Music and International History in the Twentieth Century

Bringing together scholars from the fields of musicology and international history, this book investigates the significance of music to foreign relations, and how it affected the interaction of nations since the late 19th century. For more than a century, both state and non-state actors have sought to employ sound and harmony to influence allies and enemies, resolve conflicts, and export their own culture around the world. This book asks how we can understand music as an instrument of power and influence, and how the cultural encounters fostered by music changes our ideas about international history.

Bringing together scholars from the fields of musicology and international history, this book investigates the significance of music to foreign relations, and how it affected the interaction of nations since the late 19th century. For more than a century, both state and non-state actors have sought to employ sound and harmony to influence allies and enemies, resolve conflicts, and export their own culture around the world. This book asks how we can understand music as an instrument of power and influence, and how the cultural encounters fostered by music changes our ideas about international history.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Contributors

Introduction: Sonic History or Why Music Matters in International History
Jessica C. E. Gienow-Hecht

Part I: Music, International Relations and the Absence of the State

Chapter 1. The Wicked Barrisons
David Monod

Chapter 2. Modern Music and the Popular Front: The International Society for Contemporary Music and Its Political Context (1935)
Anne C. Shreffler

Part II: Music, International History, and the State

Chapter 3. Music and International Relations in Occupied Germany, 1945-1949
Toby Thacker

Chapter 4. Instruments of Diplomacy: Writing Music into the History of Cold War International Relations
Danielle Fosler-Lussier

Chapter 5. "To Reach... into the Hearts and Minds of Our Friends": America's Symphonic Tours and the Cold War
Jonathan Rosenberg

Chapter 6. Music Diplomacy in an Emergency: Eisenhower’s “Secret Weapon,” Iceland, 1954–1959
Emily Abrams Ansari

Chapter 7. Intimate Histories of the Musical Cold War: Fred Prieberg and Igor Blazhkov’s Unofficial Diplomacy
Peter J. Schmelz

Chapter 8. “Where I Cannot Roam, My Song Will Take Wing”: Polish Cultural Promotion in Belarus, 1988
Andrea F. Bohlman

Index