The War on Score: Ontarian Women’s Songs during The Great War
Karina Stellato March 29, 2019 HMU499 Professor T. Neufeldt
In response to Lord Kitchener’s famous 1915 recruitment poster, Muriel E. Bruce, a twenty-two-year-old Torontonian composed what would become the anthem of local recruitment leagues for the duration of the Great War: Kitchener’s Question.1 “Why aren’t you in Khaki? /
This means you! / Any old excuse won’t do,”2 flooded the streets during recruitment marches with the intention of inspiring the enlistment of Britain’s sons.3 The success of Muriel Bruce’s collection of songs grants her the honour of common historiographical representation as the token women when discussing entertainment on the Canadian home front. Less commonly remembered are the multitude of amateur and professional female Canadian composers who contributed to creating the flourishing musical climate in Toronto and the neighbouring regions of Anglo-Ontario during the war period. “Doing one’s bit” in the war effort did not only pertain to enlisted men, rather it was the vital motive behind the composition of the vast library of popular music published by women throughout the war. Studying the overlooked genre of commercially popular music by women in Ontario between 1914-1918 provides insight into common contemporary attitudes; where content, audience and social meaning can be analyzed through lyrics and cover art.4
Songs composed and sung by women on the home front acted as propaganda in the pursuit of two objectives: increased recruitment and the cultivation of general approval for the war. Through the stories told in the lyrics, the women of Ontario targeted four audiences to maximize their inspirational, pro-enlistment message: the men themselves, their mothers, their sweethearts/wives and their children. Lyrics pertaining to a woman’s role in the war effort, the symbolic Khaki uniforms, widespread anti-German sentiment, rising Canadian nationalism and irreverence towards suffering and death, all converge within the catalogue of themes cultivated and endorsed by this unique form of propaganda to rouse support for the Empire’s Great War.
1 Jeffrey A. Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship During Canada’s Great War (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1996), 21. 2 Muriel E. Bruce, "Kitchener’s Question" Toronto: Empire Music & Travel Club, 1915. 3 Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship During Canada’s Great War), 21. 4 John Mullen, The Show Must Go On! Popular Songs in Britain During the First World War (Dorchester: Henry Ling Limited, 2015), 4. 2 The examination of musical contributions by everyday women during these distressing times serves to illuminate not only Canadian wartime society as a whole, but also exposes the overlooked legacy of Canadian women whose effect on that society and the war effort was profound.
Despite the rise of the suffragette and feminist movements during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the commencement of war re-established the deep-seeded tradition of supportive wartime work that fit with Christian Victorian ideals women as “self-sacrificing, submissive, sexually pure, docile, and maternal” who functioned as “Mothers of the Nation.”5
The greatest contribution a woman could offer the imperial cause “…remained the donation of a man close to her for the war effort”.6 However, the level of patriotic dedication expected from
Canadians expanded concurrently with the duration of the war. Women were obliged to become nurses in the Canadian Army Medical Corp (CAMC) and to contribute as a volunteer or paid member of industrial sectors traditionally closed to them, including farm labour, munitions manufacturing or other factory work in addition to their mandatory role as mother and wife.7
According to the first officer to conduct a Toronto based recruitment campaign, Lieutenant Col.
W. B. Kingsmill of the 124 Overseas Battalion, a woman’s contribution to the war effort was
twofold; she encouraged, supported and even guilted male loved ones into performing their
patriotic duty, and freed men for service by replacing them in traditionally male areas of
employment.8 Composing home front entertainment, a recognized male profession, was an
alternative approach for women responding to the growing social responsibilities of war.
However, the reality of the media’s scope and social influence made composing popular music
drastically more impactful than the myriad methods of wartime employment women partook in.
As the composers of popular entertainment, women were given an extensive platform that held
5 Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship During Canada’s Great War), 249. 6 Ian Miller and Hugh Maclean, Our Glory and Our Grief: Toronto and the Great War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002), 134. 7 Ibid., 134 8 Ibid., 120. 3 influence on a national level. Through published compositions, professional and amateur female
composers and lyricists proudly contributed to the war effort by cultivating pro-war popular opinions.
