Civil War bands, indispensable to both Union and Confederate troops, were employed by officers to keep morale high during times of rest and relaxation, and to instill regional pride during times of battle. I engage in an inquiry into the functions of the Civil War band in order to highlight the nature of music as it offers at one moment the emotional integration of camaraderie and at another moment the impetus to spur soldiers to combat. As a means of investigating such cases, I start with the poem “Union Camp Music,” included in my recent book of poems, Cyclorama, and conclude with a discussion of the receptive functions activated by both poetry and music in the listeners of each art form. Both poetry and music depend upon bodily reactions, the former relying more upon a referentiality inherent to meaning, the latter upon a nonreferentiality that can turn intention obscure. Both art forms, nonetheless, retain as a primary effect, the performer-to-listener synchrony that derives from somatic response.
Skip Nav Destination
Close
Article navigation
Summer 2016
Research Article|
July 01 2016
Body, Comity, and the Civil War Band: Thoughts on Music and Poetry
Daneen Wardrop
Daneen Wardrop
Daneen Wardrop is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has authored several books of literary history and poetry, including most recently Civil War Nurse Narratives (University of Iowa Press) and Cyclorama (Fordham University Press).
Search for other works by this author on:
19th-Century Music (2016) 40 (1): 47–55.
Citation
Daneen Wardrop; Body, Comity, and the Civil War Band: Thoughts on Music and Poetry. 19th-Century Music 1 July 2016; 40 (1): 47–55. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ncm.2016.40.1.47
Download citation file:
Close
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.