking a great deal about you lately, as I feel sure you took part in the Hill 70 battle, I see in the papers the Canadians won golden laurels for their bravery and undaunted courage, it must have been terrible battle.”342 However, despite her fears that her son had taken part in the Canadian offensive [15-25 August 1917], Mrs. Lamb describes how many Canadians continued to persevere on the home front:
340 Manley, Goodbye Mother Dear. 341 “George Lamb Fonds,” Glenbow Library and Archives, M-9235, PA-3756, http://ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesMainResults.aspx?XC=/search/archivesMainResults.as px&TN=MAINCAT&AC=QBE_QUERY&RF=WebResults&DL=0&RL=0&NP=255&%0AMF=WP EngMsg.ini&MR=5&QB0=AND&QF0=Main%20entry+%7C+Title&QI0=George+Lamb+%20fon ds (accessed 10 November 2014). 342 Mother to George Lamb, August 24, 1917, Plumas, MB. Glenbow Museum Library and Archives, Calgary, Alberta, M-9235-5, George Lamb’s First World War Letters. 110
Have just come over from the Red Cross rooms where I was making buttonholes for pyjamas, shirts, etc. They are hurrying to get this shipment off. Word came yesterday that James Ripley was wounded in the ankle not seriously however…It makes so conscious [sic] George all the time, but we must try to be cheerful and hope for the best.343
As seen through George Lamb’s mother, the thought of her son overseas fighting causes severe despair. However, she also acknowledges that she needs to maintain hope and takes up “the work of the home front [as]…a means of escaping some of the worry” that came with her son fighting overseas.344
Likewise, many women such as eighty-four year old Mrs. Roome of North Bay,
Ontario spent “nearly all of…[their]…waking hours… knitting socks for the boys at the Front.”345 While many other women shared this sentiment that war work
was a good distraction, and therefore entered “the public sphere to push men to
do their duty,”346 the progression of the war through 1917 ultimately demanded a
more powerful emotional outlet.
In order to try to bolster the spirits of Canadians who required a positive
spin on the growing war of attrition, many composers created music that
presented the war in an uplifting manner. One approach that many composers
took was to produce lighthearted songs that aimed to demonstrate that the
soldiers overseas were resolved to fight for “Home Sweet Home.” Indeed, without
343 Mother to George Lamb, August 28, 1917, Plumas, MB. Glenbow Museum Library and Archives, Calgary, Alberta, M-9235-5, George Lamb’s First World War Letters. 344 Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man,” 281. 345 “Charming Girls More Than Eighty Years Young: The Belles of Half a Century Ago,” in Everywoman’s World (Toronto: Continental Publishing Co., Limited, June 1917), Vol. 7, No. 6, p. 3. http://eco.canadiana.ca.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/view/oocihm.8_06802_54 accessed on 5/6/2014. 346 Miller, Our Glory and Our Grief, 128. 111
offering any insight into the war itself, the trite lyrics of Captain Joe Lawson and
Gordon V. Thompson’s song proclaimed “We are fighting day and night/ For the vict’ry of the right,/ For the day we’ll see our home sweet home once more!”347
Like many of Thompson’s other songs, Home Sweet Home for you We’re
Fighting! gave performers and listeners a sense of connection to their men overseas by taking on the viewpoint of the soldiers longing for home. This approach would have been very successful in 1916, as many Canadians longed to know how their loved ones were doing in light of the increasing toll of the brutal war. Likewise, Grace Thomas-Wallace’s song Are We Beat? No Sir! exemplifies the resolve of Canadians to continue the fight. The score has an indicated tempo of tempo marziale, or march tempo, in order to replicate the persistent emphasis on maintaining support for the war expressed in Anglo-Canadian society.
Thomas-Wallace also includes a notation for performers to play the song very loudly (fortissimo) and “with spirit”348 in order to drive home the message of her song that the boys are not yet beaten. Indeed, as her chorus explains, the boys
about to go over the top shout “Are we beat?” “No Sir!”/ We’re not down hearted
yet/ We are bound to win “you bet!” The chorus concludes with the indicated
tempo change to allargando, or a general slowing of tempo in order to “develop a
347 Captain Joe Lawson and Gordon V. Thompson, Home Sweet Home for you We’re Fighting!” (Toronto: Thompson Publishing Co., 1916), “Sheet Music,” the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 348 Grace Thomas-Wallace, Are We Beat? No Sir! (Toronto: The Anglo-Canadian Muisc Publishers Association Ltd., 1916), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23095714 MUSCAN – A – 281-20. 112
fuller and more majestic performing style,”349 over the lyrics: “For the Empire’s
glorious fame/ And our dear Dominion’s name are safe with you Lord
Kitchener.”350 In effect, her song offers the steadfast message that the boys
overseas are still proudly defending their country and Great Britain in a cheery
and uplifting manner, while concluding with an emphasis on the majesty of the cause as seen through her inclusion of the allargando notation. However, while cheery songs were successful at fending off disillusionment, Canadians also turned to other outlets for solace.
