Abstract
The Federal Music Project (FMP) was organized in 1935 by the Roosevelt administration with the avowed goal of employing out-of-work American performers and music teachers during the Great Depression of the 1930s. It became more than a “make work” program, however, and evolved into one of the most significant programs in US history to encourage music making, performance, teaching, composition, conducting, folk song documentation, and even music therapy.
The author, Peter Gough, tries to make sense of this significant federal effort by examining FMP activities in the Western United States. He notes that the FMP was particularly successful in the West and makes a case for looking at the FMP as a decidedly regionally-driven phenomenon. The varied cultures of the West shaped the policies of the FMP and helped better serve regional needs.
As a subpart of the Works Project Administration (WPA), the FMP was active from 1935 to 1943. From 1939, during a reorganization, it was designated the WPA Music Program. Similar theatre and writing programs were closed in 1939 likely because some members of Congress alleged leftist political leanings. Music in the WPA continued until 1943, well into World War II as entertainment for US troops and somehow avoided controversy. Gough explores the reason for the ongoing success of the WPA Music Program, its staying power, and its good relations with unions. The Roosevelt Administration viewed America in the 1930s as a country with a torn social fabric. Many of the WPA music programs were community-centered and were tasked to achieve cultural healing by participation. Music in groups, performance or instruction, was viewed as help in treating social problems.
The book is divided into seven chapters: four treat WPA music activities in clusters of states, though California, as the largest state and one possessing an exceptional musical landscape, is treated separately. In addition, there are chapters examining the exceptional diversity of song that the FMP encouraged, the relationship of FMP and WPA Music to the Popular Front, and one chapter devoted exclusively to folksong. Under the aegis of WPA music, African-Americans and other ethnic populations were encouraged to participate as performers, teachers, and composers. The first female conductor of a major orchestra was engaged and women as orchestra musicians were hired and paid equal with men as a result of FMP policies.
Gough notes that the FMP was first led by Nikolai Sokoloff, former conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and someone who leaned toward high art music, though this did not preclude significant performances by ethnic groups in a variety of styles. Sokoloff was removed in a re-organization in 1939, and Earl V. Moore was appointed national program director. Moore, a music educator and former Head of the School of Music at Michigan, renewed emphasis on teaching and the social significance of music. Charles Seeger was appointed a member of the Washington WPA staff and remained for almost two years, playing an important role. Seeger, along with Moore, was more oriented to informal music and sought more inclusiveness than had existed during Sokoloff’s tenure.
Unlike other scholarly treatments of WPA music that examined the organizational aspects of WPA music programs, top down, Gough takes a detailed look at these organizations from the “bottom up,” using voluminous records generated by the FMP and WPA Music. Contrary to previous historical research about WPA music, Gough argues that WPA music programs were highly inclusive, reflecting the social goals of the Roosevelt Administration, and directed toward celebrating American cultural diversity. In Gough’s view, the FMP was neither a failure nor a mechanism to suppress diversity and homogenize American musical life as proposed by other scholars. To Gough WPA music was a resounding success.
One of the hallmarks of music in the WPA in the West was the attention to folksong collecting, transcription, distribution, and performance. Folksong collecting, sometimes completed in conjunction with the WPA Writer’s Project, resulted in published booklets of folksongs, singing games, children’s songs, and folk-dance tunes, especially in New Mexico under the direction of the exceptional music educator Helen Chandler Ryan. Publications such as the Spanish-American Song and Game Book attracted international attention and helped acquaint New Mexicans with their folk music heritage at early ages. Music of the state’s Spanish and Mexican heritage became exceptionally popular. Of the types of ensembles funded by the WPA, the many orquestas tipicas became the most popular type of ensemble in the Southwest.
Music education was a strong part of WPA activities, especially from 1939. Education units of WPA music projects employed thousands of teachers who in turn provided instruction for countless citizens who otherwise could not have afforded it (3). Many rural areas were afforded instruction for the first time. Performances of bands, orchestras, and choirs were funded and enthusiastically received. Statistics in 1939 reported hundreds of thousands of performances and large attendance numbers for ensembles that performed in a variety of styles, reflecting the diversity of the nation. More than 7,000 new works for various combinations were composed. Thirty-eight orchestras were created or nurtured, many now at the top national level, most still blithely unaware of roots in the WPA.
Gender equality was addressed in the FMP. Sokoloff and other WPA leaders gave women much deserved opportunities beyond what was being offered in contemporary society. This led to opportunities for women other than teaching. Antonia Brico became conductor of the Bay Symphony Orchestra, one of the first nationally recognized female conductors. She performed to packed houses, the most successful conductor of symphonic music in the FMP.
The WPA Music Project ended on June 10, 1943. It left copious records, hundreds of containers in the Library of Congress, and vast amounts of materials, including many recordings, scattered in state and university libraries and archives. The author supplemented these resources with interviews, oral histories, and many secondary sources. He used these materials judiciously in supporting and explaining his theses.
Gough’s Sounds of the New Deal suggests directions for researchers seeking to understand the history of music and music education at a difficult political and social period in the history of the country. 1 For a complete understanding, other regions of the country should to be addressed with equal thoroughness and comparisons should be made. Gough makes several suggestions including the need for more work on religious music. WPA publications are extensive and potentially useful. Charles Seeger’s little known, 30-page Music as Recreation (1940) 2 could be viewed as a harbinger of the goals debated in the Music Educators National Conference for the following 60 years in its democratic, inclusive ideas and suggestions. The heroic work of Helen Chandler Ryan or those like her, identified by Gough, offer insights into the history of music teaching and learning. Peter Gough’s book is not only suggestive of future research but is an essential work in understanding the development of music education in the United States.