B.C. music instructor says touring swing bands lifted military spirits during WW II

Local trumpeter, band leader and music educator AlanMatheson says characteristically energetic and upbeat swing music was a great antidote to the grim realities of the Second World War.

"It was sort of the main vehicle for public dancing,"Mathesonexplained to Hot Air host Margaret Gallagher.

Matheson says manyCanadian and American swing bands avidly toured military bases throughout North America during the war.

"They were especially important formorale boosting," he stated.

Matheson spoke with Gallagher duringaRemembranceDay edition ofHot Air,whichhighlighted popular music during the Second World War.

Gaining popularity

According to Matheson, many bands gainedfameduring the Second World War.

"A lot of musicians enhanced their reputations becausethey had been heard by millions of people either playing live or via radio," he said.

For example, Mathesonexplained, musicians like Canadian trumpeter Robert Farnon went abroad to play music during the Second World War.

Farnonwent on to become the musical director for the Canadian Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Britain and was a contemporary of the American composer, Glenn Miller.

Women inmusic

Matheson saidthe wartime period also offered opportunities for other musicians: women, who filled instrumentalist and composer roles.

"You'll see women occupying the chairs left behind by people who were inducted into the armed forces," explain Matheson.

He pointed to the American all-female band, International Sweethearts of Rhythm, as one example of the prevalence of women in swing music.

Although the popularity of big band and swing continued after the war, Matheson says it petered out with the rise of rock and roll toward the end of the 1940s.

With files from Hot Air.

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