CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – A two-day symposium hosted by the University of Illinois School of Music will look at creative responses to World War I, starting with the musical interpretations of the iconic poem “In Flanders Fields.”
The symposium “1915: Music, Memory, and the Great War” takes place March 10-11. It is part of the U. of I.’s cross-campus initiative, “The Great War: Experiences, Representations, Effects,” which marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. The event is free and open to the public.
The symposium was organized by Gayle Magee and Christina Bashford, both U. of I. professors of musicology, and William Brooks, a professor emeritus of composition at the U. of I. and at the University of York in Great Britain. The event, tied to the 100th anniversary of the writing of the poem “In Flanders Fields,” draws upon the music being made at the time.
The poem was written by a Canadian military officer, John McCrae, in response to the fighting during the Second Battle of Ypres, Belgium, in spring 1915. The battle marked the first mass use of poison gas by Germany. The poem was later set to music by dozens of composers.
“As the war gets more and more brutal, and there is the use of gas against the troops, it really is interesting to see how art responds to that,” Magee said, noting soldiers saw the brutality of the front lines, while the narrative on the homefront was concerned with maintaining morale.
The keynote speaker for the symposium, Kate Kennedy, is a research fellow in English and music at the University of Cambridge in Great Britain. She is delivering a Center for Advanced Study/MillerComm lecture, titled “Music’s War Poets,” at 4:30 p.m. March 10 at the Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana.
“(Kennedy) will be talking about early moments in the war when some of the most promising young composers and poets in Great Britain went off to fight: F.S. Kelly, William Denis Browne and Rupert Brooke. All of them were killed within the first two years,” Magee said.
A concert by the Kronos Quartet, “Beyond Zero: 1914-1918,” in coordination with the symposium, will be at 7:30 p.m. March 10 at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana. The multimedia work will feature new music and an accompanying film reflecting on the outbreak of World War I.
The symposium will include events hosted by Krannert Art Museum: discussions of the creative responses in popular and classical music to the war, including reaction to the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915; performances and discussions of musical settings of “In Flanders Fields,” and Vaughan Williams’ “Dona Nobis Pacem”; a re-creation of wartime entertainment by a Canadian music and comedy troupe; and “A Night at the Cinema,” featuring silent films with live piano accompaniment. Magee said the popular films of the time moved from the Keystone Cops to a French horror film to Charlie Chaplin.
“At the start of the war, things were still light. You can see the change, and the environment people were living through,” she said.
The symposium will focus on British, French, Canadian and American artists. A sister symposium was held in late February at the University of York.
“We wanted this not to be just England during the First World War or the United States during the First World War. We wanted people who were thinking about music transnationally,” Magee said.
A full listing of symposium events is available online.
For more information, contact Gayle Magee at gsmagee@illinois.edu.
