It was one of those pleasing coincidences that are so convenient as to be imagined. I was at my desk, researching repertoire from the Second World War in anticipation of the VE Day 80th anniversary. Important British works from the period include Vaughan Williams’s Symphony No 5, Alan Rawsthorne’s Piano Concerto No 1 and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, alongside wartime propaganda film soundtracks such as Walton’s The First of the Few.
Get the latest news and insight into how the Big Issue magazine is made by signing up for the Inside Big Issue newsletter
I selected Spitfire Prelude and Fugue adapted from the latter; a rousing brass melody furnished with snare drums tells the story of the iconic aircraft’s design and construction. It was premiered in 1943 in Liverpool and later performed in New York, its upbeat character perfectly judged to raise patriotic morale. A distinctive engine rumbled in the background. Interesting, I thought, perhaps this particular recording samples some real-life sound effects, rather like Public Service Broadcasting’s Spitfire. Realising the noise was actually coming from outside, I rushed to the window, just in time to see the unmistakable elliptical wings soar across the skies.
Classical music played a significant wartime role. Myra Hess embodied the ‘keep calm and play on’ spirit; the pianist presided over the National Gallery concerts that ran from 1939 until 1946. These performances took place at the London institution despite blackouts and bombings, and were intended to provide employment for musicians and cultural respite among the rubble. They became so well-known that even the Queen attended the 1,000th recital, held in 1943. (This achievement, and more, is covered in Jessica Duchen’s new Hess biography, National Treasure, published by Kahn & Averill.)
Read more:
- Music is everywhere, including in our heads. So why is it so hard to describe?
- 100-year-old WW2 heroine Dorothea: ‘As soon as the war finished we were told to go back to the kitchen’
- It’s 80 years since VE Day and Europe may be free – but we’re losing a war with poverty
In recent years, anti-Russian sentiment has led to Tchaikovsky and compatriots being ‘cancelled’ in some quarters (when Russia invaded Ukraine, Oleksandr Tkachenko, then Ukraine’s minister of culture, suggested that allies should refuse to perform Tchaikovsky because Putin sees “Russian culture as an instrument of his nation’s imperialist policies”). Conversely, during the Second World War, German composers filled British programmes (Hess was a keen Beethovian) and, far from being banned, Mozart (an Austrian) was held up as the art Churchill suggested was worth the fight. In another – more far reaching – convenient coincidence, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony became part of the Allies ‘V for Victory’ campaign, as some clever person noticed the ‘dum, dum, dum, duummmm’ motif equates to the same rhythm as a ‘V’ in morse code (dot-dot-dot-dash).
