"The masses are singing": Insurgency and song in New York City, 1929--1941.
Item
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Title
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"The masses are singing": Insurgency and song in New York City, 1929--1941.
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Identifier
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AAI3083676
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identifier
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3083676
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Creator
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Johnson, Marc Endsley.
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Contributor
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Adviser: John Graziano
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Date
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2003
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music | American Studies | Political Science, General
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Abstract
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"The Masses Are Singing": Insurgency and Song In New York City, 1929--1941 is a comprehensive examination of the relationship between music and leftist politics in Depression-era New York City. This dissertation draws on a broad variety of sources both primary (musical scores and recordings, music criticism in archival periodicals, letters, and government documents) and secondary (scholarly books and articles, biographies, cultural histories, and interviews). It explores the ways in which a number of musicians' radical political views shaped their music, and through it, our nation's musical tradition as a whole.;There are several reasons for the significance of 1930s New York's musical legacy. Major transformations in a number of areas of American life---including technology, communications, and notions of leisure---contributed to the crystallization of America's musical identity during the 1930s. This process was centered in New York City, the nation's economic and media capital. Also during the 1930s, a diverse and influential group of musicians lived in New York City. They were connected to one another by both geography and, broadly speaking, ideology. A number of these musicians also had institutional ties, working as colleagues at the New School, the Downtown Music School, and the Workers Music School, and forming such groups as the Composers Collective, the Young Composers League, the American Music League, and the American Composers Alliance. Several were involved with the New Deal Arts Projects. Many of them collaborated with one another and with leading figures in other arts.;Moreover, the years between the world wars were seminal ones in the construction of our nation's musical identity; in all musical fields, from cultivated composition to jazz to folk music, New York musicians sought, through their music, to help define for the first time a unique, recognizably American musical culture. Because the New York musicians conceived their involvement in this project as an expression of their political radicalism, the conventional musical image of America that they helped create is both musical and political in its significance.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
