Sir Isaac Newton's Cradle

War and Music As gruesome war can be, and how beautiful music can be, the two are undoubtedly associated with each other. It is almost as if war and music have been constantly impacting each other, resembling Sir Isaac Newton’s Cradle, for over the past several centuries. Music’s impact on warfare can be seen on and off the battlefield. In both of these instances, it was mainly used for communication purposes and as a psychological weapon. On the other hand, war has impacted music in several different ways. For example, the violence of warfare has molded many of the musical artists’ emotions and attitudes, which has resulted in powerful, upbeat music or dark, depressing music. War has also mixed many different cultures’ music as a result

During battle, smoke, gunfire, and the sounds of hundreds or even thousands of yelling voices can make it almost impossible to control any group of soldiers. To solve this problem, many cultures used, and created, several different kinds of instruments and short tunes to signify certain actions, such as “cadences for marching and signals for battle, as well as marking routine activities such as meal and bed time” (Dobney). The Romans and Greeks were one of the first known cultures to use music to communicate with their troops (Trotter). The Instruments most commonly used together in battle were brass and percussion instruments, like the bugle, fife, and the snare drum, used in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Together, they were known together as “field music” (Dobney). The fife was a small, high-pitched version of the flute with six holes and was usually made of wood or brass. It’s no surprise these two instruments were used on the battlefield, because together the melodic tunes of the fife and the rhythmic beats of the drums could be heard for a few miles. The bugle was usually used separately, mainly to call for the charge of the Calvary (Dobney), which we still played today at sporting events followed by a chant “CHARGE!”. Bugles were brass instruments that resemble a trumpet, as they were made with a single coil and no valves. This meant the pitch could only be

The most prominent example of this is Ludwig Van Beethoven. Beethoven was raised in a chaotic environment, internally and externally. With a depressed, resenting mother and an alcoholic, psychological abusive father, Beethoven sought to learn music to funnel his emotions. Amongst the turmoil of his personal life, the French Revolution was starting by the time he was 19 (Kerman & Tomlinson 212). Beethoven soon idolized Napoleon and what the French Revolution stood for, individual freedom. The once repressed Beethoven then began to express his rage and other emotions into his music into many political symphonies like Bonaparte (Erocia), named after Napoleon (Kerman & Tomlinson 225). What was unique about Beethoven’s music was the fact that it was centered around the feelings and spirit of the composer, which was unlike much of the classical music before his time. It was almost as if Beethoven was starting his own revolution. Beethoven’s self-expression music was said to be the start of Romanticism age in music because of how it centered around personal passions, instead of pleasing God or audiences. Without the French Revolution, There is a possibility we would have never heard the genius of Beethoven’s music. Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion states every action has an equal and