Symphonies of War: Music in America during World War II

FAIN: FT-55613-08

Annegret Fauser
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1350)

Musicians in America were deeply involved in all aspects of World War II, from military service to radio propaganda, whether in the Office of War Information or in the State Department. They included such well-known composers as Samuel Barber, Marc Blitzstein, Aaron Copland, and Roy Harris. Yet little is known about their activities during the war. My project is the first one devoted to the musical and cultural study of classical music in the United States during World War II. The main outcome of the project is a monograph, "Symphonies of War: Music in America during World War II," offering historical and cultural interpretations of musical life in the United States between 1939 and 1946. For this NEH summer grant, I propose to focus on the study of a key figure, Dr. Harold Spivacke, Chief of the Music Division at the Library of Congress, who was involved in a host of initiatives, commissions, and performances during the war, most notably Copland's 1944 "Appalachian Spring."