The outpouring of imperialistic appeals for recruitment, engineered to mobilize and create a unified, war ready nation, focused not only on the prospectively “khaki-clad”9 husbands, fathers, and sons needed for combat, but also contained a call to arms aimed at the Empire’s daughters.10 From the onset of the war it was a requirement for a married man to present a letter of permission from his wife prior to enlistment, thus reinforcing the cultural role of women as arbiters of recruitment.11 Since the military was dependent on volunteerism until conscription in
1917, women were therefore targeted by recruitment efforts and proved crucial in promoting the sense of inherent responsibility and duty present within Britain’s sons.11 Initially, the duty of women was to endorse the virtues of enlistment in private. Ian Miller, a historian on the Toronto and the Great War, explained, “…they were to do so in private, in ‘a quiet way’, among their friends and acquaintances rather than out in the public sphere.”12 This focus on discrete, private encouragement could explain the publishing of only eight songs by Ontarian women in 1914. As the months progressed, however, women were encouraged and required to partake in the recruitment campaign that became a “public phenomenon” after the recruitment crisis of 1915.13
This new recruiting scheme bombarded able-bodied men by embarrassing them in public while privately pressuring married men into enlistment, all through the actions of women who created an atmosphere fixated on recruitment.14 The novel advancement of women’s influence into the public sphere is reflected in their production of songs, particularly during the 1915 crisis when over one third of the war songs by Ontario women were published (figure 1). As sheet music can
9 Miller and Maclean, Our Glory and Our Grief: Toronto and the Great War, 13. 10 Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw, A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012), 25. 11 Gaylee Magee, "“She’s a Dear Old Lady”: English Canadian Popular Songs from World War One," American Music (Winter, 2016), 489. 11 Ibid. 12 Miller and Maclean, Our Glory and Our Grief: Toronto and the Great War, 120. 13 Miller and Maclean, Our Glory and our Grief: Toronto and the Great War, 111. 14 Ibid. 4 be performed as both a private and public form of entertainment, the expansion of women’s influence into the public sphere allowed for continued increased composition and publication of their works, which afforded them a greater influence on the home front listeners.
Songs
35
30 29 28
25
20
15 15
10 10
5 4
0 Figure 1: Data sourced from personal collection of Ontarian Women's songs available in the Index. 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 Yearly Output of Ontarian Women's
5 Often dismissed and almost forgotten in the scope of national history is domestic popular sheet music and its ability to reflect the pervasive effect of the War fought by Canadians overseas. Limited scholarship and references to sheet music as “a curious footnote” disregards the pivotal role that entertainment played for the tens of thousands of people whose loved ones were overseas in the Canadian Expeditionary Force.15 Popular music’s position within Canadian society was significant; it represented the majority of the 25 000 works of sheet music published by or for Canadians between 1850 and 1950.16 The pre-war examples of this music reflect the
Anglo-centric beliefs of the predominantly British Canadian population who modeled themselves after the British example. The widespread idea of European superiority, particularly that of the
Empire herself, dominated the general opinion of domestic listeners, evident in the dominance of the market by foreign publishers rather than Canadian product.17 However, as Clifford Ford makes clear in Figure 1, a significant dip in the importation of overseas music during wartime resulted in a flood of domestic product as Canadian composers and lyricists filled the void. The recently established domestic sheet music publishing houses that were founded in Canada at the turn of the twentieth century responded by publishing amateur and professional composers’ wartime songs for distribution across the nation.18 Ontario was the hub of this activity, publishing wartime marches, parlour songs, ballads, salon pieces, and dances whose focus on singularly domestic thematic material created a distinctly Canadian genre of wartime music.19
The many amateur composers who established publishing companies to published their wartime music serve as an example of the surge in local support for the war effort.20 The dissemination of sheet music inspired a culture of celebrity that made popular songs and their composers or
15 Wayne Norton, "Music of the Great War," British Columbia Studies, no.182. (Summer 2014), 124. 16 Elaine Keillor, Music in Canada: Capturing Landscape and Diversity (Kingston: McGill- Queen’s University Press, 2006), 161. 17 Clifford Ford, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey, (Agincourt: GLC Publishers Limited, 1982), 60. 18 Ibid. 19 Timothy McGee, The Music of Canada, (Markham: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1985), 64. 20 Gaylee Magee, "“She’s a Dear Old Lady”: English Canadian Popular Songs from World War One," 476. 6
Figure 2: Found in Clifford Ford’s, Canada’s Music: An Historical Survey on page 61. singers famous. Like Muriel Bruce, many of these Ontario composers became renowned for their
musical support of the war effort. The overwhelmingly sentimental and patriotic sheet music was
a “mix of escapism and utility” 21 for families who gathered to sing and play, attendees of charity events like those held at Massey Hall and gramophone listeners, all united by song.
Similarly hidden from prior historiographical narratives lays the narrative of female composers and their significant contribution to the founding of Ontario as the center of popular musical production across Canada. Included in the school of amateur and professional composers; wives, sisters and daughters wrote wartime popular music for the national cause from the onset of and after the conclusion of the Great War. The songs composed by the women of
Ontario exemplify John Mullen’s concept of “Do-It-Yourself Propaganda”; the organic popular
expression “not fabricated by some government office, but born from imperial feeling, and
commercial skill, in a patriotic milieu aiming at respectability.”22 Newspaper editorials,
21 Glassford and Shaw, A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service, 176. 22 John Mullen, The Show Must Go On! Popular Songs in Britain During the First World War, (Dorchester: Henry Ling Limited, 2015), 4. 7 journalist advertisement, books, movies, songs, classroom lessons and church sermons
throughout the war that helped to cultivate the Dominion’s jingoistic attitudes and its distinctive
brand of propaganda that constantly fed notions of the romanticism of battle. Sacrifice, grit,
honour and other Victorian attitudes were propelled through popular media and dominated
compositions by Anglo-Ontarian women that were designed to increase recruitment and nurture
support for the war. The works featured in this study were not promoted or specifically
encouraged by the home front Militia or government; rather they were born of organic initiative
by women for the home front audience. The contributions of Anglo-Ontarian female composers
attempted to sway opinions of the general public by imbedding propaganda in a fundamental
source of support, music.
