Preliminary communication

Croatian Wartime Songs, 1914—1918

Željko Holjevac ; Institut društvenih znanosti Ivo Pilar

Abstract

Millions of soldiers participated in the European and worlds battlefields
during the World War I and millions of civilians in the front background.
Numerous theater plays, concerts and other cultural activities were held
during the four wartime years for humanitarian causes, also many poems
were written and published on the pages of daily newspapers and special
editions. In Croatian cultural milieu numerous collections of songs were
printed, excluding the poems published in newspapers during the World War I. The sales were intended to support wounded soldiers, widows and orphans of fallen soldiers, or for the benefit of the Red Cross. The authors of these songs, soldiers on the battlefields and others, sang about the mobilization and fighting of Croatian regiments within the Austro-Hungarian army in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and later on Italian battlefields. The songs, usually written in plain language, without artistic pretensions, sing of jingoistic propaganda at the beginning of the war, tears and sighs during the war, and starvation and yearning for peace at the end of the war. Even though they do not cover whole dehumanized existence during the Great War, these collections of songs have rather documentary and not aesthetic value and today are open to all kinds of scientific interpretations.

Keywords

Croatia; World War I; wartime songs; collections of songs

Hrčak ID:

238239

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/238239

Publication date:

1.11.2019.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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