ReSounding the Archives

Comparing Sentiments and Statuses in the Great War through Blues Sheet Music

Prior to World War I, classical music was “it.” Any new, cultural sounds were viewed as improper until a uniting force shook things up. In America, the origins of blues and jazz make these sounds so sentimental, yet common to all people. There are subtle differences in the form and structure of blues from other jazz sounds that became more obvious as jazz gained a wider audience in the years after the Great War. The “distinctly human” sentiments expressed in blues lyrics as the war in Europe progressed united Americans. It is also clear that the social impact this type of music had from 1900-1920, both in America and overseas, challenged what is appropriate, thus modernizing the world.

Three composers who were writing prior to, during, and after the Great War—Maceo Pinkard, Irving Berlin, and James Reese Europe—were essential to the globalization of jazz. In the music they wrote or arranged, common American experiences and sentiments were shared. The cultural legacies they each left behind contributed to the acceptance of traditional, African American music. Each one of these composers had major influences on the blues and jazz that we in the 21st century hear today, despite their differences in social status and ethnicity.

Two versions of Pinkard’s "Those Draftin’ Blues" exist with different imagery and layouts on the sheet music covers, revealing the ways that the music industry used marketing to reinforce class and racial lines. Everyone was affected by the Great War, with similar sentiments that crossed all statuses and distinctions: social, ethnic, and gender. Blues music helped to blur these distinctions during the Great War and united Americans through common sentiments that are uniquely human.

Related Resources

"Blues". The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America, Digital Collections. Accessed May 23, 2018. https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/mus....

Brooks, Tim. Ragged but Right: Black Traveling Shows, "Coon Songs," and the Dark Pathway to Blues and Jazz. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.

Hartvigsen, Kenneth. "Patriotism, Race, and Gender Bending Through American Song: Cover illustrations of Popular Music from the Civil War to World War I.” Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 2014. Accessed June 1, 2018. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/14657.

Kenney, William Howland. "The Influence of Black Vaudeville on Early Jazz." The Black Perspective in Music 14, no. 3 (1986): 233-48. doi:10.2307/1215064.

Saffle, Michael, and Robert Groves. “A Break in the Color Barrier: African Americans and World War I Sheet Music.” American Music Society Bulletin (Winter 2017). https://search.proquest.com/docview/1944540123?accountid=14541.

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Jessenia Falwell is a third-year biology major at the University of Virginia. She plans to become an endocrinologist and hopes to improve access and quality of health care in Native American communities.