Concert features wartime songs

Music can reach generations. It can connect people whose lives are otherwise separated by years of history.

On Friday night, people can venture inside Silver Spire United Church in St. Catharines and hear songs from the First and Second World Wars.

Some songs are timeless with melodies that a younger audience might recognize, says Tom Inglis, who along with his wife, Fran, are musical directors at the church on St. Paul Street.

Consider the tunes Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag,a First World War marching song, or from the Second World War The White Cliffs of Dover.

Big band legend Glenn Miller recorded a version of the song in 1941. Three years later, he died while travelling to entertain U.S. troops in France and his plane disappeared over the English Channel.

There will be many other songs like Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty — an old term for Britain — and This is the Army, Mr. Jones. There will be Canadian songs, too — Going Back to Canada and You’ll Get Used to It.

Songs of World Wars I and II begins

Songs of World Wars I and II

Listen to songs of the First and Second World Wars, and sing along if you wish. Friday, 7 p.m., at Silver Spire United Church. Tickets are $15. Call 905-688-3895. Limited tickets available at the door.

at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15.

Indeed, it’s the songs of a war era that helped to bring people together, to unify and boost morale.

“To many in my generation it’s the songs that are memorable,” said Inglis.

Wartime songs can prompt memories in an older generation who lived in that time in history, and they can tap into an emotion of remembrance for a younger generation. They can give life to an era long ago, and generate a communal sense of shared nostalgia, he said.

“The songs are all very poignant. When people hear the songs they help us remember what we never experienced.

“We can all read about them in history books. But reading doesn’t bring them to live.”

Joining the Inglises will be Paul Wintemute and Kate Profijt, who people might recognize as the two main characters in the Garden City Productions performance of Fiddler on the Roof. Cclock@postmedia.ca