Music And Ideology In Cold War Europe

Description:
This book places the radicalization of art music in early post-war France in its broader socio-cultural and political context. It pursues two general and intersecting lines of inquiry. The first details the stances towards musical conservatism and innovation adopted by cultural strategists representing Western and Soviet ideological interests at the onset of the Cold War. The second, which draws upon the commentaries of Theodor Adorno and Jean-Paul Sartre, recognizes that the Cold War generated a heightened political awareness amongst French musicians at the very time when the social relevance of avant-garde music had become the subject of widespread debate. The study considers the implications of the performance at L'Oeuvre du XXe siecle, an international arts festival staged in Paris in 1952 with the intention of discrediting socialist realism by means of two opposing musical types: neo-classicism (represented by Stravinsky's Symphony in C) and serialism (Boulez's Structures 1a).

Review:
'It is an intelligently written ... study which assembles a great deal of contemporary thinking on the issue of modernism in the early 1950s ... Carroll's own reflections are well-considered and helpful not only to a fuller understanding of the issues, but in clarifying the thinking of some of those he cites.' Musical Times ' ... this is a valuable and closely argued study ...' Journal of American Studies '... Mark Carroll's [book] ... is an important contribution to the history of the cultural cold war ... with its considerations of the politics of serialism and existentialism and the complex relationships between musical and political schools of thought in this period, it makes for interesting reading.' Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory

Table of Contents:
List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction: issues and perspectives; 1. Back to the future: Nabokov's selection criteria for L'Oeuvre du XXe siecle; 2. Nabokov, Shostakovich and the view from the bridge; 3. Articles of war: the Prague Manifesto and the Progressistes; 4. Creative freedom or political obligation? Serialism and Stalinism in France; 5. Culture and confrontation at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees; 6. Neither you nor they: the avant-garde and neutralite; 7. Music and Sartrean commitment; 8. Rene Leibowitz and the musician's conscience; 9. A forlorn hope: Sartre's 'virtual' audience; 10. Serialism, scientism and the post-war world view; Epilogue: the aftermath of L'Oeuvre du XXe siecle; Appendix: the musical programme L'Oeuvre du XXe siecle; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Author Biography:
Mark Carroll is Lecturer in Music at the Australian National University, Canberra.