Featured in this study is the collection of 87 songs written by Canadian women and published by Ontario publishing houses or self-published by the composers themselves in the province of Ontario. The collection is comprised of exclusively Anglo songs gathered from
Library and Archives Canada, the British Archives’ online database, University of
Saskatchewan’s Archives and the Faculty of Music Sheet Music Collection at the University of
Toronto. Unfortunately, due to copyright laws and the incremental process of digitization, I had
access to only 41 scores, therefore making this an incomplete collection of popular wartime
music by female composers in Ontario during the Great War. Even so, I believed this endeavour
too noteworthy to delay and found that even this partial collection represented a plethora of
examples of scores and cover art. The histography of domestic popular music during the war has
suffered from the spread of inaccurate information: historian Jeffrey Keshen in his 1996
contribution to the field, Propaganda and Censorship During Canada’s Great War, only
recognized 300 pieces published in Canada from 1914-1918.23 Due to the improbability of this
figure when compared with the quantity of pieces featured in this analysis alone, there is great
opportunity for further study in this topic. Through the inspection of songs, lyrics and cover art,
23 Keshen, Propaganda and Censorship During Canada’s Great War), 21. 8 this study hopes to prove that the female composers of Ontario contributed to the wave of “DoIt-
Yourself” propaganda that swept the Canadian cultural landscape and had a profound influence on the pro-war culture throughout the War.
Imperialist sentiment underlies practically every song in this collection, while lyrics asserting the urgency for men, women and children to perform their duty for the British Empire make up 52% of female Anglo-Ontarians’ music. When the recency of most residents’ immigration from the Motherland is considered, the relationship between Britain and its colony was understandably solid. Although tainted with leading questions that resulted in
AnglophoneFrancophone disputes, the 1911 census claimed that approximately 54%, of
Canadians were British.24 Catherine Clark’s The Allies are going to Win (1916) (figure 2) explains the close proximity the Dominion was with the Motherland in the lyrics in Figure 2. The
British stronghold over the population, was invigorated through the “Anglicized colonial nuclear family.”26 Musicologist Gaylee Magee outlines the familial order as, “consisting of British motherland, Canadian nation/daughter, and strapping, valiant son/soldiers.”27 The depiction of
Mother England in songs established the cultivation of this imagery in Ontario to strengthen support for the remote European war.
24 Gaylee Magee, "“She’s a Dear Old Lady”: English Canadian Popular Songs from World War One," 477. 26 Ibid., 488. 27 Ibid., 488. 9
10 Figure 3: Catherine Clark’s The Allies are going to Win (1916), lyricist Laura Lewin was published in 1916 by Hawkes & Harris Music Co in Toronto. Accessed through Library and Archives Canada's online database.
The propaganda songs that encouraged recruitment among Canadian men included in this collection overwhelmingly stressed duty, honour and patriotism. As sustaining recruitment was the defining task of Ontario’s women, it’s prevalence in song is representative. At the start of the war, Marie Tasse’s The Call to Arms (1915) and Ada Beard’s Follow us Along (1915) contributed to the growing popularity of recruitment songs. Isabel Rutter’s King George’s Men
(1915) directed its attention to men’s recruitment by emphasizing the nations connection to
Empire. The chorus rings out:
Oh, we’re off to fight for our country/ We march to the bugle’s call/ With a thundering cheer for the world to hear/ We are Britons one and all. Oh, we dare to do, and we dare to die/ We lads of the hill and glen/ “God save the King” is the song we sing/ We are all King George’s Men. Oh, we’re Men.25
Sung in first person by the solider himself, the chorus expounds the seamless thematic
connection between being a man and the responsibility of enlistment. The last line, “Oh, we’re
Men,” provides a three-word synopsis into the attitudes endorsed by this song and overarching
societal norms during the war years. Featured in the title of the song as well as the chorus, the
representation of Britain and the intention to strengthen the relationship between Mother country and colony was featured to promote enlistment for the geographically remote war.
As the war progressed and the necessity for recruits grew, namely during the recruitment crisis of 1915, women of Ontario published more recruitment songs. For example, in 1916 The
Canadian Soldiers Recruiting Marching Song by Martha Cawley, Don’t You Hear the Call
Laddie? By Alice S. L. May and Were Going There by Helena McDougall contributed to the genre’s growth that paralleled the declining enlistment figures that subsequently resulted in
25 Isabel Rutter, "King George’s Men," Toronto: Whaley, Rice & Co, 1915. 11 Canadian conscription the following year. Charlotte Bonnycastle’s The Recruit (1916) (figure. 3) comments specifically on the strain in recruitment by this point in the war in her lyrics, “Filling the gaps of those dear chaps/ The first to face the fight/ Mid shot and shell the bravest fell/ For
Liberty, Home, and Right.”26 The recruitment crisis alluded to in Bonnycastle lyrics and seen in the explosion of recruitment songs at this point in the war grounds these women in their time.
