YourClassical

Songs of War

Charles Ives: He is there!
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Eric Bogle: And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda
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Stephen Foster: Was my brother in the battle?
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Tom Lehrer: So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)
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Gene Scheer: Omaha Beach
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Sheldon Harnick: Merry Little Minuet
Was My Brother in the Battle?
"Was My Brother in the Battle? Songs of War" is a musical-narrative of America's military conflicts including fervent nationalism and patriotism of World War I; intimate personal glimpses into World War II; and Vietnam-era protest songs.
Photo courtesy of Albany Records

Gen. William T. Sherman famously said "war is hell," years after he successfully led the Union soldiers to victory in the Civil War.

Sherman was not one to be taken with the stories of glory or the nobility of ideals that war was sold on. He was a realist and knew war's toll.

Fast-forward to our era and the war in Iraq. Baritone Stephen Swanson found the attitudes in those planning the war -- as well as the media -- didn't take into account war's effects or plans for the aftermath of "Shock and Awe."

While Swanson says he's not a pacifist, he wrote letters to Congress and to his newspaper, to try and affect a slower, more measured approach.

Stephen Swanson
Stephen Swanson is professor of voice at the University of Iowa, School of Music. His program of songs about war grew out of the frustration with the coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom and with his son's decision to enlist.
Photo courtesy of The University of Iowa School of Music

He was personally touched when his son decided to enlist in the Air Force. So he decided he would express himself the best way he could, as a singer.

Swanson and his wife Marilyn -- along with pianist David Gompper, who arranged many of the pieces -- created a program of songs that tell the larger human story of war from patriotic fervor to dark gallows humor and protest.

The songs are a kaleidoscope of images -- sometimes harsh, other times ironic and funny, at others poignant and disturbing.

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