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MMD > Archives > March 1998 > 1998.03.08 > 05Prev  Next


War Song 'Lorena'
By Hal Davis

Marlene Dietrich?   Wasn't that "Der Blauer Engel?"  I haven't seen that
for a long time but I was in love with her from the very first time
I ever saw her.

Regarding another tune with a similar war-time effect ...

During the War of Secession, later known as the Civil War, there was a
tune called Lorena, possibly Laureena, that was a sentimental, maudlin
tune that so affected soldiers of both armies so much that commanding
officers ordered that it no longer be played as the it made the
soldiers so homesick that they didn't want to fight.

Although I am not sure how the name is spelled, I can still play it on
the Calliope, which by the way, is how it was often played during that
was whenever there was a group near a riverboat as nearly all of the
six or seven thousand riverboats in the United States were equipped
with steam calliopes during the years following 1853. Because of that
history, I feel that my calliope, though a pneumatic calliope, gives a
fairly rendition of the sound of that song.

Hal Davis


(Message sent Sun 8 Mar 1998, 10:56:27 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.)

Key Words in Subject:  Lorena, Song, War

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