They were writing about contemporary issues and aimed to inspire both potential young soldiers and their families to support the war they believed to be vital through these compositions. The incorporations of contemporary issues in the lyrics regarding one’s duty to enlist would have been an advantageous strategy to continue to be current and increase the effectiveness of the propaganda.
26 Charlotte Bonnycastle, "The Recruit.," Campbellford: Mrs. R. H Bonnycastle, 1916. 12 Figure 4: Charlotte Bonnycastle, The Recruit, self-published under the name Mrs. R. H Bonnycastle in 1916 in Campbellford, ON. Accessed on Library and Archives Canada's online database.
The songs also target Ontario’s women themselves. Since allowing the men in their lives to enlist was one of the foremost responsibilities of women on the home front, it held a significant place in the recruitment songs written by women. Sung in Isabel Rutter’s first verse, the lyrics,
“Hurrah! For the sweethearts left behind/ Hurrah for the hearts of Gold,”27 were aimed at the sweethearts of the soldiers in uniform. The lyrics celebrated women who had a partner overseas in the hope of convincing other women to make the same sacrifice. The third verse of Mrs. Jean
Mulloy’s Johnnie Canuck’s the Boy (1915) is another example that spoke solely about the sweethearts of those in uniform:
Blue eyed, brown eyed, twenty/ Makes you count the hours. And she’s staunch and steady/ Makes you be a man/ She’ll be waiting ready/ To take you heart and hand.28
This verse made reference to the societal understanding that a boy was not a man until he had
proven himself in battle, and only then was he mature enough to marry. This Victorian
understanding being revered as the country descends into war is possibly due to its recurrence in
wartime and its potential fuel for increasing recruitment.
In addition to sweethearts, recruitment songs also featured, the sacrifice of mothers, which was seen as the greatest testament to a woman’s loyalty to the war effort, and thus granted them a higher station in the recruitment songs. Mothers Only Boy (1917) by Margaret A. Creyke begins a touching story of a mother and son who, “… has grown to manhood, pure and true, his mother’s pride and joy.”32 His enlistment is followed with lyrics professing his bravery and courage ending with the refrain repeating, “Mother’s only boy/ He’s now gone up to the battle
27 Isabel Rutter, "King George’s Men," Toronto: Whaley, Rice & Co, 1915. 28 Mrs. Jean Mulloy, "Johnnie Canuck’s the Boy," Toronto: Mrs. Jean Mulloy, 1915. 32 Margaret A. Creyke, "Mother’s Only Boy," Toronto: Musgrave Boys, 1917. 13 field/ to save but not destroy/ Mothers only boy…”29 Creyke’s lyrical story and the repetition of
“Mother’s only boy” would have had a sentimental effect on listeners in Ontario. Other mothers experiencing a similar fate would have related to Creyke’s message of humanity present in the song. However, the underlying message is that a mother’s love is an inexcusable reason for preventing or lamenting the enlistment of one’s son since even the “Mother’s only boy” made the honourable decision to enlist in the war effort.
29 Ibid. 14
Figure 5: Elizabeth Roworth, Grit, Published in 1917 by the Musgrave Bros in their offices in Toronto and Winnipeg. Accessed through the Library and Archives Canada.
The depiction of the family, particularly the response of the daughter to their father’s departure was the ultimate tool exercised to entice women to encourage their men to enlist.
15 Lyrics and cover art centered on the innocence of children were symbols of the future generation and represented what was at stake in the Great War.30 In Elizabeth Roworth’s cover art for her song Grit (1917) (figure 5) she featured two little boys in khaki uniforms symbolizing the innocence of children, the depth of their sacrifice and the underlying reason for the fight: to preserve the Canadian future. The most influential composer of this thematic genre was Mrs.
Jean Mulloy, wife of a Canadian Boer War veteran, who composed Nursing Daddy's Men and
Knitting Socks for Daddy's Men in 1915.31 Highlighted in the naïve style of a child’s thoughts,
these two songs expressed a persuasive example of the quick maturity of a soldier’s daughter to
understand firstly, the patriotic pride of her father’s decision to enlist and the child’s own
increased sense of responsibility and contribution as a part of a society in total war. In Nursing
Daddy's Men (figure 7), Mulloy crafts a story of a young girl re-enacting the role of a Canadian
Army Medical Corp (CAMC) nurse, the highest form of duty a girl could provide to the Empire, by caring for her dolls as wounded soldiers.
Softly, softly, gently, I’ll try to soothe their pain/ I’ll try to make them well and strong/ So they’ll come home again;32
The intended influence of this composition was not to affect the peers of the protagonist of the
story, but rather the wives and mothers who had allowed their husbands to go to battle and who
therefore had to cultivate their child’s support of a war they could not comprehend. The song
sheds light on the oft-overlooked plight of children on the home front who had to negotiate the
loss of family members on a temporary or even permanent basis and the mothers who were faced
with an unprecedented level of responsibility as sole provider and caregiver in addition to that
which accompanied their expanded social status in the workforce and public sphere.
