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Radical Socialism, Simplified Serialism: John Weinzweig and CBC Wartime Radio Drama During the Second World War Carolyne Sumner

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Radical Socialism, Simplified Serialism: John Weinzweig and CBC Wartime Radio Drama During the Second World War Carolyne Sumner Document generated on 09/25/2021 6:56 a.m. Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique Radical Socialism, Simplified Serialism: John Weinzweig and CBC Wartime Radio Drama during the Second World War Carolyne Sumner S’affirmer, s’exprimer, s’engager Article abstract Volume 17, Number 2, Fall 2016 Radio drama was a quintessential source of entertainment for Canadian audiences during the Second World War, and the Canadian Broadcasting URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1052739ar Corporation (CBC) used the art form to distribute propaganda and garner DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1052739ar support for the Canadian war effort. Similarly, radio drama became an essential artistic outlet for artists and composers to articulate their political See table of contents beliefs to a national audience. This article frames Canadian composer John Weinzweig’s works for the CBC radio drama series New Homes for Old (1941) in light of Canada’s wartime socio-political climate and the rise of the Popular Front movement during the 1930s, and suggests that radio drama provided Publisher(s) Weinzweig with a national soapbox for his radical socialist ideals during a time Société québécoise de recherche en musique of political upheaval. Drawing upon archival materials from Library and Archives Canada, the CBC ISSN Music Library Archives, and Concordia University’s Centre for Broadcasting and Journalism Studies, this article builds upon the biographical work of Udo 1480-1132 (print) Kasemets (1960), Elaine Keillor (1994), and Brian Cherney (2011). It establishes 1929-7394 (digital) Weinzweig’s socialist ties and argues that his political leanings prompted him to simplify his serial language in favour of a simplified modernist aesthetic Explore this journal which appealed to Canada’s conservative wartime audiences. Specifically, this study of Weinzweig’s radio works reveals how the composer desired to make serial compositions accessible and palatable, and shows how he incorporated vernacular idioms such as folk songs and national anthems as foils to the elitist Cite this article European serial aesthetic. Finally, this article demonstrates how Weinzweig, in Sumner, C. (2016). Radical Socialism, Simplified Serialism: John Weinzweig and incorporating these devices, uses a powerful and pervasive medium to CBC Wartime Radio Drama during the Second World War. Les Cahiers de la promote his unique compositional style and reveals how his simplified serial Société québécoise de recherche en musique, 17(2), 49–60. aesthetic reflects the cultural, political, and aesthetic ideals of leftist socialism https://doi.org/10.7202/1052739ar and the Popular Front. Tous droits réservés © Société québécoise de recherche en musique, 2018 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Radical Socialism, Simplified Serialism: John Weinzweig and CBC Wartime Radio Drama during the Second World War1 Carolyne Sumner (University of Toronto) union of the literary, theatrical, and musical arts, investigates how Weinzweig’s personal, artistic, and radio drama became a quintessential source of political ties with the radical left may have encouraged entertainment for Canadian audiences during the him to modify his modernist idiom and simplify his serial ASecond World War. Throughout the war, the Canadian language. By framing his early career in light of Canada’s Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) not only relied on this wartime sociopolitical climate and the rise of leftist artistic medium to disseminate wartime propaganda and movements such as the Popular Front, this article considers garner support for the Canadian war effort, but radio drama the various factors which led Weinzweig to adopt a more also became an indispensable creative outlet for Canadian accessible musical language in his radio works, one which artists, providing them with the necessary financial and embraced the cultural, political, and aesthetic ideals of leftist artistic support to broadcast their works to a national, at socialism. In doing so, this article ultimately demonstrates times international, audience.2 For Canadian composer John how Weinzweig uses both the medium of radio broadcasting Weinzweig, CBC radio drama thus granted him the rare and the art of radio drama as a soapbox for his engagement opportunity to garner a national audience base for his serial with radical socialism