Soldier's Orchestras
The Music of the Heavenly Spheres on Earthen Battlefields
There were very few means of mechanical reproduction of music available to people in 1914, certainly not when compared to the over-abundance in our present day and age. Even in the Second World War it was nothing out of the ordinary for soldiers to have access to a radio, a record player or to hear music played from loudspeakers.
But if the Tommies, Poilus, Doughboys and Fritzes of the Great War had a yen to hear a melody or song, they generally had to do it themselves. Singing was a popular pastime as can made out from memoires and news accounts.
It was moreover not uncommon for most folks at the time to be able to play some kind of musical instrument or another. So it should not come as any great surprise to discover that the soldiers of the Great War were inveterate muscians, forming small bands and orchestras seemingly as a matter of course, be it in the front-line trenches, back at barracks or in prisoner of war camps.
There are a surprisingly large number of photos and illustrations of such amateur impromtu orchestras to be found. Many of the following photos were published in the newsmedia as proof of the troops' good cheer and high morale. Apparently the reasoning went that soldiers who sing are happy soldiers. It was good propaganda to show happy singing POW's as well. German publications intended for neutral countries usually included photos of smiling Allied prisoners, busily and happily engaged in putting on a musical show or harmonizing amongst themselves. The same applied for Allied publications of course. Such photos accentuated each side's humantarianism in regards to treatment of POWs.
Other photos in this collection are from individual soldier's snapshots and war-time souvenirs, often published after the war in books of memoires or the like.
Some of the instruments in these photos are of a suprising quality, perhaps salvaged from a war-torn village or 'on loan' from heavens knows where. Accordeons and similar less-complicated instruments were apparently quite popular. They were not overly large and could produce a wide range of sounds and effects. On the other hand string instruments were often constructed by soldiers themselves, resulting in an amazingly varied output of mandolin-, zither-, guitar-, violin-, bass-, cello- and banjo-like thing-a-ma-jigs. An array of empty wine or schnapps bottles could easily be transformed into a primative but no doubt melodious sounding imitation glockenspiel, and even such mundane objects as water-cans were pressed into musical duty when the need arose. What they sounded like is anyone's guess. But is was certainly more pleasing than the sound of whizz-bangs or the buzzing of machine-gun bullets.
For your viewing pleasure, a look at a lighter side of life as a Great War soldier.
Improvised instruments
Prisoner of War Orchestra
a French orchestra in a POW camp