30 Susan R. Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land (Toronto: University of Toronto, 2011), 10. 31 Magee, "“She’s a Dear Old Lady”: English Canadian Popular Songs from World War One," 489. 32 Mrs. Jean Mulloy, "Nursing Daddy’s Men," Kingston, ON: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association 1915. 16 Furthermore, the naïve innocence of the young girl in the lyrics contributed to the frequently
stressed idea that the future of children was worthy of the sacrifices made overseas.33
Figure 6: Mrs. Jean Mulloy, Nursing Daddy's Men, published in 1915 by Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association in Kingston, ON. Accessed through Library and Archives Canada's online database. The Khaki uniforms first introduced during the Boer War and subsequently reinstated in the Great War were a major theme in the compositions of Ontario women.34 The uniforms represented the shared military culture of Britain and its colonies that was in the process of being modernized for the twentieth century.39 The historian Jane Tynan explained, “The concept of
33 Fisher, Boys and Girls in No Man’s Land, 10. 34 The khaki uniforms can be observed in Charlotte Bonnycastle’s The Recruit cover art in Figure 4. 39 Magee, "“She’s a Dear Old Lady”: English Canadian Popular Songs from World War One," 485. 40 Ibid., 485. 17 modernity is key to making sense of the changes in the relationship between war and society, changes that are reflected in the move from military spectacle to uniforms made not only for utility but also for mobilizing the mass production of army clothing.”40 Not only was the khaki a sign of the modernization of the Empire’s military, it was a major propaganda symbol aimed to increase recruitment and represent the unified British military. In song, soldiers were often referred to as “Khaki Lads” or “men in khaki” which had the effect of synonymizing the individual soldier with their khaki uniform, and thus the empire. The self-published song’s What the Khaki Lads can do for Dear Old England (1917) and Hurrah! For the Lads in Khaki (1917) by Alice Surl are both testaments to all that “khaki” was designed to represent. In the former tune
Surl exclaimed that responding to the call of service and the khaki lads marching against “a tyrant foe” was the responsibility of every British subject. Although she never overtly mentioned
Canada, the fond opening reference to “Old England” localized this composition for a colonial audience and was, therefore, an example of the Khaki as a vehicle for the unification of military culture. In the latter song, “khaki” was featured in every line celebrating the brave young men in uniform. Mentioned in many recruitment songs, such as Charlotte Bonnycastle’s The Recruit,
Muriel Bruce’s Knitting and Kitchener’s Question and Isabel Rutter’s King George’s Men
“khaki” was used to highlighting the bravery and patriotism of young enlistee’s and encourage others to aspire to the same. Alice Surl’s songs are just one of many examples of the unambiguously positive image of the khaki uniform on Canadian recruits that were produced to sway popular sentiment in favour of the Great War.
In Canadian cities far removed from the conflict, recruitment was not only aimed at men; military language like enlistment was used towards women as they signed up to support the
War.35 Songs by Ontario women targeted like-minded female listeners and urged them to enlist for volunteer work, in new occupations and to take on responsibilities considered dutiful under wartime conditions. Although women throughout Canada undertook a vast range of tasks
35 Pat Staton, It Was Their War Too: Canadian Women In World War I (Toronto: Green Dragon Press, 2006), 17. 18 previously monopolized by the male workforce, song’s written by Ontario’s women in regard to fulfilling a civilian’s wartime obligations were limited to the domestically associated job of knitting. The fixation with the knitting mother, daughter and even son became a persistent symbol of the engaged home front.36 Muriel E. Bruce’s, Knitting (1915) became such a hit during the War that the publisher, Empire, Music and Travel Club, boasted, “The melody song that the world is singing,”43 when included in a list of the season’s greatest successes. The cover art (figure 7) displayed a young woman knitting while fashionably dressed and was intended to be relatable to the workforce of volunteer knitters in cities and towns across Ontario. Dedicated to the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE), a group of women leading fundraising and war efforts at home, this quick march outlined the duality of duty in the time of crisis and focused primarily on knitting as the mothers, sisters, daughters and sweetheart’s contribution to the war effort. The second page of music (figure 5) highlighted the inner conflict pertaining to women whose loved ones had enlisted in the lyrics, “Knitting with a smile/ Knitting with a sigh,”44 and offered a solution in the form of knitting comforts for soldiers overseas.
36 Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw, A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012), 12. 43 Muriel E. Bruce, "Knitting," Toronto: Empire Music & Travel Club, 1915. 44 Ibid. 19
Figure 7: Muriel E. Bruce, Knitting, published in 1916 by Empire Music & Travel Club in Toronto. Accessed on Library and Archives Canada's online database.
