Dangerous Melodies: Classical Music in America From the Great War Through the Cold War

by Jonathan Rosenberg

Dangerous Melodies vividly evokes a time when classical music stood at the center of American life, occupying a prominent place in the nation’s culture and politics. The work of renowned conductors, instrumentalists, and singers—and the activities of orchestras and opera companies—were intertwined with momentous international events: two world wars, the rise of fascism, and the Cold War.

Jonathan Rosenberg recovers the politics behind classical music, showing how German musicians were dismissed or imprisoned as the country’s music was swept from American auditoriums during World War I—yet, twenty years later, those same compositions could inspire Americans in the fight against Nazism while Russian music was deployed to strengthen the U.S.-Soviet alliance. During the Cold War, Van Cliburn’s triumph in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow became cause for America to celebrate. In Dangerous Melodies, Rosenberg delves into the singular decades-long relationship of classical music and political ideology in America.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction, Classical Music, American History, Politics

512 pages, Hardcover

First published December 10, 2019

About the author

Jonathan Rosenberg, professor of twentieth-century US history at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, is author of How Far the Promised Land? World Affairs and the American Civil Rights Movement from the First World War to Vietnam. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.

Reviews

[Steve Trusedell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unless you have some major prior knowledge about the history of classical music in the US, this is not for you. If you appreciate the music. already know a lot about it and wish to increase your knowledge about the relationship between music and politics, this is THE book. Perhaps the best on classical music of the year.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dangerous Melodies: Classical Music in America from the Great War through the Cold War by Jonathan Rosenberg shows early examples of cancel culture with German musicians. Politics still affects art and entertainment. Unpopular affiliations and opinions also stifles academic freedom and scientific innovation. As I was reading, melodies and memories of rehearsals and concerts flooded my brain. Those who have orchestral experience will love this book. If you don't, I recommend pausing when you read to listen to the melodies they're mentioning. I love classical music. Read this and take breaks to see great performances on YouTube to get the full experience.

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[Dad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be an excellent historical account beginning with WWI and continuing to the Cold War. Although I ave read many accounts of military history during this period, I had never read about the illogical reaction of the population to German composers or worse the treatment of German conductors or musicians. I lost a lot of respect for the major orchestras (Boston, Chicago and New York) and lost respect for the American Legion who enflamed much of the population against the German propaganda allegedly rampant in German music. The attitude of the masses was very disappointing and the logic that it was okay to play music from the dead composers but not from the living. All in all, this was a very thoughtful and provocative book.

[Jean Bonilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book thoroughly engaging. Rosenberg does an excellent job of laying out the main theme - the influence of classical music on and its role in U.S. political policy and national thinking. In his assessment of the decades between 1914 and today, he uses several characters to illustrate his points, notably Arturo Toscanini, Karl Muck, and Wilhelm Furtwängler. Each of them was either lauded or vilified at certain points for specific actions that captured the mood of the public at that moment. Toscanini was a hero; Muck was despised simply for being German and wrongly vilified for refusing to play the Star-Spangled Banner; Furtwängler had a questionable relationship with the Nazi regime, so probably deserved the opprobrium.

One of the most interesting elements in Rosenberg’s sketch was the contrast between U.S. attitudes towards Germans in WWI and Germans in WWII. In the First War everything German was deemed “bad.” Germans were interned, German music was not played on the radio or in the concert hall. Germans were driven down to Texas where they established an ethnic community. (I remember my carpool mate, Whitney, talking about his relatives down there. They had German-language radio stations, German stores, the works. It’s funny to have history intersect so completely with my own life.)

In the Second War, hatred was focused more on the Nazis and the vile actions were attributed to the few at the top. The relationship between Hitler and Strauss was peculiar, to say the least. Americans, too, had an intense love affair with his opera. It seems to have been on every concert schedule. In the First War, ultimately, it was not played. In the Second War, the issue was endlessly debated, partly because he was a “living” composer who, theoretically could benefit from copyright payments for performance of his work! I’m not sure that question was ever resolved satisfactorily! Oddly, during the First War, though not during the Second War, Americans had the same conversation about “benefiting” Bach, Mozart, and other long-dead German composers.

