Agn Janukeviit ANF7

Key words: associations, the newlyweds, warriors, love, loyalty, oath, marriage, war, music, emotions.

Common Ground between Music Played for Soldiers and Newlyweds

In all epoches of human culture, music has been one of the most essential spices of life, which can arouse variuos emotions and associations. It can raise ones spirits in a moment and cause a feeling of ineffable joy, or it can make one sink into deep melancholy, or even grieve. This is the reason why music has always been an inseperable element of variuos feasts and celebrations. However, there are cases when the same type or piece of music is being played during completely distinct occassions. For instance, wedding songs bear a close similarity to music played for soldiers before they go into battle. In order to asceratin the cause of this resemblance, the essay is concerned with drawing a parallel between these two ceremonies. Thus, the following three aspects will be taken into consideration: resemblance between the archetypal roles of young lovers and warriors, symbolic association of marriage and war, and music played during the two occasions. To begin with, in order to find out what causes similar associations between the classical roles of a wedded couple and patriots going into battle it is important to single out the significant factors that encourage people to take the most decisive steps in their lives. The first reason is as old as the hills. It is love. Two people who are going to join their destinies everlastingly do it because they are led by love and passion for each other. Moreover, an inexperienced soldier or a war veteran goes into battle also because of one of the most noble feelings love for his native country. The second factor is the sacred pledge to fight for the one that you love. During the marriage ceremony, the newlyweds vow to each other in the presence of God to cherish their love and fight all the struggles of life together. Accordingly, young soldiers make an oath to defend their fatherland from all possible enemies. Furthermore, by making a holly vow two lovers promise to be loyal till death do them part. Unfortunatelly, a XXI century Juliet perhaps would not take a sip of deadly poison to pass away together with her Romeo and join their souls for eternity in the after world. However, fidelity is still an indisputable component of love. The oath of allegiance taken by a soldier also binds him to fight till the end and never leave his brothers in arms to die in battlefield. So, it can be deduced that the sense that there exists some kind of symbolic realation between the archetypal roles of spouses and warriors is evoked by love, a binding pledge and the sense of loyalty. Secondly, when trying to draw the parallel between marriage and war it is necessary to find out why most people instinctively associate these two fundamentally different phenomena. One of the answers may lie in the old clich: alls fair in love and war. Although this saying has its origins in the 1

Renaissance, it can be illustrated by a very famous example from Classical literature. In the majestic Trojan War described by Homer in his epic poem Iliad, Menelaus eager to rescue his beloved beautiful Helen deceived the Trojans proving that in a battle for love even unjust measures are justified. Moreover, the same example can illustrate another widely acknowledged belief that love is the reason of all wars like the forbidden love of Paris for Helen was the main cause of the Trojan War. As a result, such proverbs make people treat the concepts of love and war as interconnected. Furthermore, another reason for the existence of this symbolical association is that people tend to draw analogies between the two phenomena and their experience in life. For instance, life can be compared to a battlefield where wedlock is one of the most important struggles that one must fight during his valuable existence. The married couple must fight for the welfare of their family as hard as warriors struggle for their existence. However, those who know by experience can tell that spouses can never be sure whether their union will bring victory or they will end up on opposite sides of the barricades. The same is with war you can never predict the outcome of a combat. Thus, symbolic associations between wedlock and war are mainly created by a certain literary medium and peoples knowledge of life. One more significant aspect that must be taken into consideration is how a wedding ceremony and the seeing-off of soldiers leaving for battle are connected through music. First of all, in many oral traditions, laments have been a genre usually performed during funeral, wedding and sending recruits to fight. These songs or poems used to express grief, regret, or mourning. So, the atmosphere during the two ceremonies was extremely sorrowful and dismal. It made people contemplate the importance of the occasions which symbolised adulthood and leaving home. In Lithuania, for instance, parents used to mourn over their marrying daughter because she had to move to live together with the grooms family. Moreover, families and girls in love used to cry over young men while saying farewell because of the understanding that they might never come back. However, nowadays, on the contrary, the atmosphere created by the popular Mendelsohns march, traditionally considered to be the wedding march, and marches played for troops before going into combat makes one feel elation and solemnity at the same time. Even though contemporary music may also generate melancholic emotions, marches are played to inspire and bring optimism to the ones who are going to face a lot of difficulties in their struggles. Thus, music can be regarded either the spice which salts a ceremony by making it a sorrowful one or it can be like sugar that adds a pleasant taste to a celebration. All in all, the choice of the same type or piece of music played for the newlyweds and soldiers before they go into battle is not accidental. It is inspired by (1) the resemblance found between the traditional images of a married couple and a soldier, (2) the established symbolical connection between marriage and war, and (3) the same type of emotions that music creates during the ceremonies of wedding and farewell. 2