20
Figure 8: Muriel E. Bruce, Knitting, published in 1916 by Empire Music & Travel Club in Toronto. Accessed on Library and Archives Canada's online database.
Themes of women’s contributions as well as their toil with war are presented as well in
Muriel Farrell’s Here’s to the Boys of the 1-6-0 (1916) and Florence Ballentyne’s The Call we
Must Obey (1916) where she wrote,
Women are working and planning all day/ And oft’ into the night/ While knitting and stitching for lads far away/
21 They sigh but keep bright/37
Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw, historians on the impact of The Great War on women in
Canada, stress the greater widespread impact of propaganda like Bruce’s Knitting as uniting the
familiar domestic activity to the overseas objective.46 The link between ordinary women who
knit by their hearths and the soldiers and specifically their own loved ones in combat both
serving to advance the war effort, “…had the potential to transform their views of themselves
and the humble tasks they undertook,” 38 and displayed the power of the images presented in the
media.
Besides reinforcing enlistment, musical propaganda contributed to the developing general
encouragement of the war. Encouraging Anti-German sentiment throughout the war was one of
the propaganda themes consistent throughout the war. Beginning in 1914, songs and recruitment
posters villainized the nation and recounted atrocities committed by the “Huns” to legitimize
Germany as the Empire’s moral antithesis. References to Germany in the songs of Ontario
women fell into one of two categories; the promotion of anti-German sentiment through the
exposure of atrocities attributed to them and their triumphant defeat in the name of justice. The
third verse of Corinne M. Shaw’s song, Down with the Prussian Tyrant (1917), recapitulates the
Belgian invasion and the genesis behind the Allies’ declaration of war: “Shame! Shame! You
Teuton cowards/ who murder the undefended/ You’ll get your punishment swift/ From Allied
ranks extended.”39 By labelling the Germans as tyrants on the offensive, the Allies obtained the
contrary position as the defenders of moral law and therefore legitimized the conflict and turned
enlistment into an act of the courageously ethical citizen. Another image frequently called upon
in song to villainize the Germans is the allusion to “Little Belgium” as helpless and in need of
saving. Sadie Edwards’ To Arms! Canadian Boys (1916), reminds Canadians of the suffering of
Belgium at the hands of the Germans, “Shall Belgium’s call for rescue/ Unheeded still a rise?
37 Florence Ballantyne, "The Call We Must Obey," Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers, 1916. 46 Glassford and Shaw, A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service, 12. 38 Ibid. 39 Corinne M Shaw, "Down with the Prussian Tyrant," Toronto: Corinne M. Shaw, 1917. 22 Can we forget the wrecking of their homes, their mothers’ cries? No!”40 Overall, the inclusion of
references to Germany was integral in defining the two sides of the war and created the essential
evil enemy. An example of how the Germans were pitted as the national enemy was frankly
incorporated in the chorus of Catherine Clark’s The Allies are going to win (1916): “The
Germans and Austrians started the fight/ but we’ll show them what’s right from wrong.”41 This
excerpt blatantly labeled the enemy as morally corrupt and contributed to the contemporary
propaganda subgenre of anti-German sentiment within the larger effort of mobilization.
The majority of German references contain the tone of jingoistic cheer at the downfall of the enemy. Elizabeth Tennant Andrews’ Tommy Call your Dog Off and say Goodbye (1915),
Mrs. Jean Mulloy’s Johnnie Canuck’s the Boy (1915), Corinne M. Shaw’s, Down with the
Prussian Tyrant (1917) and Ada Beard Follow us Along (1915) all referred to Germany, and specifically Berlin, as the jewel of Allied victory and the location where the forces of righteousness would “… level their pride to the dust.”42 Grace Thomas Wallace Are we beat?
