The Airwaves of the New Deal

I recently posted about the Ultramodern composers of the 1920s who fell roughly into two camps: the Pan American Composers and the better funded, European-influenced League of Composers.  When we change our focus to the rise of populism during the Great Depression, I think it is essential to consider the American classical music scene at-large during this time.  With the rampant spread of radio broadcasts, Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini led performances by the NBC Symphony that brought unprecedented exposure of symphonic works into American homes.  Many critics, including Alex Ross in The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (2007), have pointed out Toscanini’s lack of attention to American and, in particular, American contemporary music.  Toscanini’s significant broadcasts invariably included canonic standards of Italian opera, standard Romantic symphonic works, all-Wagner broadcasts, and an occasional venture into contemporary music of the era, such as the American premiere of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in 1942.  Some of the American new works from the New Deal period premiered by Toscanini on public radio include Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings in 1938; Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite (1945); George Gershwin’s An American in Paris and Rhapsody in Blue with Benny Goodman as soloist; Copland’s El Salón México; and the marches of John Philip Sousa.  

It is no small wonder, then, why Americans have developed such a firmly entrenched and crystallized symphonic canon.  Even our most beloved American works from iconic composers like Copland and Gershwin can be directly traced to Toscanini’s programming during the New Deal.  Ironically, the same works that Americans discovered via radio broadcast two generations ago now successfully continue to sell tickets for pops concerts (the same concerts that many of the musicians who perform them privately consider to be second-tier or “light” in scope and artistic merit).  If the music that Americans know and endear falls into such a narrow category -- with a decided bent against contemporary and especially avant-garde works -- what would have happened to the reception, funding, and appreciation for American instrumental music if it had been Sergei Koussevitsky of the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducting the NBC orchestra rather than Toscanini?

Would the “average” American recognize Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, Roy Harris’ Symphony No. 3 or Messiaen’s Turangalila as readily as Rhapsody in Blue?  

Further still, how would the support for new music look different today if even those composers working on the fringe, such as the Pan American composers, had been included as well?

Would we have need for forums such as this?  http://www.artisatrocity.com

(This website is actually satirical, though there is no indication of this on the site).