As the war progressed and Canadians became aware of the fate of their loved ones overseas, they required another form of support and instruction outside of patriotic activities. Canadian churches offered this outlet for many individuals, as their leading members espoused the importance of Canadians venturing into war and maintaining the fight. As historian David Marshall noted, many influential members of Canadian Protestant churches equated Christianity with the fight, and in effect believed that “the war was a religious crusade.”351
However, as Marshall noted, “the war was also thought to be redemptive…[as many] thought that the spirit of sacrifice which it demanded would reform
Canadian society.”352 While many hoped that the war would be redemptive on the
home front, many Canadians still struggled with a sense of “profound
349 David Fallows, "Allargando," Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed March 22, 2015, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/subscriber/article/grove/music/005 92. 350 Thomas-Wallace, Are We Beat? No Sir!. 351 David Marshall, Secularizing the Faith: Canadian Protestant Clergy and the Crisis of Belief, 1850-1940 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992), 158. 352 Marshall, Secularizing the Faith, 159. 113
disillusionment” brought about by the reality of wartime and their changing spiritual needs.353 Jonathan Vance argued that for many “Canadians who reflected upon the relationship of religion to war,” the “slaughters of the Somme and Passchendaele made it increasingly difficult to reconcile the war with a benign, omnipotent Creator.”354 Indeed, many questioned, “How could God be
omnipotent and loving if the war was allowed to drag on? Why were the innocent
allowed to suffer?”355 While many were struggling to understand if the events of
the war were part of God’s plan, prominent churchmen saw the solution to this problem through “a return to the very root of the faith, Jesus himself.”356 In
effect, many began to emphasize
Christ’s journey through suffering and sacrifice to redemption and salvation, [so that] the tragedy of Flanders could be explicated. Just as Jesus had given his life so humanity could survive, so too did the soldiers offer their lives for humanity. In this theology, each death was an atonement, each wound a demonstration of God’s love, and each soldier a fellow sufferer with Christ.357
The popularity and reception of this brand of preaching is notable, as Canadians
never renounced the humility and innocence of the soldiers over the course of the
war. The equation of Christ with Canada’s youth ultimately served as an outlet
many needed to help them keep faith with those who died. However, in order to
understand how this spiritual comfort affected Canadians, a further examination
of how prayer manifested itself in popular culture is necessary.
353 Marshall, Secularizing the Faith, 160, 162. 354 Vance, Death So Noble, 36. 355 Marshall, Secularizing the Faith, 162. 356 Vance, Death So Noble, 36. 357 Vance, Death So Noble, 36. 114
Prior to the transition in the understanding of the war from a great adventure to a great crusade,358 many songs that invoked references to God did
so with the intent of calling for the protection of the King. Indeed, “God save our
gracious King”359 was ubiquitous in early songs, indicating that many songs
reflected the imperialistic and militaristic rhetoric of the age. However, after
news of the war began to hit home in 1915, the messages of the songs began to
change in support of God protecting Canadian soldiers and their loved ones,
rather than specific calls to the salvation of the Empire. Indeed, composers began
to utilize language indicative of a shift in what factors were now offering comfort
to performers and listeners alike. While patriotism and support for the cause
remained prominent in most songs, references to the spiritual comfort awarded
by praying for a loved one’s safety and for their salvation began to emerge in
earnest by 1916. For example, God Bless Our Empire (1916), God Send You Back
to Me (1916), and I Pray that You’ll Come Back (1917) all offered a different
outlet for comfort from the reality of the war.
Indeed, the power of prayer for many Canadians during the war is
especially apparent in music, as the andante, or slow and moderate song, For
Those in Peril Over-Seas. A Prayer (1916) demonstrates. Famous arranger and
composer Jules Brazil echoed the importance of equating Christ’s sacrifice with
that of Allied soldiers in his lyrics: “Jesus, Son of God,/ Who was for sinners slain,/ Died upon the cross,/ That we be sav’d again./ And now we fight for
358 Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief, 38. 359 Morris Manley, Good Luck to the Boys of the Allies (Toronto: Morris Manley, 1915), Glenbow Museum Library and Archives, Patriotic Sheet Music Collection, File 27. 115
liberty,/ O grant eternal peace,/ O God of mercy, pity those,/ In peril overseas.”360 Likewise, Brazil’s song also demonstrates how Canadians sought
refuge from their anxieties in Christian spirituality: “God! A call has come,/ Our
country is at war,/ Patriots must go,/ To fight in lands afar./ We’ve sent our sons
in glory’s name,/ Our hearts will rest at ease,/ If Thou, O Lord, will watch o’er
those,/ In peril overseas.”361 The dramatic impact of calls to God for the safe
return of loved ones is also visible in songs such as Somewhere in France. In the
final verse of the song, the tempo shifts from allegro moderato, or moderately
fast, to a molto rallentando, or a dramatic decrease in tempo, over the line “Pray
God send him back to us,/ From “Somewhere in France.””362 This instructs
performers and listeners to emphasize the call to prayer for sweethearts and
loved ones overseas, and puts the fate of those individuals in the hands of God.
The vague reference to “Somewhere in France” is also effective, as it is applicable
and transferable to any performer or listener who had a loved one fighting in the
war. However, while these songs offered a personal, spiritual outlet for many
individuals, they also fostered a sense of unity through a shared aim of seeing the
soldiers’ safe return.
The shared sense of unity in the struggle was especially important for the
management of morale over the latter years of the war, as it countered growing
360 Jules Brazil and Albert Nordheimer For Those In Peril Over-Seas. A Prayer (Toronto: The Nordheimer Piano & Music Co., Ltd., 1916), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 22148880, MUSCAN – A – 215-3. 361 Brazil and Nordheimer For Those In Peril Over-Seas. 362 Arthur Wiperis and Herbert Ivey, Somewhere in France (Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Ass’n Limited, 1915), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 20214819 MUSCAN – A- 141-16. 116
disillusionment by reaffirming that Canadians were in the fight together.
