Wars &
Music
—
In order to
tell the stories of war, and the people who fought them, it
is necessary to recreate a sense of the time that existed
during those wars. Music does that. Whether its the Anti
Vietnam War protest music of the 60s, or the Big Band sounds
of WWII, listening to the music that our soldiers heard when
they went to war makes their stories come alive.
On this website we often add a piece of
music or two—or even at times an entire page of music—to the
stories we tell. It helps us bring our story to life, by
bringing you the reader into the world of our fighting
soldier.
Not surprisingly, the music we present
is diverse. Some of it touches on the poignant, heart
breaking reality of war, lost families, broken marriages,
and the girl left behind. Other pieces we present try to
bring to life the fear and trepidation we all felt of the
unknown dangers that lie ahead. Still other pieces in our
musical collection try to recreate the mood of the times,
the world at large, or even the country of our enemy.
Because of this you'll find in our
musical archive playlists of the music of James Brown... a
soul singer who was born and brought up just outside the
gates of Fort Gordon... and whose musical talent imbued
southern Georgia and the Augusta area with the kind of music
that—for many of the soldiers that passed through Fort
Gordon's training program—helped them pass from the
wet-behind-the-ears adolescent condition they joined the
Army with, to maturity.
Similarly, we've included music that
tells of our enemies. As an example, in our archive you'll
find a playlist of Persian music. It was added to help bring
to life a story we did about the Iranians and their quest
for a nuclear bomb. So too will you find a playlist of
traditional Vietnamese Dan Bau music, a form of folk music
near and dear to the hearts of the Vietnamese people. It's
purpose was to try to rekindle the thoughts and feelings of
those vets who, after sitting up all night on guard duty,
watched with amazement the rising sun spreading its frail
light across the valleys of Viet Nam... land so full of
quiet and peace that it was hard to believe that at any
moment the peaceful rice fields that lay below could erupt
with such violence and hatred for man.
Look through our archive, and the next
time you need a break from today's world, listen to the
songs in one of these musical syllabi.
Archive is listed in alphabetical order:
The Lord's Jukebox — Each month our
Association's Chaplain, Lt. Col (R) Max Holt, posts a
Devotional Page that offers
thoughts about the blessings the Lord has showered us with,
as well as a few suggestions regarding how to deal with those travails
we sometimes find ourselves bearing. On each of his
Devotional Pages Col. Holt has most
graciously allowed us to post a song that tries to
underwrite his devotional
thoughts. By clicking on the icon at the beginning of this
paragraph you can jump to a page that holds a compilation of
all of those songs. Listen to them, we think you will feel
Jesus' blessings when you do.
Persian Music — A playlist of traditional
Iranian music of the kind that
sets Iranian music apart from most other forms of music.
Some of the characteristics include
melodies that are usually concentrated on a
relatively narrow register; melodic movements that occur by
conjunct steps; emphasis is on cadence, symmetry, and motivic
repetition at different pitches; rhythmic patterns are kept
simple and a tempo that is often rapid with dense
ornamentation. Our list was compiled to help readers of an
article we wrote on the impact military technology has on
society better understand the diverse nature of
society. Click the green icon at the beginning of this
paragraph to listen to this music archive.
Soul Music — Back in April, 2013,
we posted an
article about James Brown's music and its impact on those who
served at Fort Gordon. In that article we provided an
audio player with a list of 51 different pieces of soul
music from the Vietnam War period. You can read our article
about James Brown and his music of that time by clicking the
link above, or click the green icon at the beginning of this
paragraph to jump to still another page that talks of the
music of the Vietnam War, and provides you with the complete
list of 51 songs for you to enjoy.
V-Discs — On our
August 2016 Home
Page we presented an article about V-Discs. V-Discs were
78 RPM records created by the Army Special Services division
of the Signal Corps, as a morale-boosting effort for those
fighting in Europe and the South Pacific during WWII. In
that article we told you the story of how V-Discs came into
existence, and included an audio player that let you listen
to a sample of 12 of the V-Disc records. Originally
encompassing some 904 records, we couldn't present them all.
However, if you liked the music we presented to you in
August 2016 then you may want
to click on the icon at the beginning of this paragraph. It
will take you to an audio player that includes those 12,
plus another 48 more for your enjoyment.
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