“Ideologically Progressive Art” Meets Western Avant-Garde

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F20%3A73606211" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/20:73606211 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://doi.fil.bg.ac.rs/pdf/eb_book/2020/music_diplomacy/music_diplomacy-2020-ch10.pdf" target="_blank" >http://doi.fil.bg.ac.rs/pdf/eb_book/2020/music_diplomacy/music_diplomacy-2020-ch10.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.18485/music_diplomacy.2020.ch10" target="_blank" >10.18485/music_diplomacy.2020.ch10</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

“Ideologically Progressive Art” Meets Western Avant-Garde

Original language description

Immediately after the Czechoslovak coup d&apos;état in February 1948, which meant the ultimate end of the democratic “Czechoslovak state of Masaryk”, the Second International Congress of Composers and Music Critics took place in Prague. Its final proclamation, the so-called Prague Manifesto, became a starting point for the next course in music culture in Communist countries. The Manifesto aimed at finding a way out of a deep crisis of music and musical life at the time. Classical Music was blamed for being too individual, subjective, complex and prefabricated form. Both classical and popular music represented ‘two sides of the same inauspicious state of culture […]’, the state of levelling cosmopolitanism. The congress participants officially joined fight against ‘formalism’ in music, proclaimed by Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov in his appearance at the All-Union Communist Party meeting in February 1948. The first legitimate congress of composers and music theoreticians took place in September the same year and expanded the conclusions of the International Congress, declaring the political duty of music to continue seeking creative support in the principles of Socialist Realism. The newly established Union of Czechoslovak Composers became the main authority for implementation of the Zhdanov doctrine. It was well-connected to the ruling Communist party, disposing of financial means as well as significant power. Its official regulations stated that the ‘value of an art piece’ was tied to adherence to state ideology, progressiveness, a folk character and comprehensibility. The only music periodical in the country at the time, ‘Hudební rozhledy’ (Musical Perspectives), became a communicator of the Union’s views. It was supposed to shape ideology and public taste. Another aim of the Union, as a political body of the Communist party, was the outward presentation of ideologically tested and approved music culture of the young people’s democratic state. The Union sent expeditions of artists abroad, first to ‘fraternal’ socialist countries and from 1956 on even to the Warsaw Autumn festival. Here, ‘ideologically progressive’ art was directly confronted with the avant-garde music of the West. Relying upon my studies of sources of the time (mainly written records of the Union’s meetings and periodicals), I will attempt to outline how official representatives of Czechoslovak music culture came to terms with this clash with foreign post-war avant-garde music.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60403 - Performing arts studies (Musicology, Theater science, Dramaturgy)

Project

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Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

The Tunes of Diplomatic Notes : Music and Diplomacy in Southeast Europe (18th–20th century)

ISBN

978-86-80639-54-3

Number of pages of the result

10

Pages from-to

155-164

Number of pages of the book

261

Publisher name

Institute of Musicology SASA/Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana

Place of publication

Belgrade and Ljubljana

UT code for WoS chapter

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