Ren,
I defer to Jim on music as he knows his stuff. But my take is that while some German music (and art) was being suppressed, the terribly common "Merry Widow" waltz and other tunes from that operetta were almost standards themselves by 1915. They would have been too popular too "pull."
And the boycotting of German artists was not only taking place in Great Britain. There was a movement underway in the US as well at this time. One of the most outspoken on the issue was the dancer Isadora Duncan who, though she made clear her sympathies for France, vehemently opposed the censoring of German art.
It is an interesting coincidence that she had initial (though never finalized) plans to sail on
Lusitania's fatal voyage, accompanied by her troop of dancers. In her startlingly frank autobiography "My Life," still a classic, she had this to say about America and the music scene of 1915:
"...At the moment all New York had the jazz dance craze. Women and men of the best society, old and young, spent their time in the huge salons of such hotels as the Biltmore, dancing the fox trot to the barbarous yaps and cries of the Negro orchestra. I was invited to one or two gala dances at the time and could not restrain my indignation that this should be going on while France was bleeding and needing the help of America. In fact the whole atmosphere of 1915 disgusted me and I determined to return with my school to Europe..."
One will note that while she had an open mind to nationalities, she was as racially biased as anyone else of her day.
One selection Lusitania's orchestra would have played that last trip was that of the "Marseillaise." Isadora had in fact just improvised a hugely successful performance of it at the Metropolitan Opera House.
Another slice of the musical picture of early 1915 was Irving Berlin's ragtime hit "Watch Your Step," starring the ballroom dancing duo Vernon and Irene Castle and produced by Charles Dillingham at the New Amsterdam Theatre. It was the biggest show on Broadway and the songs were hits. "Play a Simple Melody" and "The Syncopated Walk" were some of the most popular to come out of this production and I feel it's more than likely they appeared in the repertoire of Lusitania's band on that last trip.
The racy lines of "The Syncopated Walk" were:
"Look at 'em doin' it, look at 'em doin' it
That syncopated walk
Look at 'em doin' it, look at 'em doin' it
I know who introduced it
That syncopated walk
Wait'll he reaches you, wait'll he teaches you
You'll be doin' it, too
That syncopated walk
Randy
