Military hospitals in Britain during the First World War cultivated a variety of activities that promoted healing for soldiers, of which music was central. This music was documented by soldiers in hospital-sponsored magazines such as The Hydra at Craiglockhart, an officers’ hospital in Edinburgh that specialized in treatment of shell shock. There, this article argues, music and sound were associated with a curative physicality and sensoriality, revealing the aural and tactile to be aligned within the ideology of the magazine and trauma therapies prescribed.

Music's role in trauma narratives in The Hydra reflects the two approaches to shell shock treatment at the hospital. First, reviews identified weekly musical entertainments, which included singing, playing instruments and listening, as part Captain Arthur Brock's ‘cure by functioning’ regime. Second, narratives in literary contents that reference music in depicting memory and dreams reflect the Freudian psychotherapy used by Dr W. H. R. Rivers, a narrativizing process that I connect to the concept of ‘testimony’ in trauma studies. While the two approaches and their use of music are tied to social class, in both – as I show in drawing upon theories of Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet and Bessel van der Kolk – music is therapeutic because it is visceral – its curative properties lie in its ability to ultimately move the body and mind. Finally, drawing upon theories of cultural trauma by Jeffrey Alexander, this article posits that these narratives evince a self-fashioning of this shell-shocked community that has over time (amplified by the legacies of the hospital's most famous patients, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon) become central to the dominant British cultural memory of the war. This article establishes music's role in narratives about trauma in First World War Britain, illuminating music's place in testimonies about not only hospital life and community formation, but also alienation, trauma and recovery; memory and mourning; and sacrifice and resilience.

第一次世界大战期间，英国的军事医院开展了各种促进士兵康复的活动，其中音乐是其中的核心。这种音乐被士兵记录在医院赞助的杂志中，例如克雷格洛克哈特的The Hydra，这是爱丁堡一家专门治疗炮弹休克的军官医院。在那里，这篇文章认为，音乐和声音与治疗性身体和感官相关联，揭示了听觉和触觉在杂志的意识形态和规定的创伤治疗中是一致的。

音乐在《九头蛇》创伤叙事中的作用反映了医院对炮弹休克治疗的两种方法。首先，评论确定了每周的音乐娱乐活动，包括唱歌、演奏乐器和聆听，作为亚瑟·布罗克船长“通过功能治疗”制度的一部分。其次，在描述记忆和梦时引用音乐的文学内容中的叙事反映了 WHR Rivers 博士使用的弗洛伊德心理疗法，我将这种叙事化过程与创伤研究中的“证词”概念联系起来。虽然这两种方法及其对音乐的使用都与社会阶层有关，但在两者中——正如我在借鉴让-马丁·夏科、皮埃尔·珍妮特和贝塞尔·范德科尔克的理论中所展示的那样——音乐是治疗性的，因为它是发自内心的——它的治疗特性在于它能够最终移动身心。最后，借鉴杰弗里亚历山大的文化创伤理论，这篇文章假设这些叙述表明了这个震惊社区的自我塑造，随着时间的推移（被医院最著名的病人威尔弗雷德欧文和齐格弗里德沙逊的遗产放大）成为英国对战争的主要文化记忆的核心。本文确立了音乐在关于第一次世界大战英国创伤的叙事中的作用，阐明了音乐在见证医院生活和社区形成以及异化、创伤和康复方面的地位；记忆和哀悼；以及牺牲和韧性。威尔弗雷德·欧文 (Wilfred Owen) 和齐格弗里德·沙逊 (Siegfried Sassoon) 成为英国对战争的主流文化记忆的核心。本文确立了音乐在关于第一次世界大战英国创伤的叙事中的作用，阐明了音乐在见证医院生活和社区形成以及异化、创伤和康复方面的地位；记忆和哀悼；以及牺牲和韧性。威尔弗雷德·欧文 (Wilfred Owen) 和齐格弗里德·沙逊 (Siegfried Sassoon) 成为英国对战争的主流文化记忆的核心。本文确立了音乐在关于第一次世界大战英国创伤的叙事中的作用，阐明了音乐在见证医院生活和社区形成以及异化、创伤和康复方面的地位；记忆和哀悼；以及牺牲和韧性。