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Sounds of the New Deal:

The Federal Music Project in the West

ISBN-13: 9780252039041
Publisher: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
Imprint: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS
By Peter Gough, Foreword by Peggy Seeger
Price: AUD $271.00
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Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 16/04/2015
Format: Hardback 304 pages Weight: 0g
Categories: Music [AV]

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Google Preview: At its peak the Federal Music Project (FMP) employed nearly 16,000 people who reached millions of Americans through performances, composing, teaching, and folksong collection and transcription. In ''Sounds of the New Deal,'' Peter Gough explores how the FMP's activities in the West shaped a new national appreciation for the diversity of American musical expression. From the onset, administrators and artists debated whether to represent highbrow, popular, or folk music in FMP activities. Though the administration privileged using ''good'' music to educate the public, in the West local preferences regularly trumped national priorities and allowed diverse vernacular musics to be heard. African American and Hispanic music found unprecedented popularity while the cultural mosaic illuminated by American folksong exemplified the spirit of the Popular Front movement. These new musical expressions combined the radical sensibilities of an invigorated Left with nationalistic impulses. At the same time, they blended traditional patriotic themes with an awareness of the country's varied ethnic musical heritage and vast--but endangered--store of grassroots music.; ''Reading Gough's book has given me an understanding of that extraordinary decade during which the music of the United States was discovered (much as the Europeans 'discovered' North America). Just as important, I have learned what my parents were doing at that time, for they never told us, literally, what their roles were in the projects.'' --from the Foreword by Peggy Seeger; Google Preview content

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Sounds of the New Deal:

The Federal Music Project in the West