Composing the party line : music and politics in early cold war Poland and East Germany / David G. Tompkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tompkins, David G.

Series:

Central European studies.

Central European studies series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music--Political aspects--Poland--History--20th century.

Music.

Music--Political aspects--Germany (East)--History--20th century.

Music and state--Poland--History--20th century.

Music and state.

Music and state--Germany (East)--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (313 pages) : illustrations; digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Composing the Party Line

Place of Publication:

West Lafayette Purdue University Press 2013

West Lafayette, Indiana : Purdue University Press, [2013]

Language Note:

English

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Examines the exercise of power in the Stalinist music world as well as the ways in which composers and ordinary people responded to it. A comparative inquiry into the relationship between music and politics in the German Democratic Republic and Poland from the aftermath of World War II through Stalin's death in 1953, concluding with the slow process of de-Stalinization in the mid-to-late 1990s.This book examines the exercise of power in the Stalinist music world as well as the ways in which composers and ordinary people responded to it. It presents a comparative inquiry into the relationship between music and politics in the German Democratic Republic and Poland from the aftermath of World War II through Stalin's death in 1953, concluding with the slow process of de-Stalinization in the mid- to late-1950s. The author explores how the Communist parties in both countries expressed their attitudes to music of all kinds, and how composers, performers, and audiences cooperated with, resisted, and negotiated these suggestions and demands. Based on a deep analysis of the archival and contemporary published sources on state, party, and professional organizations concerned with musical life, Tompkins argues that music, as a significant part of cultural production in these countries, played a key role in instituting and maintaining the regimes of East Central Europe. As part of the Stalinist project to create and control a new socialist identity at the personal as well as collective level, the ruling parties in East Germany and Poland sought to saturate public space through the production of music. Politically effective ideas and symbols were introduced that furthered their attempts to, in the parlance of the day, engineer the human soul. Music also helped the Communist parties establish legitimacy. Extensive state support for musical life encouraged musical elites and audiences to accept the dominant position and political missions of these regimes. Party leaders invested considerable resources in the attempt to create an authorized musical language that would secure and maintain hegemony over the cultural and wider social worlds. The responses of composers and audiences ran the gamut from enthusiasm to suspicion, but indifference was not an option. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.

Contents:

The rise and decline of socialist realism in music

The composers' unions between party aims and professional autonomy

The struggle over commissions

The music festival as pedagogical experience

The concert landscape.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-286) and index.

CC BY

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed December 19, 2013).

ISBN:

9781612492902

1612492908

9781306302395

1306302390

9781461957157

146195715X

9781612492896

1612492894

OCLC:

922994949

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access