The final player Rosenberg brings onstage is Dimitri Shostakovich. During the war, Shostakovich wrote music that America embraced as a fitting symbol of unity between allies. (Apparently it wasn’t very good, but no one regarded that as important.) After the war, the Stalinist regime persecuted him, but also used him to showcase their “struggle for ‘peace, progress, and democracy’” through the arts. Rosenberg can’t seem to make up his mind if Shostakovich was used as a propaganda tool or was genuinely speaking on behalf of his government at the 1949 Waldorf “Peace Conference.” Rosenberg describes a lengthy speech by the composer and notes that the finale of the conference was a Shostakovich piano concert, but it seems America would have been more satisfied if he had jumped out the window and demanded asylum!

Rosenberg’s final segment addresses the role of classical music in shaping our culture and policies during the Cold War. The conference mentioned above was a segue between eras, so to speak. I was surprised that it took a number of years before the United States really embraced the idea of sending musicians abroad to play for their country. Once we got going, it became a standard part of our repertoire.

In a huge debate in the 1950s, Congress got involved by allocating funding that was for the Commerce Department to engage in trade fairs, to the State Department to send cultural events overseas, and to USIS to promote those cultural events overseas. Several senators described the nature of the east west conflict and the role cultural exports could play in helping to achieve victory: “We are presently engaged in a great struggle for hundreds of millions of people around the world so that the American way of life will prevail over the slavery which totalitarian communism would thrust upon them.” It was more than a competition to see which nation could produce the most destructive tanks or the most accurate missiles. Just as the two systems competed for military superiority, they vied for artistic and cultural supremacy, which meant the concert hall became a setting in which to deploy American power.

One of the interesting juxtapositions the author uses is between “musical nationalists” and “musical universalists.” The former saw music as defining a country and a culture; the latter saw music as bridging differences across borders and speaking to all mankind. Each of his chapters is cast in this debate between the two philosophies. He never chooses one and makes a case for it, however, but contents himself with describing the views of others.

(NOTE: Speaking of mankind, I am constantly annoyed by Rosenberg’s references to “gendered language!” That is in fact the proper way to speak and I find it very annoying that people consider it to be discriminatory.).

I found this outreach strategy Rosenberg described particularly interesting because of my own work for many years bringing music, art, dance, food, wines, and other “American” things to showcase overseas. We really cared about our host nation friends and believed that it was a way to improve people’s understanding of our country. I wasn’t aware that we had done such an event in February 2008 - Lorin Maazel took the NY Philharmonic to N. Korea. He was an amazing conductor and musician. When we met him in Budapest, I’ll never forget him telling Moni how his children got up early to practice their instruments before breakfast. Now that’s discipline!

[Bill FromPA · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is primarily about performers - the only composition discussed at any length is Shostakovich's Seventh. DSCH's appearance at the New York Cultural and Scientific Congress for World Peace and Aaron Copland's run-in with HUAC are the only incidents discussed involving composers.

Much of the book is about banning or attempts to ban performers for various reasons: German or Austrian citizenship during WWI or perceived Nazi sympathies both before and after WWII. The final section on the cold war mainly deals with American orchestral tours of the Soviet Union, and Van Cliburn's winning of the 1958 Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow (none of his fellow contestants is named). Rosenberg has done a lot of research and those incidents he discusses are fully covered, though some political involvements with classical music, such as the CIA support of modernist and avant-garde performances, are not mentioned.

In the end, as Rosenberg admits about the "musical diplomacy" of Bernstein, Ormandy, Szell, et. al., the musicians are mainly pawns or shuttlecocks subject to the whim of those with political agendas: politicians, jingoists, pressure groups, or governments. The phrases repeated throughout the book by different speakers such as "Art is above politics" and "Music is the universal language" come to seem pretty empty.

“Russian Assails Authors” New York Times July 7, 1950

MOSCOW, July 6 (UP) – Dmitry Shostakovich, Soviet composer, nominated five famous Western writers today for the “rogue’s gallery of warmongers.”

They were Upton Sinclair and John Steinbeck of the United States, and Andre Malraux, Jean-Paul Sartre and Andre Gide of France. Writing in Izvestia, the official organ of the Soviet Supreme Council, Mr. Shostakovich said, they had “lost their honor and conscience.”