Historian Jim Blanchard noted in his study on Winnipeg during the war that 1917 was a difficult year, as many Canadians struggled with the realization that there was no end in sight. Many individuals grew disenchanted with the war effort, as the substantial loss of so many loved ones began to take its toll on the public’s morale. The conflict surrounding the “imposition of conscription” further exacerbated this weariness “during [the] winter of 1916-1917, as battles like the
Somme and Vimy Ridge took the lives of thousands of Canadian soldiers.”363 As
“the number of recruits from all parts of the country consistently fell about 5000
short of the number of replacements needed,” Prime Minister Borden’s
government “began to prepare the ground for conscription.”364 However, despite
growing frustrations with the toll of the war, Anglo-Canadians in cities such as
Winnipeg nevertheless remained steadfast in their determination to “keep their
faith in the war effort [by] raising money, declaring their loyalty and doing what
they could to ensure that victory would come.”365 Indeed, Blanchard noted,
“ultra-patriotic” groups such as the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire
(IODE) denigrated those who opposed conscription, as they believed that it
negated the efforts and sacrifices given by so many by 1917. Instead, they adopted
a resolution that “called not only for the conscription of men but also of money,
labour, and service, including the service of women, [so] that all may equally do
363 Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War, 198. 364 Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War, 198. 365 Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War, 189. 117
their duty to their King, country and empire.”366 This assertiveness was the result
of the fact that by 1917, “civilians had a better idea now of what the soldiers were
enduring” overseas, as the lists of casualties had really resonated with
Canadians.367 In effect, Canadians continued to utilize emotional symbols and rhetoric in order to maintain the fight. These measures were an integral force in
the determination so many maintained because of their belief in the cause and
their unfettered resolve to keep up the fight at home
As has been shown, the transition in language used by composers over the course of the war from 1915-1918 demonstrates the growing demand for an emotional outlet championed by many Canadians. The Second Battle of Ypres in
1915 transformed the war for many Canadians, as they became actively aware of
what would be required of them going forward. Moreover, it was a fundamentally
transformative event nationally as Anglo-Canadians realized that their sons were
fighting and dying as Canadians, not just as children of the British Empire. As
Nathan Greenfield noted, “the men already overseas and the hundreds of
thousands who were to follow were part of a collective Canadian enterprise.”
While they were part of the British Empire and the British Expeditionary Force,
they fought as Canadians. As such, the “triumphs and tragedies they enjoyed and
endured were also enjoyed and endured by men and women who lived proudly in
the Dominion of Canada.”368 This collective experience was significant for those
on the home front, as it awarded them an intimate connection with their loved
366 Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War, 199. 367 Blanchard, Winnipeg’s Great War, 189. 368 Greenfield, Baptism of Fire, 354. 118
ones who sacrificed their lives for their freedom. It is no wonder, then, that the popular rhetoric of the day changed to reflect a stronger and more independent
Canadian voice in popular outlets like music, as the experience of the war served to unite Anglo-Canadians through their experiences.
119
Chapter Four: At War’s End, 1918-1919
“Canada should be proud of the boys who fell,/ To keep the flag on high./ By the sign of the cross, we know the loss,/ Of one who went to die./ On the fields where poppies grow,/ They won immortal fame./ Their memories shall never fade,/ They made our country’s name.”369
- The Boys We Left Behind (Over There) by Sapper Browning, Pte. Self, Geo A. Yarwood (1919)
Jonathan Vance argued that the way in which Canada mourned the Great
War’s fallen soldiers was the only way it could do so to make their Death So
Noble. By reconstructing the memory and meaning of the First World War, Vance demonstrates the constructed myth of the war effort unified Canadians in the immediate aftermath and interwar years. By paying specific attention to the trials and tribulations of veterans and non-combatants, Vance demonstrates that
Victorian ideals of war permeated Canadian society long after the Great War’s conclusion and in effect served to unify Canadians under the myth of collective sacrifice. The response to this “collective” need was the creation of what Vance calls the unifying “myth” of the war. This myth, he argues, was a system of communication based upon a shared memory that filled the needs of Canadians.
By emphasizing the positive outcomes of the war and the issues that were at stake, this myth ensured that people could feel and believe that the war had been
369 Sapper Browning, Pte. Self, and Geo A. Yarwood, The Boys We Left Behind (Over There) (Toronto: Browning & Self, 1919), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 23300455 MUSCAN – A – 321-11. 120
for something.370 While Canadians understood that the war entailed many
horrors, they were not willing to accept “slanderous” reports recounting events
that robbed the soldiers of their souls, humanity, and purity. In this aspect of the
myth, Vance argues that Canadians believed that soldiers remained inherently
good out of necessity for their own peace of mind, as they could not equate Jesus
Christ’s soldiers with behaviour illustrative of the destructive impact of war on
the human character.371 In effect, Vance noted that by the mid-1930s, Canadians
had no need of an official history of the war, as they had constructed their own
history that emphasized cooperation, unity, and the determination to put the
cause ahead of everything else.372 While this myth served to augment Canadian morale in the post-war years, it also helped Canadians to sustain their beliefs in the justness of the cause from 1914 to 1918. Indeed, as the song The Boys We Left
Behind (Over There) demonstrates, immense pride in the accomplishments of the boys overseas ensured that they would never be forgotten, and the innocence of their sacrifices would never be tarnished. However, the song is also indicative of the broader trend brought about by the willingness to fight and die for their country: their bravery made Canada’s name. Indeed, as has been shown, the birth of English Canada into a more self-aware nation did not come without great sacrifice.
