Music in America's Cold War DiplomacyDuring the Cold War, thousands of musicians from the United States traveled the world, sponsored by the U.S. State DepartmentÕs Cultural Presentations program. Performances of music in many stylesÑclassical, rock ÕnÕ roll, folk, blues, and jazzÑcompeted with those by traveling Soviet and mainland Chinese artists, enhancing the prestige of American culture. These concerts offered audiences around the world evidence of AmericaÕs 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 AmericaÕs 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 Òmusical diplomacy.Ó |
Contents
Classical Music and the Mediation of Prestige | 23 |
Involvement | 34 |
Classical Music as Development Aid | 47 |
Strickland conducts excerpts from Verdis Requiem | 58 |
The audience at the openair premiere concert of the Saigon | 65 |
Jazz in the Cultural Presentations Program | 77 |
Visitors at the Bergama Kermes art festival wait to enter | 83 |
Wilbur De Paris and his New Orleans Jazz Band play at | 89 |
Edward R Murrow and Louis Armstrong in See It Now | 104 |
Marian Anderson and her accompanist Franz Rupp greeted | 115 |
Presenting Americas Religious Heritage Abroad | 123 |
The Golden Gate Quartet at the Chin Woo Stadium | 127 |
The DoubleEdged Diplomacy of Popular Music | 143 |
Music Media and Cultural Relations between | 166 |
Notes | 227 |
Selected Bibliography | 299 |
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Common terms and phrases
032 Westminster abroad African American ambassador AmEmb AmEmb Moscow AmEmb Tokyo American music American musicians ARK II ARK II b71 art music artists audiences Ballet Bernstein broadcast Chicago choral classical music Cold Cold War concert conductor critic Cultural Affairs cultural diplomacy Cultural Exchange Cultural Presentations program Cultural Relations Dance December Department's Détente diplomatic Educational and Cultural encl ensemble European folder folk music foreign Gillespie Global International interview January Japan jazz Jazz Band June Leonard Bernstein listeners Louis Armstrong Manila Marian Anderson Moscow Murrow Music Advisory Panel musical diplomacy National Negro November performance Philharmonic Philippines play Policy political popular music posts propaganda Public Diplomacy race recordings reported rock Saigon Satchmo singers Soft Power Soviet Union spirituals Strickland Symphony Orchestra television tion tour U.S. embassy U.S. government U.S. officials U.S.-Soviet United University Press USIA USSR Vietnam Washington Westminster Choir WSC b4 York York Philharmonic