Michael Fjeldsøe (University of Copenhagen)
Addressing the West: The 1948 International Conference of Composers and Music Critics in Prague
The 1948-resolution in the Soviet Union was directed to the Soviet public. In May 1948, when the Second International Congress of Composers and Music Critics assembled in Prague, their resolution, aiming at an Eastern and not least Western European public, had to be transformed into a message in a way that would not scare anyone away except communist hardliners: it had to stand out as reasonable arguments. German composer Hanns Eisler, just returned from his US exile in order to avoid further HUAC hearings, was the central figure in this transformation and both drafted and negotiated the resolution in Prague. As a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg and a prominent figure of the pre-war German Cultural Left, he had the experience, credibility, and skills for such a job, as he himself was an advanced composer and recognized as such. Thus the Congress in Prague became part of the early Cultural Cold War where East and West through congresses and organizations aimed at winning over the European non-communist left for their ends and purposes.
It is well known that Theodor W. Adorno was highly critical of Soviet cultural politics, as his famous essay ‘Die gegängelte Musik’ shows. Less known is the fact that he wrote it in the summer of 1948 as a direct answer to the Prague manifest, even if he first published it in 1953 and then included it in his volume Dizzonansen in 1956. It is a piece criticizing the way culture was used by the communist governments in the East, and then he discusses in detail the resolution from the Congress in Prague. But why did he find this resolution important and provoking enough on which to write an essay? In most cases he just did not comment on matters, he did not find ‘vom Rang’ reaching the standards of matters worth criticizing. I would suggest that it was because he knew that Eisler was the main author of the resolution.
During the early 1940s, while both were in exile in New York, Adorno and Eisler wrote together a book, Composing for the Films. Due to the HUAC hearings concerning Hanns and his brother Gerhard Eisler, Adorno stepped down as author of the English 1947 first edition. Now he found a lot of their common arguments from their book on film music used in a way he could not accept. What was then their critique of the capitalist film industry was now used to promote standards of composition according to the 1948 Soviet campaign against formalism, though in a more intelligent way, which might win over some Western composers. Furthermore, on another level this essay is part of the Cultural Cold War: when he decided to publish it, it appeared in the journal Der Monat, at that time funded by the Ford Foundation before it was taken over by the Congress of Cultural Freedom in 1954. Both organizations were secretly funded by the CIA.
It is well known that Theodor W. Adorno was highly critical of Soviet cultural politics, as his famous essay ‘Die gegängelte Musik’ shows. Less known is the fact that he wrote it in the summer of 1948 as a direct answer to the Prague manifest, even if he first published it in 1953 and then included it in his volume Dizzonansen in 1956. It is a piece criticizing the way culture was used by the communist governments in the East, and then he discusses in detail the resolution from the Congress in Prague. But why did he find this resolution important and provoking enough on which to write an essay? In most cases he just did not comment on matters, he did not find ‘vom Rang’ reaching the standards of matters worth criticizing. I would suggest that it was because he knew that Eisler was the main author of the resolution.
During the early 1940s, while both were in exile in New York, Adorno and Eisler wrote together a book, Composing for the Films. Due to the HUAC hearings concerning Hanns and his brother Gerhard Eisler, Adorno stepped down as author of the English 1947 first edition. Now he found a lot of their common arguments from their book on film music used in a way he could not accept. What was then their critique of the capitalist film industry was now used to promote standards of composition according to the 1948 Soviet campaign against formalism, though in a more intelligent way, which might win over some Western composers. Furthermore, on another level this essay is part of the Cultural Cold War: when he decided to publish it, it appeared in the journal Der Monat, at that time funded by the Ford Foundation before it was taken over by the Congress of Cultural Freedom in 1954. Both organizations were secretly funded by the CIA.