No Sir! (1916) intended to cultivate pride and courage in the confidence of the troops on the home front by writing,
They know the German soldier will be huffed/ When they find how very nicely they’ve been bluffed/ And the Kaisers stately knees will feel week and ill at ease/ When he hears our boys all shout: Hurrah! Lord Kitchener’s there/ Cheer boys Kitchener’s square.43 Finaly, Charlotte Bonnycastle’s The Recruit (1916) sung of the noble sacrifice of local soldiers and the hope of the ruin of their enemies: “Men of the North, the South, the West/ Eagerly forth they go/ To follow the Hun til’ he’s undone/ or die for Ontario.”44
Gayle Magee, a Canadian musicologist, states, “the Great War has been portrayal as a
defining moment in Canada’s emergence from its British colonial past to an independent and
unified nation on the world stage.”45 Music of the period, specifically Ontario’s female
40 Sadie Edwards, "To Arms! Canadian Boys," Cataraqui, ON: Sadie Edwards, 1916. 41 Catherine Clark, "The Allies Are Going to Win," lyrics by Laura Lewin. Toronto: Hawkes & Harris Music Co, 1916. 42 Florence Ballantyne, "The Call We Must Obey," Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers, 1916. 43 Grace Thomas Wallance, "Are We Beat? No Sir!" Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association 1916. 44 Charlotte Bonnycastle, "The Recruit.," Campbellford: Mrs. R. H Bonnycastle, 1916. 45 Magee, "“She’s a Dear Old Lady”: English Canadian Popular Songs from World War One," 474. 55 Josie A Smale, "Canada, the Land of the Brave," Toronto: Musgrave Bros, 1916. 23 composers undoubtedly helped this nationalism emerge and reflected the greater change in
domestic attitudes. The Maple Leaf Forever, the unofficial anthem of the dominion at the time,
was filled with lyrics proclaiming the new Canadian nationalism, extolling its virtues as the
“…land of the brave”.55 Such music supported the national propaganda movement that sought to
define Canada and promote the country to an integral role in the British Empire. Documented in
the 1911 census, a growing number of citizens now insisted on being recorded as ‘Canadian’ in
response to the question of origin, another indication of the emergence of a national
consciousness.46 When war began, the flood of new patriotic songs converged with the existing
effort to create an Anglophone Canadian national identity to contribute to the cultivation of
popular reaction to total war. Irene Humble’s We’re from Canada (1915) contains the chorus lines:
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.47
Pauline Hahn Oh! Canadians! Oh! (1917), Mrs. Jean Mulloy Johnnie Cancusk’s the Boy (1915),
Josie A. Smale’s Canada, the land of the brave (1916) all examples of courageous language and
exclamation of a readiness to define Canadian soldiers and, more generally, the nation itself.
The foremost icon in the construction of a Canadian identity was the Maple Leaf, which was
included in many songs by Anglo-Ontarian women, such as Humble’s We’re From Canada
(1915), and soon became synonymous with the Dominion. Composer Muriel E. Bruce and
lyricist Margaret E. Harrison’s Choosing our Emblem (The Maple Leaf) (1916) ingeniously
crafted a story of two beavers (who represented Johnnie Canuck, the nickname for Canadian
46 Magee, "“She’s a Dear Old Lady”: English Canadian Popular Songs from World War One," 477. 47 Humble, Irene. "We’re from Canada." Toronto: Whaley, Rice & Co, 1915. 24 soldiers) who decide on the Maple Leaf as the ideal symbol of Canada. The chorus highlights the
meaning of the icon;
Oh, the Maple Leaf, yes, the Maple Leaf, We’ll have non other than the grand old leaf, For our King and Country it stands al-way, For justice and truth may it stand for aye.48
The tie between the Maple Leaf and the nationalization campaign by the Dominion’s citizens is
interdependent and many examples of songs referring to the Maple Leaf are present in this study,
including Alta Lind Cook Boys from Canada (Patriotic song) (1915) and Isabel Rutter King
George’s Men (1915). This genre of propaganda aimed to cultivate a unified national image
under the banner of the Maple Leaf as a new icon that symbolized the essential components of
Canadian identity.
The image of triumphal marching bands, spontaneous outbursts of 'Rule Britannia' and
'God Save the King', crowds of eager young enlistees and women mobilized into wartime service
groups provide a snapshot into Anglo-Toronto’s immediate reaction to Britain’s declaration of
war in August 1914.49 As the War progressed news of the unprecedented horrors, specifically
concerning the Second Battle of Ypres, reached home, civilians were confronted with the
exceptional expenditure of human life and the terrible conditions overseas. Met with this reality,
society began to promote the Victorian ideal of outward emotional resilience, a quality
commonly referred to as having a “stiff upper lip.”50 Songs composed by women of Ontario
exhibited this connection between the carnage reported in newspapers and letters and the
composed expression necessary in public life on the home front. Verse one and two of Annie J.
Barrie’s We’ve All Got Someone At The Front (1915) (Figure 9) is the definitive example of the
resolute stiff upper lip attitude that was expected of a population told to toughen up. Similar to
Barrie’s composition, Mulloy’s Nursing Daddy’s Men (1915) extended this view to the voice of
48 Muriel E. Bruce, “Choosing Our Emblem (the Maple Leaf)," Toronto: Empire Music & Travel Club, 1916. 49 Miller and Maclean, Our Glory and Our Grief: Toronto and the Great War, 16. 50 Ibid., 126. 25 a child. As the child in the lyrics was taking care of a particularly sick doll she says, “God takes away the fear/ And then I see her eyes are closed/ I know it’s wrong to cry/ But that is how our soldiers sleep/ With none to say “Good-bye.”51 This attitude of stiff resoluteness and chilling unemotionality served as a survival tactic to counter the distress of the war and was integral to songs that sung of its suffering and pain.
Figure 9: Annie J Barrie, We've all got someone on the Front (Patriotic Song), published in 1915 by Whaley, Rice & Co in their publishing houses in both Toronto and Winnipeg. Accessed on Library and Archives Canada's online database.
The train station was the setting for a display of the true testament to a woman’s iron will.
