Culture and Propaganda in World War II: Music, Film and the Battle for National Identity

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John Morris (Independent Scholar, South Africa)

Culture and Propaganda in World War II

Music, Film and the Battle for National Identity

John Morris (Independent Scholar, South Africa)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
30 April 2020

History; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Social & cultural history; Second World War; Propaganda

The wartime period in Britain is now seen as an extremely fertile period of British creativity in music, film and art. Often, these projects were funded and supported by the government, who saw its role as a custodian of British culture, and by extension, of British values, at a time when those values seemed under great threat. In the late thirties the Nazi Party had stressed the superiority of Germanic culture and the promotion of Richard Wagner and Carl Orff was central to Hitler's cultural program. In Britain, the War Office under Winston Churchill chose to promote Edward Elgar and Hubert Parry, but also to appropriate and 'de-Nazify' Ludwig van Beethoven- whose Fifth Symphony was used extensively in wartime broadcasts and has since become synonymous with VE Day. Meanwhile, the work of Ralph Vaughn Williams, whose music was commissioned by Powell and Pressburger for use in 49th Parallel, reclaimed a particularly English past stretching back to the Tudors. While artists such as John Piper, Eric Ravillious and Evelyn Dunbar produced works specifically commissioned by the state which were intended to commemorate and glorify Britain, the British Council and the BBC played an active role in commissioning and broadcasting their musical equivalents. In film, Humphrey Jenning's documentaries were designed to further push the wartime agenda, along with films produced by Ealing Studios. Here, John Morris assesses the history of this body of work, shedding new light on the period. A cultural history of music in wartime based on detailed archival research, Culture and Propaganda in World War II is essential reading for historians of the period, musicians, film scholars and propaganda analysts.

By: John Morris (Independent Scholar South Africa)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm,
Weight: 304g
ISBN: 9781350159068
ISBN 10: 1350159069
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 30 April 2020
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Music in the Context of Propaganda 2. Morale on the Home Front: Live Classical Performance 3. Reasonable Cadences: Cultural Propaganda and the British Council 4. 'Under the Auspices of the British Council' - the Music Committee during the War 5. Broadcasting, Policy and Music Commissions of the BBC 6. Handel, Beethoven and Humphrey Jennings: The Use of 'German' Music in Film 7. A British Magic Mountain: Original Music in Feature Film Propaganda 8. Music's Enduring Instrument Notes Select Bibliography Select List of Musical Works Cited Select Filmography Index

John Morris is an expert on music and film in the Second World War period, and holds a PhD in English from the University of Exeter, UK.