370 Jonathan Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 8-9. 371 Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War, 192. 372 Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War, 172-173. 121
Predicated on the glory of a rural society free from the restraints of regimental militarism that dominated European populations, Canadians answered the call to arms with the understanding that their militaristic role was temporary. In accordance with the romantic symbolism of farmsteads and the wilderness, Canadian soldiers favoured peace and the glory of the Golden
Summer of 1914 over Prussian militarism.373 Such a characterization, Jonathan
Vance argued, “[w]as essential to the development of the myth [of the war]
because it stressed the humanity of the soldier.”374 By downplaying mechanistic
views of the war and emphasizing its humanity, notions of comradeship helped to
bridge this gap. While individuals did in fact sacrifice some of their individual
volition to the hierarchical authority of the armed forces, the spirit of cooperation
amongst “brothers-in-arms” ensured that the human aspect of mechanized
warfare was preserved. As “battles were won by men, not machines” only the citizen-soldier who “had an identity independent of the military structure” could
personify Canada.375 Popular claims that Canadian “Boys of splendid frame,/ Side
by side are fighting,/”376 emphasized Vance’s argument that through a unity in
the struggle, the humanity of war was able to be upheld for those who had been
taught and conditioned that war was a great adventure, rather than pointless mechanized slaughter. In effect, by the end of the war, this emphasis on the
citizen-soldier as the personification of Canada was incredibly important, as it
373 Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War, 136-140. 374 Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War, 141. 375 Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War, 147. 376 Bert and Lester Berry, The Boys Who Fight For Freedom (Winnipeg: Berry Publishing Co., 1917), Glenbow Museum Library and Archives, Calgary, Alberta, “Western, World War I, 1915- 1919” Patriotic Sheet music collection, file 13. 122
ensured that all of the “boys of splendid fame” would be welcomed home with open arms. Homecoming therefore became a central theme of many songs produced in 1918-1919, as Canadians could finally be reunited with their loved ones.
Indeed, from the outbreak of war in 1914, Canadian composers incorporated the image of “home” into many of their songs. Regardless of whether the central message of each song was in support of the Empire, recruitment, family, or the war effort in general, the prospect that “the boys soon will be marching/ On their way to Home Sweet Home”377 was incorporated into
many songs produced over the course of the war. Songs produced in 1918 and
1919 especially focus on homecoming, such as Gordon V. Thompson’s You Are
Welcomed Back At Home Sweet Home (1919). The first verse is especially
indicative of the dichotomy between war and peace, as it literally contrasts the
two between dark and light, respectively: “’Twas a dark dark day/ When you
marched away with your gun up on your shoulder/…But a bright bright day/ Brot
you back our way/ To your mother home and sweetheart neath a sunny sky.”378
This sense of “home” as a safe haven is significant, and it transcends all experiences of the war by offering a glimmering light for the soldiers who wanted to come home and for those who waited for their boys to come back. However, while composers used the imagery of “home” to illustrate the openness waiting
377 G. C. Eckardt, When the Boys Come Marching Home (Winnipeg: G. C. Eckardt, 1918), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 17390830 MUSCAN – A – 81-2. 378 Gordon V. Thompson, You Are Welcomed Back At Home Sweet Home (Toronto: Thompson Publishers, 1919), the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 123
for many, it also demonstrates the larger change in music produced during the war, as the language in many songs changes to reflect the different needs of a post-war world from the families longing for their boys to come home.
Indeed, as has been shown, composers used similar melodies but changed the words they used in their songs over the course of the war. While many songs in the pre-war years applied imperial and national linguistic overtones to popular melodies, the outbreak of war in 1914 saw the re-introduction of martial and upbeat cheering songs from the Boer War years to foster support for recruitment.
Likewise, while the messages of earlier war songs reflect the role Great Britain played in Canadian national identity, the later years of the war ushered in a transition to a more Canadian-centric focus in many songs. As these lyrical transformations all occurred in direct correlation to what was happening in the war, it is no wonder that the lyrics of songs produced in 1919 also reflect the changing context of the times. Indeed, while songs produced in 1915 and 1916 exhorted Canadians to “do their bit” for the boys overseas by purchasing Victory
Bonds, knitting socks, and pressuring loved ones to join the colours, songs from
1919 encouraged Canadians to “do their bit” by welcoming the soldiers back with open arms:
Stand by the boys who stood by you,/ They did their bit, now do yours too,/ Don’t be afraid to let them know,/ That you’re a true friend that you’re not a foe,/ Just make them feel as they reach your shore,/ A welcome waits them at each door, /They saved your country now it’s up to you/ To stand by the boys who stood by you.”379
379 Earl L. Cousins, Stand By the Boys Who Stood By You (Windsor: Cousins & Robertson Music Publishers, 1919) Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 17081484 MUSCAN – A – 64-2. 124
Likewise, the lyrics of Gordon V. Thompson’s You Are Welcome Back At Home
Sweet Home also illustrate how those at home realized it was now their turn to take care of the soldiers who had fought for their freedom: “You have played the game,/ You have made your name and we never can forget you/ We’ll look after you,/ You have fought our fight,/ We must treat you right;/ So we’ll try to make you happy help you start anew!”380 This is significant, as it deviates from the
sense of adventure in earlier songs. Indeed, by 1919, the voices used in many
songs do not glorify the romance of imperial adventure, but rather, focus on the
belief that peace would be permanent, ensuring that “When the Boys come
marching home from Flanders they will never have to go again.”381
As Canadians had “gone to war to protect peace,” they interpreted “every
conceivable aspect of the war…as a symbol of victory” in the post-war years.382
Songs such as Victorious! They’re Coming Back (1919) in particular demonstrates this trend, as the the chorus proclaims generally that “they’ve prov’d they’ve stood the test,/Our Canadian boys sure they’re heroes thro’ and thro’/ They’ve upheld the honor of the old Red White and Blue,/ In dear old
France they prov’d what they could do,/ So victorious they’re coming back.”383
Likewise, other songs focused on celebrations that would occur When the Boys
380 Thompson, You Are Welcomed Back At Home Sweet Home. 381 Ida Louise Secretan and Frank H. Secretan, When the Boys Come Home from Flanders (Toronto: The Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association, Limited, 1919), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 22848025 MUSCAN – A – 256-22. 382 Vance, Death So Noble, 13, 16. 383 Pte. Harry Rose, Victorious! They’re Coming Back (Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association, 1919), the Ley and Lois Smith War, Memory, and Popular Culture Research Collection, held by the History Department at the University of Western Ontario. 125
Come Home from Flanders (1919): “when the Boys come home from Flanders there will be a Jubilee/ Mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts/ Oh so glad they all will be.” While the song goes on to claim that there will be a joyful time when
“the Boys are marching, marching home from o’er the sea/” because “They will tell us tales of glory and of all their victories/,” it ultimately concludes with an emphasis on the prospect of peace in the final lyric: “The dear old Maple Leaf will be proud of them/ When they come to never go again.”384 This is significant, as it
illustrates that the broader theme of pride in the boys who “saved the nation, won
our love and admiration” that was emerging in many post-war songs.385 Indeed,
in popular sheet music, the victory of the war was a direct result of the sacrifices
of Canadian soldiers who had fought for their country. While this helped to
cement the growing sense of nationalism emerging in popular discourse,
victorious imagery and language employed by composers ultimately reflects the
popular trend of remembrance.
