Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-04-05
Songs of the War
New York Times.

New York Times.
Beginning about rs years from now, maya
zine and special feature" newspaper articles
will be published on the songs of the Yankee
soldiers in the great war. This is safe predic-
ton, since it was about that length of time after
the civil war that writers began to treat of a
similar subject; and many an article, and even
book, has been written on the songs OF that war
The songs of the old war differed from those
Of the present one in that they reflected more
different shades of feeling. Our war has been
so short that there was not room for much more
than one state of mind; that state OF mind that
is represented in "Over There" Over There
was just as singable up to the very day of the
armistice as it was when the soldiers began to
cross the Atlantic. But the history of the four
years of the civil war, with its hopes, dsap-
pointments, and renewed, determination, can be
traced in the varying themes of its songs. In
the first year of the civil war such song as
Tramp, Thamp. Tramp, the Boys Are March
great losses of the north to bring it out
Over There" was surely the great song of
this war; as John Browns Body" was of the
other. George M. Cohan is entitled, not for the
first time, to the credit of having his hand on
the peoples PULSE OF being real Interpreter Of
Yanks are coming, and we won't come home till
it's over, over there" and the gay but threaten
ing melody eptlomized the whole struggle from
the American viewpoint. Later Cohan struck
anotner chord, w men YOU Tome Back, and
You Will Come Back There's Whole World
Waiting for YOU" but here he only touched a
phase In the earlier song he struck the ma
tional note, as George F. Root struck it in the
old war, with his Rally Round the Flag" Root
too, has his song of single phase. 1--WE Are
Thousand More" We may call Cohan the Root
of this war.
Next to Cohan must be placed Irving Berlin,
with his II Hate to Get Up" though he wrote
others. The two catchiest lines those which
paraphrase the bugle call, were not original,
entered it; but it was he who made song
around them, song that was sung all over the
country by soldiers and civilians, sung in
France, too. Ivor Novelties Keep. the Home
Fires Burning" was written before the war, but
is entitled to rank as war song because it was
adapted to the purpose; and the same may be
said of 70 Elliott's There's a Long, Long
Trail which the soldiers across the water sang
on their marches.
Good bye, Broadway; Hello, France" was
the first in the field, went well while it lasted
but was too commonplace to hold out. AS pop
ular song as any was Joan of Arc" which
had two singular points about it. The author
Alfred Bryan, was also the author of Il Didn't
Raise My Boy to Be Soldier" which was in
great favor among the pro-Germans and paci-
fists before went into the war. When we
did, it dropped out of sight instantly, and Bryan
as quickly changed his sentiments and caught
up with Joan of Arc" which is as militarstc
song as could be written. 1t is irritatingly
commonplace in words, but the music by Jack
Wells is inspiring, and a French translation has
been made of it which is real poem. whereas
Bryan's English words are pathos, made all the
worse by such absurd mistakes as placing Nor
mandy among the victims of the German in
vader. In place of that blunder the French
translator used words which in English would
read, "The bells of Reims they sound in pain"
thus turning turniD into a rose
Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit
Bag was as popular among the soldiers any
song At home we sang more sentimental
songs, such as your Boy and Ny Boy Hello
My Daddy to Me-" America, Here's My Boy!"
and others which few collectors of the future
will bother with; but we all joined the soldiers
enthusiastically in Godfrey O'Hara's xxx
Katy. which was written by an army
The Captain With His Whiskers Stole
Sly Glance at Me-" the comic soldier
song of the old war. In fact the pres
ence OF so many merely sentimental and worth
less songs is fact growing out of the shortness
of this war; they could be duplicated in the
earlier war. 1t was not until that struggle had
grown deadly that we came to such desperately
earnest songs as rally Round the Flag" Yet
the early days of that war gave US. on the Con-
federate side at least, such splendid thing as
Randa1ls my Maryand!' and such rousing
battle song as THE Bonnie Blue Flag" There
has been nothing to approach them in this war
just ended AS for the soldiers, they obstinately
refused to sing martial songs set down for them,
just as they have in this war; and where our
soldiers sang The Long, Long Trail" written
before the war, so the soldiers of the civil war
sang "The Years Creep Slowly By, Lorena,"
written before that conflict. Dixie" the great
est war song of those days was made so by the
soldiers; it was in reality minstrel melody
written two years before the war;
The two wars were linked in noble fashion
in one song. John Hays fine poem, when the
Boys Come Home" written in civil war days,
was set to fine music by Obey Skeats in 1917,
and became the noblest musical expression that
the A. E. F. ever found