National WWI Museum and Memorial

Music

When you don’t have the right words

Music helped communities mourn together after World War I. Sung in homes, churches, schools, and public gatherings, these songs transformed grief into shared ritual – carrying memory through melody, performance, and collective remembrance.

Grief became ceremony.

Irony aside, this sheet music published after the war encouraged Americans to pause collectively in remembrance.

Paper with a black and white photograph of four men in uniform in the center. Around them, there is a green frame and text above them to the left that says THE / COPPER CITY / QUARTETTE. Above the image there is a green wreath with a grey bow and text that says Let’s Have A Moments Silence! / (Fore the Boys who Died for you). To the left and right of the image are green seals that says US AMERICAN LEGION. Below there is text that says The Sale of This Song For the Benefit of the American Legion / Words by /

Memory became legend

Songs like “A Story Carved in Stone” transformed fallen soldiers into heroic figures whose stories could live on through performance, repetitions, and shared memory.

Paper with an orange border and at the top the text “A Story Carved in Stone.” Below is a drawing of a soldier laying on the ground, presumably dead, among grass and dirt. Behind him is a stone tomb with a carving of the same man on top. Below him is the text LYRIC BY / L. JANNAH / MUSIC BY / ANNA J. LARSON / PRICE 30 CENTS / NET. Below the drawing, in the border, there is text that says PUBLISHED BY / ANNA J. LARSON, / SHERBURN, MINN

Celebration and sorrow existed together.

Even as communities welcomed soldiers home, songs like “In All Our Rejoicing as the Boys Come Home” reminded Americans that many families would never experience reunion.

Paper with an ornate frame around a photo of a man’s bust, taken from behind, with him looking over his shoulder. Text across the top says In All Our Rejoicing as the Boys Come Home / Let Us Pray for the Ones Who Stay Over / SONGS INTRODUCED BY THE WELL KNOWN BARITONE / George Macfarlane. Below the photo there are song names listed.

The poppy became remembrance

After World War I, poppies became international symbols of memory and loss. Songs like “When the Poppies Bloom Again” carried that symbolism into homes and performances around the world. Using the poppy – a global symbol of remembrance – this love song mourns those lost to war.

Paper with a black and white photograph of a man in a suit in the bottom right, with a red frame around the photograph and text on it in cursive. Around the photograph is artwork of a woman in a dress looking into the distance, leaning on a branch, with giant red poppy flowers in front of her and a field of regular poppies behind her. At the top of the paper text reads WHEN the POPPIES / BLOOM AGAIN / By / Leo Towers, / Morton Morrow / and Don Pelosi.

A symbol changed everything.

Blue Star service flags represented loved ones serving in the military. Gold stars marked those who would never return. Songs like “When the Little Blue Star in the Window Has Turned to Gold” transformed that change into shared public mourning.