eBook

Music in America's Cold War diplomacy

Fosler-Lussier, Danielle

2015

Overview

During the Cold War, thousands of musicians from the United States traveled the world, sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Cultural Presentations program. Performances of music in many styles—classical, rock ’n’ roll, folk, blues, and jazz—competed with those by traveling Soviet and mainland Chinese artists, enhancing the prestige of American culture. These concerts offered audiences around the world evidence of America’s improving race relations, excellent musicianship, and generosity toward other peoples. Through personal contacts and the media, musical diplomacy also created subtle musical, social, and political relationships on a global scale. Although born of state-sponsored tours often conceived as propaganda ventures, these relationships were in themselves great diplomatic achievements and constituted the essence of America’s soft power. Using archival documents and newly collected oral histories, Danielle Fosler-Lussier shows that musical diplomacy had vastly different meanings for its various participants, including government officials, musicians, concert promoters, and audiences. Through the stories of musicians from Louis Armstrong and Marian Anderson to orchestras and college choirs, Fosler-Lussier deftly explores the value and consequences of \"musical diplomacy.\"

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Subject: 20th century / 20th century composers / 20th century music / accessible music / Arts and diplomacy / Arts and diplomacy -- United States -- History -- 20th century / bela bartok / bela viktor janos bartok / career / cold war / cold war tensions / Communist countries / Communist countries -- Foreign relations -- United States -- History -- 20th century / comparative musicology / Cultural policy / Cultural Presentations Program / Department of State / ethnomusicology / folk music / Foreign relations / hermann scherchen / History / History & Criticism / HISTORY / United States / 20th Century / hungarian composer / international politics / iron curtain / modernism / MUSIC / MUSIC / History & Criticism / Music and globalization / Music and globalization -- United States -- History -- 20th century / Music in intercultural communication / Music in intercultural communication -- United States -- History -- 20th century / musical legacy / musical style / musicians / performing arts / pianist / pierre boulez / political action / political pressure / Political Science / POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / Diplomacy / politics / radio programs / socialist realism / socialist state / theodor adorno / United States / United States -- Cultural policy -- History -- 20th century / United States -- Foreign relations -- Communist countries -- History -- 20th century / United States. Department of State. Cultural Presentations Program / United States. Department of State. Cultural Presentations Program -- History -- 20th century / western composers
• ISBN: 9780520284135, 0520959787, 9780520959781, 0520284135