The theme of commemorating the dead by glorifying their sacrifices
through the lens of the romance of war permeated popular culture as well, and is
reflected in many songs from 1918-1919, such as Lillian Lundy Green’s song,
Sacrifice:
Somewhere in France! Our brave boys lie Their duty meant supreme sacrifice./ Now they are honored in God's happy home,/ For the lives of us all they gave up their own./But they cheerfully made the great sacrifice, Only they know at what a price./ Gave of their best for their country's good, their bright happy lives in their young manhood./ Oh! God in Heaven is it not enough,/
384 Secretan, When the Boys Come Home from Flanders. 385 Thompson, You Are Welcomed Back At Home Sweet Home. 126
Remove the strife, change Hate into Love./ Then will their sacrifice be complete,/ And grant us Peace Peace Peace.386
Indeed, as “most civilians considered the Great War in general, and the part
played by soldiers in particular, to be causes for celebration rather than for
sadness,”387 many composers endeavoured to produce music in the post-war
years that glorified the sacrifices of the soldiers. Songs that referenced The Boys
We Left Behind (Over There) gained popular attention, as they demonstrated
that that while the soldiers had perished, they did so willingly, and would not be
forgotten:
As we sailed to the call of the Motherland/ To fight for freedom’s cause,/ That others may live, we were willing to give,/ Our lives, nor did we pause./ Boys asleep in Flander’s fields/ The world will ne’er forget/ They wrote their name on the scroll of fame,/ Our hearts are with them yet.388
These songs would have been very beneficial in the immediate post-war years, as
Canadians needed a “more upbeat interpretation” of the war to begin healing
emotionally.389
Moreover, these songs were especially important in 1919, as they helped to
assuage growing tensions in Canadian society, as “the first year of peace was not a
386 Lillian Lundy Green, Sacrifice (Toronto and Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce & Co., 1918), http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/exhibits/worldwar_lyrics (accessed 13 December 2015). 387 Jeff Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” in Canada and the Great War: Western Front Association Papers, ed. Briton C. Busch (Kingston: McGill- Queen’s University Press, 2003), 10. 388 Pte. Sapper Browning and Geo A. Yarwood, The Boys We Left Behind (Over There) (Toronto: Browning and Self, 1919), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 23300455 MUSCAN – A – 321-11. 389 Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 11. 127
happy time in Canada.”390 Following the armistice on November 11, 1918, many
problems continued to afflict Canadian society such as conflicts between French
and English Canada, the outbreak of influenza that killed thousands, labour
unrest in cities like Winnipeg, and unemployment, which “was creeping upwards
along with the cost of living as the economic stimulus provided by the war ran
out.”391 In effect, composers continued to produce music that focused on the positives in life in order to offset growing discontent after four brutal years of
war.
However, Jeff Keshen surmises that this approach was not beneficial for
the soldiers, as “the Canadian homefront was more disposed to welcome back
heroes enhanced by combat rather than ordinary men who were often left
physically and mentally scarred.”392 Indeed, composers paid little attention to any problems veterans may have faced when they returned home, opting instead to continue the trend of focusing solely on their bravery and courage. In this respect, then, popular sheet music failed to resonate with many soldiers who felt let down and isolated from Canadian society because of their service overseas.393
This fractured the relationship between soldiers and those on the home front who believed in the romantic portrayal of soldiers’ lives, as they did not believe that those at home understood their experiences in the trenches.394 The fact that
390 Johnathan Vance, Maple Leaf Empire Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain and the Two World Wars (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2012), 113. 391 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire Maple Leaf Empire, 113. 392 Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 13. 393 Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 13. 394 Jeffrey Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship in Canada’s Great War (Edmonton: The University of Alberta Press, 1996), xviii, 23, 212; 128
composers did not shed light on the reality of the war in their songs would have further exasperated this cleavage for many soldiers. However, while many composers did not see front-line life and therefore did not have the personal experiences to write about, they nevertheless understood what was happening each year, as their music was a direct reaction to the changing demands of the war. Indeed, their insistence on producing cheery and upbeat songs with messages that reflected the need for more recruits or more money for the war effort from 1915 onwards demonstrates that they understood what was happening overseas.395 Songs that focused on offering spiritual comfort by
reinforcing societal norms through topics like masculinity, national duty, or self-
sacrifice further demonstrate that Canadians knew what was happening, as they
used popular culture, and specifically music, as a way to cope with the war. In
effect, “the interpretations [of the war] that resonated best with Canadians
continued to stress that [the] soldiers had fought for noble causes (such as the
maintenance of freedom) and that their stupendous performance in combat had
created a new, strong, and internationally respected nation.”396 Music produced
in 1918 and 1919 therefore reflects the broader movement to commemorate the
war effort and keep faith with those who had perished, as it continued to serve as
an emotional outlet for Canadians attempting to come to terms with the outcome
of the war.
