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  • Maryland, My Maryland: Music and Patriotism during the American Civil War by James A. Davis
  • Ann Ostendorf
Davis, James A. – Maryland, My Maryland: Music and Patriotism during the American Civil War. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Pp. 390.

In Maryland, My Maryland, musicologist and Civil War historian James A. Davis interrogates the life of the song “Maryland, My Maryland” to better understand how music creates patriotism. This case study of the creation, performance, and reception of the song weaves between a telling of the events of the war, with particular attention given to Marylanders’ roles in and experiences of the conflict, and the diverse and changing meanings Americans attached to and extracted from the anthem. In addition, Maryland, My Maryland considers the ways personal, local, regional, and national identities shaped, and were shaped by, music. The author aptly refers to this study as a “musical microhistory,” and achieves his stated goal of clarifying “how the song’s nascent meanings resulted from its usage in volatile and ever changing situations and how musical meaning was negotiated between performer, audience, setting, and social exigency” (pp. xviii).

The book is divided chronologically into seasonal sections. Each section begins with a description of the wartime events and is followed by a consideration of the connections between these events and the song during that season. For example, Chapter 2, titled “Spring 1861,” first examines the Pratt Street Riot, a confrontation between Northern soldiers moving through Baltimore and pro-Confederate civilians, and then considers how this event motivated James R. Randall to write the poem which became the song’s lyrics. The chapter “Fall 1861” explains how the first major fighting of the war triggered fervent emotional responses among Marylanders and how that led Hetty Carey to set the poem to the music of “Lauriger Horatius” (better known later as “O Tannenbaum”). The 12 chapters continue in this vein, with an epilogue considering the role the song played in constructing the Lost Cause myth and how that myth shaped the song’s reception well into the twentieth century.

The author does more than merely narrate the history of the song alongside the history of the war. Rather he tethers the two together, describing the feedback loop between the song and the events of the war. The conduit for this loop, of course, were the diverse Americans challenged by the tumultuous time and place in which they lived. The song meant drastically different things depending upon the person, place, and time of its use. Though ostensibly a Confederate anthem used as a generic symbol of attachment to the cause, it carried other meanings as well. A Confederate soldier retreating through Maryland, a Northern newspaper editor critiquing Lincoln, or a wounded Maryland soldier languishing in hospital each found the song meaningful though in wildly different ways. As Davis writes, the song’s “fluctuating popularity with specific audiences mirrored the volatile progression of the conflict as a whole” (p. xvii).

The author illustrates how music in general, and “Maryland, My Maryland” in particular, promoted patriotism through a detailed consideration of how individual Americans—North and South—attached meaning to and extracted significance from the song. As such, this is also a study of patriotism. Davis interrogates how [End Page 386] an anthem can aid in the attachment of an individual to a “locus of identity—such as a specific place, a definable belief system, or a historical icon—toward which one’s patriotism can be directed” (pp. xvii). And just as patriotism during the war remained in flux, so too did the meanings attached to the song. These fluctuating meanings concern Davis the most.

In addition to tackling the history and cultural genealogy of the piece, Davis also weaves into this work the history of the state of Maryland. As a border state positioned between the capitols of the two competing sections, Maryland experienced the Civil War in a distinctive way. At the same time, the author situates Marylanders experiences of the war (and the song) alongside those from other places. He is sure to note how different people may have heard and used the song differently depending upon where they were from...

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