Davis explores Civil War music at conference, writes articles for journals

School of Music Professor of Musicology James Davis gave a presentation, “Reconstructing Civil War Songs,” at the 46th annual conference of the Society for American Music, held virtually in July. His paper examined how the emergence of a veteran subculture in the late 19th century established Civil War songs as patriotic anthems and promoted their use well into the 20th century.

A forthcoming article by Dr. Davis, “Locating Patriotism in Civil War Songs,” argues that the peculiar social and cultural setting of the American Civil War required musical anthems that avoided geographic specificity and instead targeted metaphoric, historical or political spaces. It is to be published in the December 2020 issue of the academic journal Civil War History.

“The Brass Mounted Army: Civil War Bandsmen and Humor,” an article by Davis on humor and military musicians, has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Band Research, the official publication of The American Bandmasters Association. The journal is devoted to band music, band history and band methodology.