395 Ian Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief: Torontonians and the Great War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002). 396 Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 11. 129
Conclusion
Anglo-Canadians produced patriotic sheet music to capture people’s attention and direct it towards popular rhetoric and ideals espoused in Canadian society following the outbreak of the First World War. By invoking calls to loved ones, music was an emotional outlet for people as producers and participants could both engage the key impulse of humanity: the need for an emotional outlet.
While the messages of the songs largely represent the trends found elsewhere in the historiography of the war on the Canadian home front, the transformation in the language used in the lyrics of many songs from the immediate pre-war years throughout the course of the war is especially illuminating of this transformation in Canadian society. Indeed, when one evaluates the music chronologically over the course of the war, thematic changes emerge regarding the content and messages of the songs that are reflective of Canadian society. For example, a gradual shift from the vehement and ubiquitous pre-war rhetoric about the glory of the British Empire and Canada’s place therein is slowly subverted by the rising voice of Canadian nationalism and pride due to the ultimate sacrifice so many gave to the war effort. While the rhetoric employed by composers continues to invoke notions of allegiance to the Empire, a more assertive voice also emerges that gives more volition to the efforts of Canadians as active members in the fight overseas. While Canadians never dispute the importance of the Empire, the language does indicate a shift in popular ideals over the course of the war that can be seen in the broader narrative of the Canadian experience from 1914 to
1918.
130
As military preparedness was deeply entrenched in the character of
Canadian society by the outbreak of the First World War, boys and girls were taught that war was a grand adventure. In effect, they were conditioned to “Be
Prepared” through the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, through instances of the drill prominent in the cadet movement, and through their imperial inculcation through the school system. Social norms of acceptable masculinity were professed through social rhetoric and popular culture, thereby instilling notions of acceptable behaviour and responsibility in the public and private spheres of everyday life.397 This foundation manifested itself more fully in the realm of
recruitment, as the pervasiveness of the masculine ideal reflected “the intense
pressure exerted by government and society to enlist.”398 While the second verse
of Stand By the Boys Who Stood By You offers little insight into the war: “’Mid
shrapnel raining, they uncomplaining,/” it recognizes that each soldier was “glad” to do their duty to their country, and had therefore “proved himself a man/ And a
hero brave as we all know.”399 These lyrics are significant, as they demonstrate
that the children of the pre-war years who were seen to be “the future of the
nation” had indeed “grow[n] up with the desired values” that so many Canadians
had worked endlessly to instill in Canada’s youth.400
397 Mark Moss, Manliness and Militarism: Educating Young Boys in Ontario for War (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2001). 398 Barbara Norman, Music on the Home Front: Canadian Sheet Music during the First World War, 2001. 399 Earl L. Cousins, Stand By the Boys Who Stood By You (Windsor: Cousins & Robertson Music Publishers, 1919) Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 17081484 MUSCAN – A – 64-2.. 400 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 145. 131
Indeed, the valiant efforts of the Canadian soldiers on the battlefields truly showed that the “efforts to ensure that boys were raised to be manly” had been successful.401 At the outbreak of war, the “expectations about the auxiliary nature of the Canadian war effort were reinforced by the popular belief that the conflict would be of extremely short duration.”402 However, as so many Canadians came
to understand, this would not be the case. News from Ypres in 1915 galvanized
Canadians, as the lists of the dead that poured in after the battle demonstrated
that the war was not merely a “great adventure.” While never forgetting or
abandoning “the ideals articulated in the early months of the war,…the war effort continued to be a collective enterprise but with a new impetus born of loss.”403
This ferocity of spirit associated with the loss of loved one fundamentally transformed the war effort, as Canadians endeavoured to “make good the sacrifice of so many men” going forward.404 Music produced during 1915
demonstrates this profound transformation, as it focuses on the brave sacrifices
of the soldiers and the developing sense of local pride that came from the losses:
“When the call to arms had sounded,/ For brave lads to fight the foe,/ Tho’ many
hearts were breaking,/ We were proud to have you go,/ At Ypres Loos and
Lang’marck,/ Where so many heroes fell,/ They bled and died for Freedom’s
cause,/ For the flag we love so well.”405 While the events of the Boer War had
401 Moss, Manliness and Militarism, 145. 402 R. Matthew Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’: The English-Canadian Patriotic Response to the Great War,” in Canadian Historical Review, 61 (2), 144. 403 Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief, 43. 404 Miller, Our Glory & Our Grief, 43 405 H. L. Wittmaak, We’re Mighty Proud of You (Windsor: J. G. Vanderhoof, 1915), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 23328311 MUSCAN – A – 318-15. 132
engrained the popular notion in Canadian society that her boys were heroes fighting for the flag and were often more valiant and brave than their English counterparts were, the popular reaction to the events of 1915 and 1916 took the bravery of Canadians one step further. Indeed, heroic rhetoric re-emerged following the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, as Canadians began to distinguish themselves from the British.406 As Jonathan Vance noted, “the fact that the majority of the men in the 1st Division were British-born was irrelevant” in the aftermath of Ypres, as it had “become the focus of intense national pride.”407 In
effect, “nationalist symbols started to appear more and more in popular culture, in the press, and in the schools,”408 as Canadians started to become more aware
of their own sense of national identity that was being forged by their sons,
sweethearts, and brothers.
