This course will explore how World Wars I and II changed the role of music and musicians in Western European society, as well as the sound of music itself. Within the time frame of 1900? 1945, this course will examine the effects of the World Wars on the evolution of Western European Orchestral Music. By analyzing the influence of dictators such as Hitler and Stalin on musical expression within their countries, this course asks the question: What is the relationship between oppression and creativity? Further effects on music of the politics of the 1930?s and 1940?s will be considered in the stories of specific imprisonments and emigrations that resulted from the wars.