He said they had “deserted their people and are digging graves for their own culture.”

Mr. Steinbeck was the object of the sharpest attack.

“The Soviet people well know the author of ‘Grapes of Wrath,” Shostakovich wrote.

“But from the pen of this writer who once was able to think came the book ‘Bombs Down.’ Steinbeck jumped from the camp of progress and love of man to the camp of unbridled reaction, barbarism and cannibalism.”

He added that “These traitors are true servants of capitalism.”

“Shostakovich Gives Views on New York” New York Times May 28, 1949

MOSCOW, May 27 – Dmitri Shostakovich, reporting his New York impressions in the humorous journal Krokodil, said he was struck by the fact a majority of the audience at a Leopold Stokowski concert sat sprawled in their chairs wearing coats and hats.

Mr. Shostakovich said the orchestra had played well, but “unfortunately, the program, with the exception of works of Khatchaturian, Sibelius and Brahms, was of no interest.” He said the sight of the audience sitting in the concert hall in hats and coats “appeared very unusual to me.”

The only other concert impression related by the famed composer was an incident during the intermission, when he heard a woman persistently calling his name. “I asked that this energetic woman be let through to me. She said ‘Hello’ and added that ‘You resemble my cousin very much.’ This was all she wanted to tell me and I thought she wanted to speak about music.”

Mr. Shostakovich was shocked by the American custom of printing works of great writers in “thin booklets in which, of all the amazing wealth of ideas and sentiments, only the love scenes are left in.” “Enough to say that ‘Anna Karenina’ is reduced to thirty-twp pages and supplied with a colorful pornographic cover,” he added.

Mr. Shostakovich reported that United States skyscrapers were “depressing” and was unfavorably impressed by the “disorder” at La Guardia Field.

“Shostakovich Holds U.S. Fears His Music” New York Times May 27, 1949

MOSCOW – May 26 (AP) – Dmitri Shostakovich, commenting on his recent trip to the United States, said today that the United States State Department fears his music.

The composer’s remarks were carried in an article in the literary journal New World, under the title “The Great Battle for Peace.” The article concerned Mr. Shostakovich’s views on the Communist-supported “peace congress” that he attended in New York.

He described his reaction to orders of the State and Justice Departments to the Soviet delegation to leave the United States immediately after the congress.

“On the way home I thought much about this. Yes, the rules of Washington fear also our literature, our music, our speeches on peace – fear them because truth in any form hinders them from organizing diversions against peace.”

---

Special to The New York Times.

MOSCOW, May 26 – Mr. Shostakovich also charged that Igor Stravinsky had become a sterile composer. He said that the latter after “breaking with testaments of the Russian national school and having betrayed his motherland, joined the camp of bourgeois modernist musicians.”

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made me wish I knew more about classical music, but sadly, I don't. I did make a list of the songs I did not know with plans to listen to them. I never thought about politics and music being linked. If you are a fan of classical music, you would enjoy this book tremendously.

[Bill O’Neill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book that demands to be skimmed. An interesting topic, but every event, the lead up, the reactions, the letters to the editor and the reviews are described in great detail. At the same time, there’s little in the way of Detailed analysis. I wanted to form an opinion, e.g., as towhether Wagner was an ideological precursor to the Nazis. I got no answers here.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and detailed history of the connections between classical music and 20th century politics.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Music can never completely separate itself from the politics of its environment, and so it is with classical music during the period covered in this book. From World War I to the Cold War, music, like so many other elements of art and culture, got caught up in the politics of conflict, either actual war, or significant global competition. Given that WWI and WWII lead off the analysis, German music and musicians found themselves in a difficult spot during the war in America. German works often got shunted or hidden. Musicians had to toe the line, but if you didn't, it didn't go well. Nearly a full century before Colin Kapernick's career was derailed for not paying the "correct" homage to the National Anthem, a Boston conductor's refusal to play the National Anthem also ended his career, and actually saw Karl Muck imprisoned.

Then you have the Cold War, when American classical music had to not only contend with a new adversary (The Soviet Union), but also it found itself being used as but one of many instruments to assert American strength against the USSR. Soft power was not coined until after the Cold War, but classical music was one of the ways America attempted to promote its soft power, with varying degrees of success.