As has been seen, the depiction of the soldier’s mother in Canadian
popular culture is vitally important to understanding the war effort and the
experiences of those involved.409 Sheet music in particular appealed to Canadian
mothers in many different ways, as the lyrics and cover illustrations depicted proud mothers seeing their boys off to war. Composers aptly understood the importance of incorporating the motherhood ideal in their music to appeal to their audiences, as it served to counteract the sadness of the women society deemed as the individuals responsible for raising responsible citizens. In effect,
406 Johnathan Vance, Maple Leaf Empire Maple Leaf Empire: Canada, Britain and the Two World Wars (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2012), 64. 407 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire, 65. 408 Vance, Maple Leaf Empire, 65. 409 Jonathan Vance, Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 147. 133
what is perhaps most telling about the songs produced in the First World War versus music from the South African War is the transformation of the image of the mother figure. As has been shown, songs from the late nineteenth century depict Britain as the mother figure and Canada as a colonial daughter in the
Empire’s “big happy family.”410 However, during the First World War, this
rhetoric changes when composers place more emphasis on depicting “Canada’s
sons” and Canadian mothers whose sons are fighting overseas. This subtle change is significant when taken in line with the burgeoning sense of Canadian self-
identity and nationalism that emerges over the course of the war, as the protector
of Canada’s youth changes from the all-encompassing force of the British Empire
to a more intimate relationship between Canadian mothers and their sons who
are fighting to save the day.
The expression of pro-British sentiments amongst so many avenues of
Canadian society is exceptionally important when studying wartime culture in
Canada, because without a proper understanding of its pervasive impact,
historians cannot begin to understand why 1915 was a turning point in the war
effort at home, and why the steadfast resolution to continue the fight carried
through to 1918. Indeed, as R. Matthew Bray noted, “an accurate assessment of
what motivated English Canadians to endorse their country’s war effort is vital,
because…that factor shaped their expectations about the nature and extent of the
410 Celia Malone Kingsbury, For War and Country: World War I Propaganda on the Home Front (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010), 251. 134
Canadian contribution.”411 As has been shown, the experience of the South
African War and the coinciding culmination of imperial and nationalistic ideals of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth century informed Anglo-Canadians’
attitudes towards warfare and imperial adventure, therefore ensuring that so
many went willingly to war in 1914. In effect, composers created music that
fostered a “shared sense of national purpose”412 in English Canada over the
course of the war.
One song that epitomizes the burgeoning sense of national pride brought
about by the war was J. B. Spurr’s song from 1919, Canada, Star of the Empire.
Spurr’s song, noted on the cover to be “A National Song of Canada,” depicts the rugged Canadian wilderness found in the Rocky Mountains, clearly alluding to its natural beauty as the reason that Canada is the “Star of the Empire.” Offering no reference to the war other than the two ex-soldiers standing with their walking sticks and wearing officers’ uniforms next to their wives, the cover illustration implies that because of their service overseas, the two couples can now enjoy the majesty of the Canadian landscape in peace.413 Moreover, the lyrics of the first
verse reflect many Canadian’s sense of pride in their country’s natural landscape:
“A song I will sing of a land that is dear to me,/ A land that is fair to see,/ A land that the blessings of God have been show’r’d upon,/ A people both brave and
411 Bray, “’Fighting as an Ally’, 143. 412 Lynn Kennedy, “”’Twas You, Mother, Made Me a Man” The motherhood Motif in Poetry of the First World War,’ in A Sisterhood of Suffering and Sacrifice: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War, Eds. Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012), 276. 413 John B. Spurr and Jules Brazil, Canada, Star of the Empire (Aurora, ON: J. B. Spurr, 1919), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23057430 MUSCAN – A – 270-7, http://www.nlc- bnc.ca/obj-m1-f1/csm06973-s2.jpg (accessed 14 January 2016). 135
free./”414 However, while the verses that extoll the beauty and impressive natural
features of the country are to be sung at a moderato, or moderate tempo, the
chorus is intended to be martial through the tempo change to Marcia. In effect,
Spurr draws further attention to his key message, that Canada is a free and
peaceful country:
Canada, Star of the Empire,/ Bright Land of Liberty,/ Fam’d with glory in the world’s great story,/ Boy the boys who fought for thee,/ Fertile in all thy dominion,/ Extending from sea to sea./ May the God that bless’d thee, protect thee,/ And direct thee in the power that made thee free.415
The chorus also reflects Spurr’s reference to the sacrifices made by thousands of
Canadians over the course of the war in the second verse, and helps to explain
why many could view his song as “A National Song of Canada.” Indeed, by
referencing the “stalwart, brawny and brave” Canadians that were “always ready
to fight on the field” in places like Langemarck and Givenchy in 1915 to Mons in
1918, Spurr epitomizes growing surge of Canadian nationalism that emerged as a
direct result of the determination of so many Canadians to fight for their country
from 1914-1918.
414 John B. Spurr and Jules Brazil, Canada, Star of the Empire (Aurora, ON: J. B. Spurr, 1919), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23057430 MUSCAN – A – 270-7. 415 Spurr and Brazil, Canada, Star of the Empire. 136
Fig. 6: John B. Spurr and Jules Brazil, Canada, Star of the Empire (Aurora, ON: J. B. Spurr, 1919), Library and Archives Canada, AMICUS No. 23057430 MUSCAN – A – 270-7.
