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Cultural Cold War
The Cultural Cold War was a set of propaganda campaigns waged by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with each country promoting their own culture, arts, literature, and music. In addition, less overtly, their opposing political choices and ideologies at the expense of the other. Many of the battles were fought in Europe or in European Universities, with Communist Party leaders depicting the United States as a cultural black hole while pointing to their own cultural heritage as proof that they were the inheritors of the European Enlightenment. The U.S. responded by accusing the Soviets of "disregarding the inherent value of culture," and subjugating art to the controlling policies of a totalitarian political system, even as they felt saddled with the responsibility of preserving and fostering western civilization's best cultural traditions, given the many European artists who took refuge in the United States before, during, and after World War II.
In 1950, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) surreptitiously created the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to counter the Cominform's "peace offensive." At its peak, the Congress had "offices in thirty-five countries, employed dozens of personnel, published over twenty prestige magazines, held art exhibitions, owned a news and features service, organized high-profile international conferences, and rewarded musicians and artists with prizes and public performances." The point of these endeavors was to "showcase" U.S. and European high culture, including not just musical works but paintings, ballets, and other artistic avenues, for the benefit of nonaligned foreign intellectuals.
Many U.S. government organizations used American music to persuade audiences worldwide that the U.S. was a cradle for the growth of music. The CIA and, in turn the CCF, were reluctant to patronize America's musical avant-garde, which included artists such experimental musicians as Milton Babbitt and John Cage. The CCF took a more conservative approach, as outlined under its General Secretary, Nicolas Nabokov, and concentrated its efforts on presenting older European works that had been banned or condemned by the Communist Party.
The CCF provided partial funding for the Darmstadt Summer Course from 1946 to 1956. This was the beginning of the Darmstadt School of composers which helped pioneer the avant-garde techniques of Serialism.
In 1952, the CCF sponsored the Festival of Twentieth-Century Masterpieces of Modern Arts in Paris. Over the next thirty days, the festival hosted nine separate orchestras which performed works by over 70 composers, many of whom had been dismissed by communist critics as "degenerate" and "sterile," including composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich and Claude Debussy. The festival opened with a performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, as performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Thomas Braden, a senior member of the CIA said: "The Boston Symphony Orchestra won more acclaim for the U.S. in Paris than John Foster Dulles or Dwight D. Eisenhower could have brought with a hundred speeches".
The CIA, in particular, used a wide range of musical genres, including Broadway musicals, and even the jazz of Dizzy Gillespie, to convince music enthusiasts across the globe that the U.S. was committed to the musical arts as much as they were to the literary and visual arts. Under the leadership of Nabokov, the CCF organized impressive musical events that were anti-communist in nature, transporting America's prime musical talents to Berlin, Paris, and London to provide a steady series of performances and festivals. In order to promote cooperation between artists and the CCF, and thus extend their ideals, the CCF provided financial aid to artists in need of monetary assistance.
However, because the CCF failed to offer much support for classical music associated with the likes of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, it was deemed an “authoritarian” tool of Soviet communism and wartime German and Italian fascism. The CCF also distanced itself from experimental musical avant-garde artists such as Milton Babbitt and John Cage, preferring to focus on earlier European works that had been banned or condemned as "formalist" by Soviet authorities.
Nicolas Nabokov was a Russian-born composer and writer who developed CCF's music program while serving as the organization's Secretary-General. His compositions include several notable musical works, the first of which was the ballet-oratorio Ode, produced by Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, in 1928 and Lyrical Symphony in 1931. Nabokov moved to the U.S. in 1933 to serve as a lecturer in music for the Barnes Foundation. A year after moving to the U.S., Nabokov composed the ballet Union Pacific. He went on to teach music at Wells College in New York from 1936 to 1941, and later at St. John's College in Maryland. In 1939, Nabokov officially became a U.S citizen.
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Cultural Cold War
The Cultural Cold War was a set of propaganda campaigns waged by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with each country promoting their own culture, arts, literature, and music. In addition, less overtly, their opposing political choices and ideologies at the expense of the other. Many of the battles were fought in Europe or in European Universities, with Communist Party leaders depicting the United States as a cultural black hole while pointing to their own cultural heritage as proof that they were the inheritors of the European Enlightenment. The U.S. responded by accusing the Soviets of "disregarding the inherent value of culture," and subjugating art to the controlling policies of a totalitarian political system, even as they felt saddled with the responsibility of preserving and fostering western civilization's best cultural traditions, given the many European artists who took refuge in the United States before, during, and after World War II.
In 1950, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) surreptitiously created the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to counter the Cominform's "peace offensive." At its peak, the Congress had "offices in thirty-five countries, employed dozens of personnel, published over twenty prestige magazines, held art exhibitions, owned a news and features service, organized high-profile international conferences, and rewarded musicians and artists with prizes and public performances." The point of these endeavors was to "showcase" U.S. and European high culture, including not just musical works but paintings, ballets, and other artistic avenues, for the benefit of nonaligned foreign intellectuals.
Many U.S. government organizations used American music to persuade audiences worldwide that the U.S. was a cradle for the growth of music. The CIA and, in turn the CCF, were reluctant to patronize America's musical avant-garde, which included artists such experimental musicians as Milton Babbitt and John Cage. The CCF took a more conservative approach, as outlined under its General Secretary, Nicolas Nabokov, and concentrated its efforts on presenting older European works that had been banned or condemned by the Communist Party.
The CCF provided partial funding for the Darmstadt Summer Course from 1946 to 1956. This was the beginning of the Darmstadt School of composers which helped pioneer the avant-garde techniques of Serialism.
In 1952, the CCF sponsored the Festival of Twentieth-Century Masterpieces of Modern Arts in Paris. Over the next thirty days, the festival hosted nine separate orchestras which performed works by over 70 composers, many of whom had been dismissed by communist critics as "degenerate" and "sterile," including composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich and Claude Debussy. The festival opened with a performance of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, as performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Thomas Braden, a senior member of the CIA said: "The Boston Symphony Orchestra won more acclaim for the U.S. in Paris than John Foster Dulles or Dwight D. Eisenhower could have brought with a hundred speeches".
The CIA, in particular, used a wide range of musical genres, including Broadway musicals, and even the jazz of Dizzy Gillespie, to convince music enthusiasts across the globe that the U.S. was committed to the musical arts as much as they were to the literary and visual arts. Under the leadership of Nabokov, the CCF organized impressive musical events that were anti-communist in nature, transporting America's prime musical talents to Berlin, Paris, and London to provide a steady series of performances and festivals. In order to promote cooperation between artists and the CCF, and thus extend their ideals, the CCF provided financial aid to artists in need of monetary assistance.
However, because the CCF failed to offer much support for classical music associated with the likes of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, it was deemed an “authoritarian” tool of Soviet communism and wartime German and Italian fascism. The CCF also distanced itself from experimental musical avant-garde artists such as Milton Babbitt and John Cage, preferring to focus on earlier European works that had been banned or condemned as "formalist" by Soviet authorities.
Nicolas Nabokov was a Russian-born composer and writer who developed CCF's music program while serving as the organization's Secretary-General. His compositions include several notable musical works, the first of which was the ballet-oratorio Ode, produced by Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, in 1928 and Lyrical Symphony in 1931. Nabokov moved to the U.S. in 1933 to serve as a lecturer in music for the Barnes Foundation. A year after moving to the U.S., Nabokov composed the ballet Union Pacific. He went on to teach music at Wells College in New York from 1936 to 1941, and later at St. John's College in Maryland. In 1939, Nabokov officially became a U.S citizen.
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