1st Edition
Music on the Frontline Nicolas Nabokov’s Struggle Against Communism and Middlebrow Culture
By Ian Wellens
Copyright 2002
168 Pages
by
Routledge
168 Pages
by
Routledge
168 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
The story of Nicolas Nabokov's involvement with the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) is a story of the politics and sociology of culture; how music was used for political ends and how intellectual groups formed and functioned during the Cold War. The seemingly independent CCF, established to counteract apparent Soviet successes in the fields of the arts and intellectual life,... Read more
Contents: Preface; Great books and wise men: Nabokov’s road to the 1950 Berlin Congress; Waking the twilight sleepers I: on Soviet music and Shostakovich; Waking the twilight sleepers II: on provincialism and Prokofiev; A very popular fiasco: the 1952 Festival in Paris; Filling the gap: the CCF as surrogate Ministry of Culture; Paris/New York: Congress divided; One end against the middle: intellectuals behind the high culture stockade; Authority and exclusion: the Cold War and ’difficult' music; Appendix: L’Oeuvre du XXème Siècle: list of works performed; Bibliography; Index.
Biography
Ian Wellens
'... highly perceptive exploration... the interdisciplinary connections [drawn] between theoretical philosophy, politics, and music [...] are deeply illuminating and thought provoking... Wellens skillfully raises a complex of issues that must be considered to understand the intricate and often hidden dynamics of music and politics in the early years of the Cold War.' American Music
