The Strains Of Patriotism
 Proof Through the Night: Music and the Great War, Glenn Watkins, University of California Press: 598 pp., $49.95
This Los Angeles Times book review has a great quote from Marcel Duchamp:
Though Europe was outwardly at peace in the early years of the 20th century, many observers, Watkins notes, then felt "that the Franco-Prussian War had settled nothing and that another war was both certain and imminent." Musicians, poets and painters could be found in the vanguard of those crying out for it: "Germany's military buildup had already commenced under the facade of Kultur The Futurists in Italy were calling for war as 'the world's only hygiene,' and the French artist Marcel Duchamp was heard shouting, 'We need the great enema in Europe. And if we need war, we need war' "
Excellent review and the article is fascinating, but my mind took a strange turn when I encountered this passage:
There are stories of masterpieces created in the wake of the Great War: from Alban Berg's unsettling opera "Wozzeck" to Benjamin Britten's retrospective and compelling "War Requiem."
Didn't some guy write an opera with an enema scene? I was sure this was true, but Google took me to many, uh, dead ends until I finally found this description of the scene:
Remember, the libretto that Penderecki himself wrote for "The Devils of Loudun" is filled with graphic detail. Act I is fairly mild, but Act II features both a fantasy orgy and an exorcism by enema, and Act II is taken up mostly with a step-by-step enactment of the torture and execution. Sustained moans pierced by sudden shrieks, explosive percussion followed by gurgling woodwinds, dense tone-clusters that swell up from the depths of the string section - all these are the operatic equivalents of Hollywood's special effects.
Incredible. Krzysztof Penderecki is one of my favorite composers, though I must still spell his given name a single letter at a time. I've even seen him conduct, how could I forget?. Threnody To The Victims Of Hiroshima is one of the most intense orchestrations ever, something I now want to hear with a freakin' subwoofer. Of course, that got me thinking again about war music, where I started. Back to the article, I re-read this, which is even more unsettling than an enema:
The most violent cultural reactions occurred, it seems, in the United States, the last country to enter World War I. The 1917 furor over the falsely alleged refusal of Karl Muck, Swiss-born German conductor of the Boston Symphony, to begin a concert with the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," the newly designated American national anthem, led to Muck's imprisonment for a year as a "dangerous enemy alien." European musicians seeking refuge and engagements in the U.S. during and after the Great War, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, found it prudent to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" as proof of their American loyalty.
Eventually, audience members at concerts and other events were required to stand at attention, hats removed, when the anthem was played. "At a Victory loan pageant held on 6 May 1919 in Washington, D.C.," writes Watkins, "a man was shot in the back three times for refusing to rise for the playing of America's newly proclaimed national anthem. The next day the Washington Post reported that as the victim fell to the ground 'the crowd burst into cheering and handclapping.' "
It hasn't gotten that crazy here yet, but I fear it will. At what point does yellow journalism cross the line from plain vanilla jingoism to full scale inciting a riot? Who cares? As long as it helps the ratings. 31% of Americans polled believe that we've already found WMDs, over 60% in a CNN poll today believe they were there when we invaded. These people are in a dangerous state of mind. They do not want truth or justice; they want blood - and they're still not satisfied.
4:13:22 PM 
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