‘Immersed in the conflict’
Mike Westbrook’s Marching Song (1969) and the landscape and soundscape of war
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v7i3.301Keywords:
Bourdieu, improvisation, jazz, landscape, programme music, World War OneAbstract
With his third album, Marching Song, Mike Westbrook demonstrated the potential of jazz, and of British jazz, to explore both a wide sonic palette and complex social, cultural and historical events. He did so, in this instance, using the idea of landscape as both a metaphor and mediating concept. To comprehend such a composition, the critic must seek to enter the composer’s frame of reference (habitus) and the work’s wider cultural field. To do so a knowledge of both jazz history and history in its broader sense are required. The methodology utilized here focuses on the creative process itself, drawing upon the work of both Pierre Bourdieu and Jason Toynbee.
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Ceadel, M. 2000. Semi-Detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854–1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Collier, G. 2009. The Jazz Composer: Moving Music Off the Paper. London: Northway.
Dodgson, C., C. E. Montague, R. Ross and J. Salis. 1918. Country Life. London: George Newnes.
Fussell, P. 2000. The Great War and Modern Memory. New York: Sterling.
Garnham, N., and R. Williams. 1987. ‘Pierre Bourdieu and the Sociology of Culture: An Introduction’. In R. Collins et al., eds, Media Culture and Society. London: Sage.
Graves, R. 1966. Goodbye to All That. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Graves, R., and A. Hodge. 1961. The Long Weekend: History without Tears—a Social Survey of the Exciting Years from 1918 to 1939 in Great Britain. London: Four Square.
Grout, D. J., and C. V. Palisker. 1996. A History of Western Music. New York: Norton & Company.
Haycock, D. B. 2009. A Crisis of Brilliance. London: Old Street.
Hayward, A. 2004. Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and his Films. London: Bloomsbury.
Heining, D. 1997. ‘Is This Man Britain’s Greatest Living Composer?’ Avant Magazine 1 (Spring): 22–23.
—2009. George Russell: An American Composer. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.
—2012. Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz 1960–1975. Sheffield: Equinox.
Hennessey, M. 1999. Sleeve notes to Celebration. Universal reissue 844852-2.
Kofsky, F. 1998. John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s. New York: Pathfinder.
Minnion J., and P. Bolsover. 1983. The CND Story. London: Alison & Busby.
Mitchell, D. 1970. 1919 Red Mirage. London: Jonathan Cape.
Parkin, F. 1968. Middle Class Idealism. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Raphael, A., ed. 2008. Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh (Directors on Directors). London: Faber & Faber.
Read, H. 1944. Paul Nash. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Sassoon, S. 1996. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. London: Faber.
—1999. The War Poems. London: Faber.
Searle, C. 2008. Forward Groove. London: Northway.
Skelton, R. 1971. Poetry of the Thirties. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Toynbee, J. 2000. Making Popular Music: Musicians, Creativity and Institutions. London: Arnold.
—2007. Bob Marley. Cambridge: Polity.
Walsh, Michael J. K. 2002. C. R. W. Nevinson: This Cult of Violence. New Haven: Yale University.
Westbrook, M. 1969. Programme notes for Marching Song. Deram SML 1047/1048.
Published
2013-12-02
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Heining, D. (2013). ‘Immersed in the conflict’: Mike Westbrook’s Marching Song (1969) and the landscape and soundscape of war. Popular Music History, 7(3), 301-323. https://doi.org/10.1558/pomh.v7i3.301
