9. The Politics of Work: Idealism Confronts Bureaucracy in the Federal Music Project

This chapter provides an overview of the rationales, efforts, and results of public and private initiatives promoted by musicians, educators, government officials, businessmen, and other advocates, to encourage active music making as a leisure activity in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Following the establishment of professional organizations promoting community music in the early twentieth century, private industries began to sponsor musical activities as recreational for their workers. State, county, and municipal governments funded programs to create opportunities for active music making in the community. The Federal Music Project of the Works Projects Administration (1935–1939) employed thousands of musicians and music educators across the country to perform concerts, teach music classes, and create new musical organizations. The chapter concludes with a description of a survey of music making in the industrial city of Pueblo, Colorado, conducted by sociologist and music educator Max Kaplan.

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Federal Art Project

Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism ◽

10.4324/9781135000356-rem169-1 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Antonia Pocock

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

World War Ii ◽

New Deal ◽

Public Works ◽

Visual Artists ◽

Community Art ◽

Federal Art Project ◽

The Great Depression ◽

Federal Music Project ◽

War Propaganda

The Federal Art Project (FAP) was a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a work relief agency established in 1935 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Second New Deal. Aimed at mitigating unemployment during the Great Depression, the WPA hired 8.5 million Americans for public works projects, focused mainly on infrastructure improvements. The WPA’s Federal Project Number One—which comprised the FAP, the Federal Writers’ Project, Federal Theater Project, Federal Music Project, and Historical Records Survey—subsidized the creative activities of 40,000 artists, writers, actors, and musicians. The FAP commissioned 5,000 visual artists to paint murals in public buildings; create easel paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings that were displayed in traveling exhibitions; teach in newly established Community Art Centers; document the activities of the WPA photographically; and design posters promoting New Deal policies. In addition to providing financial aid to destitute artists, the FAP aimed to preserve their skills and encourage a thriving American artistic tradition at a time when there were few private commissions. Though it operated nationwide, the FAP was concentrated in New York City, where 3,000 artists participated in the project, including many who went on to achieve international recognition after World War II as part of the Abstract Expressionist movement. By 1941, the FAP was limited to the production of war propaganda and training aids, and in 1943, President Roosevelt terminated all WPA projects.

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Conclusion

10.5406/illinois/9780252039041.003.0009 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Gough ◽

Peggy Seeger

Keyword(s):

New Deal ◽

American West ◽

Historical Context ◽

White Men ◽

Cross Cultural ◽

Music Program ◽

Women Poor ◽

General Welfare ◽

Federal Music Project ◽

The New Deal

This chapter argues that while the Federal Music Project (FMP) and WPA Music Program in the American West reflected many of the societal prejudices of the day, it was the New Deal emphasis on inclusion that distinguishes the musical productions within a historical context. Indeed, participation bridged many previous barriers and included black as well as white; men as well as women; poor and not; conservative, liberal, and radical; symphonic orchestras and orquestas tipicas; African American spirituals; folksong; satirical political revues; and the range of musical expression. These cross-cultural presentations most often found origin as grassroots ventures and were encouraged by a presidential administration that enthusiastically embraced its constitutionally mandated responsibility to “promote the general welfare” within a society where each citizen is assured of his or her own pursuit of happiness.

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“The Folk of the Nation”

10.5406/illinois/9780252039041.003.0008 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Gough ◽

Peggy Seeger

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Folk Music ◽

The United States ◽

Ethnic Composition ◽

Theodore Roosevelt ◽

Original Meaning ◽

Federal Music Project ◽

Academic Recognition ◽

American Society ◽

Definition Of

This chapter provides a definition of folk music. Precise definition of the term folk music has long confounded scholars and been the source of endless debate and controversy; general agreements, either popular or academic are rare, and misunderstandings abound. Folk music in the United States reflects the complex history and diverse ethnic composition of American society. Indeed, academic recognition of these native musical forms preceded the development of the Federal Music Project (FMP); in 1882, Theodore Baker published a scholarly study of American folk music, and in 1910, Theodore Roosevelt wrote a preface for John Lomax's groundbreaking Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads publication. Meanwhile, some scholars argue that if a song has a known author, it cannot be classified as folksong “because the original meaning of folk music was something ancient and anonymous.”

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Innovation, Participation, and “A Horrible Musical Stew”

10.5406/illinois/9780252039041.003.0004 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Peter Gough ◽

Peggy Seeger

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Los Angeles ◽

Folk Music ◽

Symphony Orchestra ◽

Traditional Music ◽

University Of California ◽

Western Region ◽

Bay Area ◽

Federal Music Project ◽

The University

This chapter explores California's Federal Music Project (FMP), which produced the largest, most comprehensive and eclectic of the Music Projects in the western region. More than in any other state outside of New York, the opera proved quite popular in California, and musical productions drew tremendous critical praise and public interest. African American choral groups in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles also garnished much approval and remained some of the most popular of all Federal One efforts. Moreover, the California Folk Music Project—cosponsored by the University of California, Berkeley—collected and preserved an extensive array of traditional music, and several orquestas tipicas in Southern California grew and public approval. Federal Music in California also engaged the first female conductor of a major symphony orchestra.

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