The effect of World War 1 military service on composers has been neglected in comparison with poets and artists. This article describes the wartime service of Arthur Bliss, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ivor Gurney, EJ Moeran, Gordon Jacob, Patrick Hadley, and Maurice Ravel. The relationship between experiences of combat and the psychological health of these men is examined, with consideration being given to predisposition and possible causative influences of military service on their later careers, examined from individual and societal perspectives.
Roscow G (ed). Bliss on music: Selected writings of Arthur Bliss 1920–1975. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
2.
BlissA. As I remember, London: Thames Publishers, 1989.
3.
MotaNPTsaiJSareenJet al.High burden of subthreshold DSM-5 post-traumatic stress disorder in U.S. military veterans. World Psychiatry2016; 15: 185–186.
4.
KennedyK. ‘A Music of Grief’: classical music and the First World War. International Affairs2014; 90: 379–395.
5.
Burn A. Morning heroes/hymn to Apollo (CD recording notes). Colchester, Essex, England: Chandos Records Ltd.
6.
Williams CH. Lives in letters. A New England family, 1870-2000. Lexington, KY: Createspace, 2015.
7.
Vaughan WilliamsU. R.V.W. A biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams, New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
8.
BeidlerP. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ long journey out of war. War, Literature Arts2012; 24: 1–13.
9.
Kennedy M. Vaughan Williams Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4. Notes for EMI recording, Bernard Haitinck and the London Symphony Orchestra. Recorded XII. 1996. The Coliseum, Watford.
TrethowanWH. Ivor Gurney’s mental illness. Music Lett1981; 62: 300–309.
12.
HippD. Ivor Gurney’s return to the “private” experience of warfare: Rewards of Wonder and the poems of 1919-1922. English Literature Trans 1880-19202000; 43: 3–36.
ShephardB. A war of nerves. Soldiers and psychiatrists in the twentieth century, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
15.
SelfG. The music of E.J.Moeran, London: Toccata Press, 1986.
16.
Maxwell I. The importance of being Ernest John: Challenging misconceptions about the life and works of E.J.Moeran. Durham theses, Durham University, https://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10752/.
HensonRA. Maurice Ravel’s illness: a tragedy of lost creativity. Br Med J1988; 296: 1585–1588.
24.
AmaducciLGrassiEBollerF. Maurice Ravel and right-hemisphere musical creativity: influence of disease on his last musical works?. Eur J Neurol2002; 9: 75–82.
25.
OrensteinA. Maurice Ravel’s creative process. The Musical Q1967; LII: 467–481.
26.
HynesS. A war imagined: The First World War and English culture, London: Bodley Head, 1990.
