Music in America's Cold War Diplomacy (Volume 18) (California Studies in 20th-Century Music)

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.” "During the Cold War, thousands of musicians from the United States traveled the world under the sponsorship of the U.S. State Department's Cultural Presentations program. Using archival documents and newly collected oral histories, this study illuminates the reception of these musical events, for the practice of musical diplomacy on the ground sometimes differed substantially from what the department's planners envisioned. Performances of music in many styles ... classical, rock 'n' roll, folk, blues, and jazz ... were meant to compete with traveling Soviet and Chinese artists, enhancing the reputation of American culture. These concerts offered large audiences evidence of America's improving race relations, excellent musicianship, and generosity toward other peoples. Most important, these performances also built meaningful connections with people in other lands. Through personal contacts and the media, musical diplomacy created subtle musical, social, and political relationships on a global scale. Although these tours were sometimes conceived as propaganda ventures, their most important function was the building of imagined and real relationships, which constitute the essence of soft power" ... Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 10 List of Illustrations 12 Acknowledgments 14 Abbreviations 16 Introduction: Instruments of Diplomacy 18 1. Classical Music and the Mediation of Prestige 40 2. Classical Music as Development Aid 64 3. Jazz in the Cultural Presentations Program 94 4. African American Ambassadors Abroad and at Home 118 5. Presenting America's Religious Heritage Abroad 140 6. The Double-Edged Diplomacy of Popular Music 160 7. Music, Media, and Cultural Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union 183 Conclusion: Music, Mediated Diplomacy, and Globalization in the Cold War Era 222 Notes 244 Selected Bibliography 316 Index 332 A 332 B 333 C 333 D 335 E 336 F 337 G 337 H 338 I 338 J 338 K 339 L 339 M 339 N 340 O 341 P 341 Q 342 R 342 S 343 T 344 U 345 V 345 W 345 Y 346 Z 346