dc.description.abstract | This paper explores how the First World War affected the lives and compositions of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Maurice Ravel, and Arnold Schoenberg, three well-known twentieth-century composers who fought in the conflict on the British, French, and Austrian sides. The war affected the lives and compositions of these three men in significant, enduring, and divergent ways. The sharp differences in their compositional reactions to the war owe primarily to these authors' previous compositional styles, particularly their prewar approach to tonality, and their divergent wartime experiences, such as the extent of military service and traumatic events that paralleled the war. Despite their differences, a commonality was present; the war prompted these composers to change their view of tonality. More broadly, the war also led to compositions that were characteristically darker, more somber, and dedicated to the injured and deceased. | en_US |