This work is not about the music, but about musicians trying to adapt to the world they were in. Heavy conflicts and major disputes will impact music as it does any other part of life. In this readable work, you find that is the case even for classical music.

[Kelly Sedinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title might make you expect a broader history of classical music in the United States than this book provides; instead the focus is mainly on the role classical music and musicians played in the various political divides and events that took place in the 20th century, starting with how anti-German sentiment in WWI affected classical music (at the time dominated by German musicians everywhere), and then how WWII, the rise of Communism, the Red Scare, and the Cold War all affected music (as well as how music responded and played its own role). On that basis the book is often fascinating, and as a lot of the musicians mentioned within are the ones who were either active or recently deceased when I was learning about classical music in my youth, the book helps put a lot of the music I studied and those who produced it into historical context. Well-written and recommended.

[Charles Hausmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional book in every way. It is well researched presenting a detailed account of the importance of classical music in the the late 19th and first half of the 20th century. It chronicles specific events and concerts that triggered sociopolitical reactions and the musicians who led the way. The book connects history and world events to specific music and performers in a fascinating and thought provoking narrative. And it reveals the power that serious music can have. I found myself lamenting that this music does not engender the same reactions today.

[Susan Brunner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book’s full title is Dangerous Melodies: Classical Music in America from the Great War through the Cold War. I personally love reading history. This is quite a different approach to history as it is through the lens of music. I had not thought about or before considered the effect of classical music, which is all from Europe, on people in the US during the first and second world wars and the cold war.

Classical music comes from Europe. I had not realized about the anti-German feelings in the US during the first world war. You hardly hear about this. I know that Germans were the second largest immigrant group to the US and the third largest in Canada (after the French and English) prior to the second world war.

I have German relatives in Canada who immigrated in the mid to late 1800’s and were in Canada during the first and second world war. I know that my great-grandfather, who died in 1905 was basically a German speaker, but my grandfather was bilingual, and my father, who was born in 1914 spoke only English and grew up in a home that spoke English. I know people in the community felt that they had to keep their heads down and not cause any trouble, but they also signed up for service in both world wars.

There is a short review of this book on Kirkus Reviews. On NPR News they show highlights of a review with the author by Scott Simons. Tim Page at the Washington Post has great an easy read on this book.

Jonathan Rosenberg speaks at Politics and Prose on his book Dangerous Melodies. The Q&A starts at around 33 minutes into the video. This is a rather long video speech by Jonathan Rosenberg on C-Span.

[Kathy T · Rating 2 out of 5]

For such an interesting and relevant topic, this book does not do it justice. The entire third section feels like it was written in an evening and rushed to the press. The sections on WWI and WWII are better, but the narrative structure is uncomfortable and leaves one wanting.

[Greg Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great.

[Lee Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book requires a commitment to the subject matter and at almost 400 pages, I'm not ready to put off my other books. It is indeed relevant in current times. What I read I liked.

[Emily Taradash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though the information in the book is very interesting, the writing is academic and feels like it could have been edited significantly.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the stories in this are presented without commentary which gives a strange equal weight to protesting fascism and Americans being xenophobic.

[Selena]

it started out interesting but went on and on and was quite repetitive.

[Mar｡˚○⚘ · Rating 5 out of 5]

✎ᝰ𓍢ִ໋🀦 Thesis Reading

[Chris Millington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting. I probably imagined a more general history of classical music in the USA but the story told by Jonathan Rosenberg of the challenges faced by musicians during the wars of the twentieth century is in many ways a more interesting one. Of the fascinating cast of characters Toscanini emerges as even more heroic and Furtwängler as more compromised. The struggles of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein to fight off allegations of Communist sympathies is told in some detail and the arguments over whether to programme Wagner and Richard Strauss during periods when the USA was at war with Germany were fascinating. The triumph of the Texan Van Cliburn (the only musician to receive a ticker tape parade in New York) in the first Tchaikovsky Piano Competition was largely unknown to me as was the programme from the fifties onwards encouraged by President Eisenhower of sending American orchestras to play concerts in Communist countries, although not always smoothly - Chinese senior officials found Respighi's The Pines Of Rome too decadent. A really interesting and thoughtful book, well read by Chris Henry Coffey.