during a time of political upheaval. compositions. While scholars such as Udo Kasemets and Elaine Keillor draw attention to his use of the twelve-tone John Weinzweig and Radio Drama technique in these works (Kasemets 1960; Keillor 2011), an During the early years of radio drama production at the examination of Weinzweig’s manuscript scores and sketches CBC, incidental music was provided by stock music used Afor his first CBC radio drama commission New Homes for for silent film, and performed live by the radio studio Old (1941) reveals that he uses a modified technique, distinct orchestra (Weinzweig 1988, 79). As noted by Keillor, from the twelve-tone approach and modernist language he by the early 1940s, the CBC made the decision to hire uses in his concert works at this time. Although it is possible Canadian composers to write original music for their radio that Weinzweig’s decision to modify his serial approach in dramas (Keillor 2006, 171). This was partially prompted his radio works may have been prompted by a variety of by the frustration experienced by radio drama directors and circumstances, including time constraints, the technological scriptwriters who felt constrained by the limited selection demands of live radio broadcasting, and Canada’s of stock music, as well as motivated by their desire to conservative musical climate during the mid-twentieth promote the work of young Canadian composers at this time century, some consideration of Weinzweig’s engagement (Weinzweig 1988, 79; Keillor 1994, 23). with radical socialism during the 1930s and 1940s may In 1941, Weinzweig was approached by the CBC’s further elucidate his compositional decisions at this time. musical director of the time, Samuel Hersenhoren, to write By drawing upon relevant archival materials, including original background music for CBC wartime radio drama.3 manuscript scores, radio scripts, program schedules, Throughout his short career at the CBC, Weinzweig wrote recordings, and biographical documents, this article over one hundred original scores for several radio drama 1 An abridged conference proceeding version of this full-length article appears in Intersections: Canadian Journal of Music (2016a). This version was first presented at the Muscan 2017 annual conference, “Canada 150: Music and Belonging.” 2 For a history of the early developments of radio drama in Canada and North America, please see Fink (1976-1977; 1983; 1981), Jackson (1967) and Sterling (2004). Sources pertaining to the CBC’s wartime initiatives and programing during the Second World War include Nash (1994), Stewart (1975) and Ciment (2007). For general sources pertaining to the aesthetics and technology of radio drama, see Crook (1999) and Hand and Traynor (2011). 3 As evidenced in the finding aid for the CBC Music Library Fonds housed at Library and Archives Canada, the CBC hired a number of Canadian composers (following Weinzweig’s appointment) to write incidental music for radio drama, including: Godfrey Ridout (1918-1984), Russ Gerow, Howard Cable (1920-2016), Bob Farnon, Ernest Dainty (1891-1947), Louis Applebaum (1918-2000), Murray Ross, Barbara Pentland (1912-2000), Arnold Walter (1902-1973), Gerald Bales (1919-2002), Johnny Dobson, and Samuel Hersenhoren (1908-1982). Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique, vol. 17, no 2 49 series, including Brothers in Arms (1941-1942), Canada adjust his compositional approach, this experience ultimately Marches (1942), The British Empire Series (1942), Comrade helped him hone his orchestration skills, as he recollects: 4 in Arms (1942-1945), and Our Canada (1942-1943). Writing music for radio plays was an experience that His first commission at the CBC was for the radio drama taught me to meet deadlines, sharpen my orchestral series New Homes for Old (NHFO). Written by CBC script craft, responding to dramatic situations with brevity, to writer Alistair Grosart and produced by CBC producer be prepared for those last-second cuts in the script, and Ian Smith, NHFO is an eleven-week series based on the frequently, to say good-bye to a great music cue, and experiences, traditions, and aspirations of “new Canadians” as well, to stay clear of complex fugal activity behind who immigrated from countries including Czechoslovakia, voices (Weinzweig 1988, 79). Russia, Germany, Ukraine, Poland, Austria, and the Working for radio, therefore, proved to be both a Netherlands (Grosart 1941).5 beneficial and influential experience for the development of Weinzweig’s compositional career. Not only did this Writing for Radio Drama opportunity allow the young composer to have his works performed and broadcast on a weekly basis, but it also helped Writing for radio drama significantly impacted
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