The Federal Music Project: An American Voice in Depression-Era Music

Authors

Audrey S. Rutt, Cedarville UniversityFollow

Publication Date

10-3-2018

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Federal Music Project, Federal One, Works Progress Administration, New Deal, Depression, Classical Music, New Music, American Music, Composers' Forum-Laboratory, Populism, Music Education, Ethnomusicology

Abstract

After World War I, America was musically transformed from an outsider in the European classical tradition into a country of musical vibrance and maturity. These great advances, however, were deeply threatened by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the consequent Great Depression. The nation that, for the first time, was developing an international reputation in the arts now faced a crisis of how to support them. Government sponsorship of the arts through the New Deal Federal One projects allowed struggling artists to survive economically during this era. In the realm of music, however, the Federal Music Project (FMP) had consequences that reached far beyond economics and into the realms of politics and culture. This article surveys the important impact of the Federal Music Project on American music in both the East and the West by using statistics, examples, and stories, specifically with regards to new music, populism, American nationalism, minority involvement, and ethnomusicology.

Volume

9

Issue

2

Article Number

1

DOI

10.15385/jmo.2018.9.2.1

Recommended Citation

Rutt, Audrey S. (2018) "The Federal Music Project: An American Voice in Depression-Era Music," Musical Offerings: Vol. 9: No. 2, Article 1.
DOI: 10.15385/jmo.2018.9.2.1
Available at: https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/musicalofferings/vol9/iss2/1

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Disclaimer

DigitalCommons@Cedarville provides a publication platform for fully open access journals, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. However, the opinions and sentiments expressed by the authors of articles published in our journals do not necessarily indicate the endorsement or reflect the views of DigitalCommons@Cedarville, the Centennial Library, or Cedarville University and its employees. The authors are solely responsible for the content of their work. Please address questions to dc@cedarville.edu.