For: Dissertations Reviewed File

Howerton, Jaclyn. “Doing His Bit”: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Music for British Wartime Propaganda Films, University of California, Riverside, Ann Arbor, 2019. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/dissertations-theses/doing-his-bit-ralph-vaughan-williams-s-music/docview/2308262555/se-2?accountid=8289.

Howerton, Jaclyn. “Doing His Bit”: Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Music for British Wartime Propaganda Films. Order No. 22618283 University of California, Riverside, 2019 Ann ArborProQuest. 3 Feb. 2021
Ralph Vaughan Williams espoused a practical aesthetic, as he believed that composers must first address national concerns. Too old to serve in the Armed Forces during the Second World War, Vaughan Williams was determined to serve his nation in its fight against fascism. Anxious for war work, he mentioned to Arthur Benjamin that he was willing to compose for films. Benjamin contacted Muir Mathieson, the musical director of the wartime Ministry of Information, who quickly offers Vaughan Williams the opportunity to score the 1941 Michael Powell film; 49th Parallel. The film was a success and Vaughan Williams was fascinated by the new propaganda opportunities provided by scoring film music. This dissertation examines in detail the film music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, especially in regard to its role as a propaganda tool used to support national morale during the Second World War. This research explores the role that Vaughan Williams’s nationalistic style of music played within the first three propaganda films that Vaughan Williams scored—49th Parallel (1941), Coastal Command (1942), and Flemish Farm (1943)—as well as their place within the war effort as an extension of the stereotype of the soft-spoken, resilient Briton. Despite Vaughan Williams’s firm place in the history and repertory of twentieth-century British composers alongside Edward Elgar and Gustav Holst, little research has been conducted on his film scores. In addition to analyzing the surviving original scores for each of these films, this study investigates some potential explanation for Vaughan William’s late entrance into film composition. This includes a brief analysis of the composer’s humanitarian efforts throughout the war, his involvement with the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), and his efforts on behalf of both European and Jewish immigrants. Although film music has often been relegated to a second-class status art-form, this research further traces the melodic themes that Vaughan Williams had not only written for each film, but also reused later in the “high-art” realm of the British concert hall.

This is a marvelous delving into Vaughan Williams’s work for the Ministry of Information during the Second World War, specifically the three films mentioned above. The following quote is especially noteworthy for my focus while gathering the literature on music used in warfare throughout history and around the globe: “Whereas the Nazis needed to ideologically mold their society through National Socialist entertainment, British democracy reinforced accepted stereotypes of British behavior, such as Baldwin’s “English gentleman,” and boosted morale for its citizens and troops.23” (23 is a foot not to: 23Jo Fox, Film Propaganda in Britain and Nazi Germany,7.) Psychology is an important factor in the use of music. What psychology publications – textbooks, studies, articles, media – deal with the subject of the psychology of music? How does the material therein apply in general to music used in warfare anywhere in the world and throughout history? Is that a main focus, say, for building a class on the subject of music in warfare? Or is it one of the focuses (foci?) with others being instruments used, examples of the effectiveness of music (improve morale, instruction/drilling, civilian enthusing, instilling fear in enemies), names/dates of who used music to great effect? Others? That’s all for tonight, 3rd February, 2021.