‘I have just written a song which came out of my soul’: Lay Music Production and the Death of President John F. Kennedy

Abstract

ABSTRACT The death of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963 drew a mass outpouring of public and private grief. Thousands of people from all over the world sent condolence messages to his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy. They also sent pieces of music, sometimes hurriedly composed, in response to their overwhelming grief. Most of these pieces have never been heard and sit in a silent archive. This essay examines the condolence music composed for Kennedy, focusing especially on the lay material in the condolence archive, and discovers men, women, and children who found solace in the songwriting process, pre-empting what we now know to be an effective form of grief therapy. It reveals the characteristics of lay music production in response to Kennedy’s death, and how the people who sent music to Jacqueline Kennedy explained what they were doing and why they were doing it.