137
While the sheer toll of the war was seen through the lists of the dead, wounded, and missing, “there emerged the determination among most civilians and soldiers not to accept a version of events that would lead to the conclusion that so much suffering had been in vain.”416 In effect, “popular discourse,” and
especially popular sheet music, “continued to depict superior, courageous, and
noble soldiers who were…portrayed as being motivated by the highest of ideals
and who were worthy of being esteemed as catalysts for the appearance of
freedom-loving and truly independent countries.”417 Indeed, as Jeff Keshen
noted, “in Canada…the modern memory of the Great War is one not only of
muddy trenches and massive death but also of gallant men scaling the heights at
Vimy Ridge…and thus producing the emotional/sentimental foundations of
nationhood.”418 As Canada “entered the Great War as [a colony]…intent upon
demonstrating [her]…worthiness within the Empire,” there was a predetermined willingness to fight and an understanding that a “monumental significance would
be placed upon [her]…battlefield encounters.”419 As has been shown, the pre-war
conditions existed as they did because of the prominence of imperialism and the
popular belief that Canada’s national identity existed because of her tie to the
British Empire. However, as the immediate memory of the war indicates, the
events that transpired from 1914 to 1918 were fundamentally transformative for
Anglo-Canadians, as it gave them their own voice and sense of pride in being
416 Jeff Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 20. 417 Jeff Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 20-21. 418 Jeff Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 20. 419 Jeff Keshen, “The Great War Soldier as Nation Builder in Canada and Australia,” 20. 138
Canadian due to their monumental sacrifices. It is therefore with the utmost importance that sheet music produced over the course of the war is examined, as it indicates that the memories of the dead “shall never fade” because “They made our country’s name.”420
420 Sapper Browning, Pte. Self, and Geo A. Yarwood, The Boys We Left Behind (Over There) (Toronto: Browning & Self, 1919), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 23300455 MUSCAN – A – 321-11. 139
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Lewis, Samm, Joe Young, and Bert Grant. The Worst Is Yet to Come. Canada: Waterson, Berlin & Snyder Co., 1917.
Madden, Frank O. and Jules Brazil. I’ll Come Back To You When My Fighting Days Are Through. Toronto: W. R. Draper, 1916.
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Browning, Pte. Sapper and Geo A. Yarwood, The Boys We Left Behind (Over There) (Toronto: Browning & Self, 1919), Library and Archives Canada AMICUS No. 23300455 MUSCAN – A – 321-11.
Cottington, E. Come! Boys! Come!. Vancouver: Western Specialty Limited, Music Printers, 1917. AMICUS No. 17074747 MUSCAN – A – 63-17.
Cousins, Earl L. Stand By the Boys Who Stood By You. Windsor: Cousins & Robertson Music Publishers, 1919. AMICUS No. 17081484 MUSCAN – A – 64-2.
Dayton, Burt. Canada’s Sons (Who Can’t) Man Your Guns. Hamilton: Encore Publishing Co., 1915. AMICUS No. 17131579 MUSCAN – A – 71-3.
Eckardt, G. C. When the Boys Come Marching Home. Winnipeg: G. C. Eckardt, 1918. AMICUS No. 17390830 MUSCAN – A – 81-2.
Farrell, Muriel. Here’s to the Boys of the 1-6-0. Toronto and Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce & Co., 1916. AMICUS No. 17577150 MUSCAN – A – 86-14.
Godfrey, H. H. Jack Canuck’s the Lad. Toronto: Gourlay, Winter & Leeming, 1900. AMICUS No. 19163321 MUSCAN – A – 106-20.
—. A Greeting to the King. Toronto: Gourlay, Winter & Leeming, 1901. AMICUS No.19154438 MUSCAN – A – 106-10.
Humble, Irene. We’re From Canada. Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce & Co., 1915. AMICUS No. 20136375 MUSCAN – A – 138-9.
Madden, Frank O. and Jules Brazil. Till You Return. Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association Ltd., 1916. AMICUS No. 22123837 MUSCAN–A– 189-30.
Manley, Morris. Goodbye Mother Dear. Toronto: Morris Manley, 1916. AMICUS No.22129133 MUSCAN – A – 191-9.
Marks, Sam and Kennith McInnis. Kiss Your Soldier Boy Goodbye. Toronto: Anglo- Canadian Music Publishers Association, Ltd., 1916. AMICUS No. 22127886 MUSCAN – A- 198-17.
Murray, A. C. Hail, Mighty Empire. Winnipeg: Whaley, Royce, & Co., 1913. AMICUS No. 22138791 MUSCAN – A – 211-16.
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Pritchard, T. and Jules Brazil. The Call. Goderich: Independent Publishing Co., 1914-1918. AMICUS No. 16789497 MUSCAN – A – 475-12.
Pull, Edwin J. Will Daddy Come Home To-Night. Toronto: A. Cox, 1915. AMICUS No.22561808 MUSCAN – A – 235-23.
Roberts-McVity, Gwen. The Lads of the Land of the Maple Leaf. Toronto: The Anglo- Canadian Music Publishers’ Association, Limited, 1917. AMICUS No. 22623001 MUSCAN – A – 242-32.
Secretan, Ida Louise and Frank H. When the Boys Come Home from Flanders. Toronto: The Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association, Limited, 1919. AMICUS No. 22848025 MUSCAN – A – 256-22.
Spurr, John B. and Jules Brazil. Canada, Star of the Empire. Aurora, ON: J. B. Spurr, 1919. AMICUS No. 23057430 MUSCAN – A – 270-7
Taylor, Harry. We’ll Love You More When You Come Back than When You Went Away. Toronto: A. Cox, 1915. AMICUS No. 23107181.
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