| The American War in Vietnam (1965--1975) inspired a significant repertoire of art music---over 150 works---spanning a wide continuum of genre and style. While the popular music of America's first "rock 'n roll war" is widely familiar, the "classical" repertoire remains virtually unknown. Over one hundred composers---chiefly from the United States but with significant contributions from Europe, South America, Canada, and Asia---marshaled a wide variety of innovative musical techniques, from the "traditional" to the avant-garde and experimental, in order to express the particular anguish, absurdity, and obscenity of the Vietnam War, a "postmodern" war which by its nature resists traditional linear narrative approaches. The study investigates art music that arose in direct response or makes overt reference to the conflict, including both works composed during the war era, and retrospective works composed thereafter. I seek to establish this diverse group of works as a repertoire, to explore the particular musical processes and components of its constituent works, and to illuminate the connections these works make to the events that compelled them. The study elucidates selected representative works in some analytic depth, and (borrowing Lawrence Kramer's term) opens up "hermeneutic windows" into possible meanings, situating them within their relevant cultural, historical, and aesthetic matrix. The intersection of these works with political events and the broader antiwar movement necessitates as well a discussion of the relation between art and politics, especially given that---in contradistinction to art music associated with previous wars, much of which was patriotic and broadly supportive---this body of work is almost without exception unified by its origin in opposition to the war. I argue that despite its relative obscurity, the art music composed in response to the war in Vietnam constitutes an important chapter in twentieth-century music and cultural history. This body of powerful, intriguing, and relevant work well merits further study and performance. I argue further that the reasons for the relative obscurity of this repertoire has more to do with America's continuing collective amnesia and denial regarding the war than it does with the intrinsic quality of the music itself. |