51 Mrs. Jean Mulloy, "Nursing Daddy’s Men," Kingston, ON: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association 1915. 26 A newspaper report stated that, “The scenes at the train station were women’s Second Ypres.”52
Society demanded that women who made the sacrifice of their enlisted men “not impose their
concerns and fears upon the men leaving to fight the Empire’s battles,”53 especially at the
sendoff. Ian Miller indicated that the scene at the train station, “was a British fare-well,”64 once
again connecting their behaviour to the ideals of the Motherland that forbade shows of emotion.
In Sadie Edwards’ To Arms! Canadian Boys (1916), she gave voice this scene in the second
verse, saying, “The fare-well to our loved ones/ Requires an iron will/ Yet many of our boys
have gone/ But more are needed still.”54 The calculative order that Edwards used in her lyrics
reflected the cyclical pattern of warfare on the home front by this point in the war: the necessity
of the “iron will” followed by a subtle undertone of the immense casualties finally succumbs to
the desperate need of recruits. Her lyrics offer the reader a window into public sentiment in 1916
that dealt with the pain of grief and longing through outward composure and lack of emotional
commonly linked with Victorian sentiment.
The lyrics of Anglo-Ontarian women’s popular songs illuminate the publicly cultivated pro-war propaganda effort that bombarded Canadians for the duration of the Great War.
Primarily focused on encouraging the spirit of volunteerism until the conscription crisis 1917, the
lyricists targeted every faction of society that exerted influence over prospective enlistees: the
men themselves, their wives/ sweethearts, mothers, and even children, in order to entice recruits
and cultivate support for the cause within the family unit. The composers aimed to garner
popular support for the overseas war by promoting a synthesized message created to appeal to
the masses that included various combinations of several key themes. Namely, the increased
opportunities for women on the home front, the symbol of the khaki uniforms that represented
the unified British military force, the villainization of the central European enemies, the
burgeoning concept of Canadian nationalism and an outward irreverence towards the mounting
52 Miller and Maclean, Our Glory and Our Grief: Toronto and the Great War, 127. 53 Ibid., 126. 64 Ibid., 126. 54 Sadie Edwards, "To Arms! Canadian Boys," Cataraqui, ON: Sadie Edwards, 1916. 27 casualty rates and suffering experienced by the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Despite their formal objective and severe tone, one must remember that they were also composed for the simple joy and pleasure of those listening for entertainment. Therefore, the songs were written and listened as both a propaganda vehicle and an escape: to contribute to the war effort and influence the listener as well as to make them feel involved in the overseas war while they enjoyed listening to light-hearted music during an extremely stressful time. This relationship between utility and escape provides historians with a meaningful window into the experience on the home front during total war. When discussing the music and its uses for historians, I am reminded of this simple quote, “Somehow these songs have a timeless quality, an ability to capture the sadness and poignancy of the War of 1914-1918, the loss of lives and the unique nature of the experience.”55 The Canadian music of the Great War, especially by those left at home, should be valued for its ability to unbox this “timeless quality” and historiographically respected as a meaningful resource for this purpose. The musical contributions by everyday women during these distressing times gives hold not only to a glimpse into wartime society as a whole, but also exposes the disregarded musical legacy of Canadian women and their contributions that were instrumental in maintaining moral within a despairing society.
55 Canada and the Great War 1914-1918: A Nation Born. Vol. 3, Ottawa: Veterans Affairs Canada. 28 Bibliography
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Songs
Ballantyne, Florence. "The Call We Must Obey." Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers 1916.
Barrie, Annie J. "We’ve All Got Someone on the Front." Toronto/ Winnipeg: Whaley, Rice & Co, 1915.
Bonnycastle, Charlotte. "The Recruit." Campbellford: Mrs. R. H Bonnycastle, 1916. Bruce, Muriel E. "Kitchener’s Question." Toronto: Empire Music & Travel Club, 1915.
29 ———. "Knitting." Toronto: Empire Music & Travel Club, 1915.
———. "Choosing Our Emblem (the Maple Leaf)." Toronto: Empire Music & Travel Club, 1916.
Clark, Catherine. "The Allies Are Going to Win." edited by Laura Lewin. Toronto: Hawkes & Harris Music Co, 1916.
Creyke, Margaret A. "Mother’s Only Boy." Toronto: Musgrave Boys, 1917.
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Irene. "We’re from Canada." Toronto: Whaley, Rice & Co, 1915.
Mulloy, Mrs. Jean. "Johnnie Canuck’s the Boy." Toronto: Mrs. Jean Mulloy, 1915.
———. "Johnnie Canuck’s the Boy." Toronto: Mrs. Jean Mulloy, 1915.
———. "Nursing Daddy’s Men." Kingston, ON: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association 1915.
Rutter, Isabel. "King George’s Men." Toronto: Whaley, Rice & Co, 1915.
Shaw, Corinee M. "Down with the Prussian Tyrant." Toronto: Corinne M. Shaw, 1917.
Smale, Josie A. "Canada, the Land of the Brave." Toronto: Musgrave Bros, 1916.
Wallance, Grace Thomas. "Are We Beat? No Sir!". Toronto: Anglo-Canadian Music Publishers Association 1916.
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