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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Music in the Great War

Music in the Great War: Gramophones at the Front

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Gramophones at the Front

29/06/2014

BBC Radio 3 - Music in the Great War, Gramophones at the Front

How soldiers kept sane during World War I by listening to gramophone recordings from home.

A feature exploring how soldiers kept sane during World War I by listening to gramophone recordings from home.

How soldiers kept sane during World War I listening to gramophone recordings from home.

The manufacturers of gramophone records and players thought war would be a disaster for business. But by 1916 sales had doubled with the largest captive market in the world. Patriotic songs quickly gave way by 1915 to sentimental tunes about girlfriends and home. How did soldiers in the alienated landscape of the trenches maintain an emotional connection to happier times and places? ('If you were the only girl in the world' was the biggest selling tune of the war.) Soldiers loved to subvert songs with their own robust words and themes. As for recordings being made on the front, only one exists and is almost certainly a fake.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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A series of programmes that follow the story of World War One through music and culture

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Music in the Great War

Gramophones at the Front

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