TY - JOUR
T1 - Some British Musical Responses to the Spanish Civil War
AU - Bowan, Kate
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - When writing on the Spanish Civil War for the Guardian in 2007, Eric Hobsbawm remembered it was the artists, writers and poets who documented it by means of ‘the pen, the brush and the camera’. Absent in Hobsbawm’s recollections is any mention of music or musical performance. Taking Alan Bush’s 1939 Popular Front spectacle, Festival of Music for the People as a point of departure, this article explores some of the myriad musical responses to the Spanish Civil War, including a commission for the young Benjamin Britten, Frida Stewart’s work with the Basque refugee children’s choirs and the activism of the celebrity singer Paul Robeson. These responses involved music in fundamentally different ways, from the creation of new art music for a political cause to the use of music in social action. Taken together they provide a glimpse of Britain’s diverse and multifaceted musical response to the question of Spain.
AB - When writing on the Spanish Civil War for the Guardian in 2007, Eric Hobsbawm remembered it was the artists, writers and poets who documented it by means of ‘the pen, the brush and the camera’. Absent in Hobsbawm’s recollections is any mention of music or musical performance. Taking Alan Bush’s 1939 Popular Front spectacle, Festival of Music for the People as a point of departure, this article explores some of the myriad musical responses to the Spanish Civil War, including a commission for the young Benjamin Britten, Frida Stewart’s work with the Basque refugee children’s choirs and the activism of the celebrity singer Paul Robeson. These responses involved music in fundamentally different ways, from the creation of new art music for a political cause to the use of music in social action. Taken together they provide a glimpse of Britain’s diverse and multifaceted musical response to the question of Spain.
KW - Basque children’s choirs
KW - Spanish Civil War
KW - antifascism
KW - music and politics
KW - music as social action
KW - musical activism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112095810&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17526272.2021.1950964
DO - 10.1080/17526272.2021.1950964
M3 - Article
SN - 1752-6272
VL - 14
SP - 408
EP - 428
JO - Journal of War and Culture Studies
JF - Journal of War and Culture Studies
IS - 4
ER -