Music and the First World War

University of California, San Diego
MUS 80: Special Topics in Music, Summer Session 1 

The First World War, a catastrophic event costing nearly 200 billion dollars and 17 million lives, forever changed the political and cultural landscape of the European continent. As the years passed, and ‘the war to end all wars’ dragged violently on, everyone and everything would be affected. Using the First World War as a lens, this course will examine music beginning in 1913, just before the start of WW1, through the fifth anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1922. This timeline, bookended by the premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and the completion of Berg’s Wozzeck, reveals a body of music impacted, in one way or another, by the The Great War.  Provided below is a sampling of compositions covered during the course.

Igor Stravinsky, Rite of Spring (1913)
Claude Debussy, En Blanc et Noir (1915) 
Arnold Schoenberg, Der eiserne Brigade (1916) 
Erik Satie / Cocteau, Parade (1916­-17)
Maurice Ravel, Le tombeau de Couperin (1914­-1917)
Arseny Avraamov, Symphony of Sirens (1922)
Alban Berg, Wozzeck (1914­-1922)


For more information about this course e-mail Ryan Nestor  at 
ryan.nestor@gmail.com