Musical saber rattling

In 1797, Joseph Haydn delivered artful variations on an anthem of the later Austrian Empire for the second movement of his String Quartet in C Major, op. 76 No. 3. At the time, he was less interested in nationalism than in creative and financial matters. Similarly, Ludwig van Beethoven had the English music market in mind - and not allegiance to monarchs - when he composed his variations on "Rule Britannia."

Patriotic music has always played an important role in Europe's concert halls - but never more so than at the turn of the 20th century.

Vivat, Heil and Hurrah

Musical anthems were then part and parcel not just of political but also public life. They were regularly played at military parades and when military bands performed on Sundays for a general audience. Such pieces would often round out classical concerts - especially when crowned heads were in the audience.

Marches and other patriotic compositions were audience favorites there. They include the five "Pomp and Circumstance" marches written from 1901 to 1907 by British composer Edward Elgar - the first of which is considered Great Britain's unofficial national anthem.

Nationally minded

Elgar made no secret of his nationalist leanings. While German, French and British soldiers fought bitterly at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, the composer began working on "The Spirit of England" for chorus and orchestra and finished it two years later.

Like Elgar in England, Claude Debussy in France was also a passionate patriot - and highly critical of German music. Debussy devised his sonatas of 1915 to clearly contrast with the Beethoven tradition while reviving France's musical legacy.

After German troops marched into Belgium in August 1914, Debussy wrote his "Berceuse heroique" and dedicated it to the country's king and fallen soldiers.

For the people and the fatherland

For its part, the German Empire gave rise to its share of nationalist-heroic sounds. Composers now long forgotten wrote snappy marches and battle songs filled with pathos - music sure to draw a big audience response. That mood also made its way into concert halls attended by the nobility, such as Max Reger's "Vaterländische Ouvertüre" (Overture to the Fatherland, op. 140) for full orchestra. Penned in September 1914, shortly after war's onset, Reger dedicated it to the German army. The piece incorporates well-known melodies such as Hoffman von Fallersleben's "Deutschlandlied" (Song of Germany).

Reger was celebrated almost unlike any other German composer living at the time. Another well-known name was Hans Pfitzner, who wrote two nationalistic "Deutsche Gesänge" (German Songs, op. 25) between 1915 and 1916 for baritone, male chorus and orchestra. Poets August Kopisch and Joseph von Eichendorff were the source of the lyrics.

Shifting affinities

After 1914, long palpable hostility toward the musical gods of other nations took on an extra dimension. Some of Richard Wagner's operas weren't received with great fondness by many in France prior to the war, but once the fighting began, German music in its entirety was held in scorn.

The same was true in reverse for previously much appreciated works by Jacques Offenbach and Charles Gounod. Due to the length of the war and its consequences for the population, patriotic sounds gave way to musical reflection of what happened between 1914 and 1918. Musical hostilities only very gradually subsided after the end of the World War I.