Music and Politics in Early Cold War Poland and East Germany David G
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Purdue University Purdue e-Pubs Purdue University Press e-books Purdue University Press Fall 9-15-2013 Composing the Party Line: Music and Politics in Early Cold War Poland and East Germany David G. Tompkins Carleton College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/purduepress_ebooks Recommended Citation Tompkins, David G., Composing the Party Line: Music and Politics in Early Cold War Poland and East Germany. (2013). Purdue University Press. (Knowledge Unlatched Open Access Edition.) This document has been made available through Purdue e-Pubs, a service of the Purdue University Libraries. Please contact [email protected] for additional information. Composing the Party Line Music and Politics in Early Cold War Poland and East Germany Central European Studies Charles W. Ingrao, senior editor Gary B. Cohen, editor Franz Szabo, editor Daniel L. Unowsky, editor Composing the Party Line Music and Politics in Early Cold War Poland and East Germany David G. Tompkins Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana Copyright 2013 by Purdue University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tompkins, David G. Composing the Party Line: Music and Politics in Early Cold War Poland and East Germany / David G. Tompkins. pages cm. -- (Central European Studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-55753-647-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-289-6 (epdf) -- ISBN 978-1-61249-290-2 (epub) 1. Music--Political aspects--Poland--His- tory--20th century. 2. Music--Political aspects--Germany (East)--History--20th century. 3. Music and state--Poland--History--20th century. 4. Music and state- -Germany (East)--History--20th century. I. Title. ML3916.T67 2013 780.943'109045--dc23 2013013467 Cover image: A student choir and folk music ensemble perform in Leipzig. The slogan reads: “Art can accomplish much in educating people about true patriotism and the spirit of peace, democracy, and progress” (SLUB Dresden / Abt. Deutsche Fotothek, Roger & Renate Rössing, 25 January 1952). Thanks to the support of over 200 libraries working through the Knowledge Unlatched program, an electronic version of this book is made available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC) license for global open access. The ISBN of the open access version is 9781557537027. More information is available at knowledgeunlatched.org Contents Foreword vii Acknowledgments ix Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 Chapter One The Rise and Decline of Socialist Realism in Music 15 Chapter Two The Composers’ Unions between Party Aims and Professional Autonomy 95 Chapter Three The Struggle over Commissions 131 Chapter Four The Music Festival as Pedagogical Experience 167 Chapter Five The Concert Landscape 197 Conclusion 247 Bibliography 253 Index 287 Publisher’s Note A list of links to some of the music that is mentioned in this book can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.5703/1288284315191 Foreword With the passage of nearly a quarter century since the end of communist rule in Central and East-Central Europe, scholars are developing fascinating new perspectives on the realities of governance, economies, societies, and culture in the various stages of communist development. We are learning that, just as the modalities and speed of establishing communist rule after World War II varied significantly from one country to the next, there also was no common blueprint for the implementation of the communist projects for transforming economic production, social relations, and the cultural sphere. Even in the high Stalinist era from 1948/49 through 1953, communist authorities in the various countries used differing tactics, proceeded at differing speeds, and had to negotiate with repre- sentatives of many established institutions and interests. Comparative studies of those processes are challenging for researchers, but John Connelly’s pioneering study of higher education in East Germany, the Czech lands, and Poland, Captive University: The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Educa- tion, 1945-1956 (Chapel Hill, 2000), demonstrated convincingly their great value for understanding the dynamics of communist transformations. David Tompkins’s research charts in revealing terms how communist au- thorities in East Germany and Poland attempted during their first decade of rule to reshape the composition and public presentation of new concert music in the name of “socialist realism.” The study rests on a great body of research in origi- nal documents of party officials, government ministries, and other administrative bodies in the two countries as well as memoirs, periodicals, and much relevant scholarship. Tompkins demonstrates that the relationships between government authorities and composers and performers in the two countries proved to be com- plex and dynamic. Both governments called for new music to draw on popular national traditions and to communicate to the public in easily accessible ways, and they pointedly criticized “formalism” and abstruse harmonic experimenta- tion. Tompkins shows, however, that in practice cultural authorities in both coun- tries made compromises in their policies. For their part many composers found ways to live with the communist policies and to take advantage of government vii viii ♦ Composing the Party Line sponsorship, and more proved willing during the high Stalinist period to compose in the genres and styles which the authorities wanted than many would admit later. The stronger position of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) in East Ger- man society and among East German artistic and intellectual elites than was the case for the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) in Poland resulted in greater and more lasting government influence on East German composers than was the case for their Polish counterparts. Indeed, Tompkins finds that efforts to induce Polish composers to produce socialist realist works largely ceased after 1955/56. There have been previous studies of individual composers, musical life in general, and general cultural policies under the East German and Polish commu- nist governments, but this is the first archivally based examination of the efforts to develop socialist realism in music in the two countries and the first serious comparative study of the actual impact of communist rule on musical composi- tion in any two Soviet bloc countries during the early Cold War era. With the access to archives in Central and East-Central Europe which scholars now enjoy and models such as David Tompkins’s work, one can hope for even more de- tailed, analytic research in the future on the relationship between government au- thority and cultural and intellectual life during Central and East-Central Europe’s communist era. Gary B. Cohen Series editor Acknowledgments Although of course the core responsibility is mine, the commitments in time and energy associated with this book project make it a joint one, helped along by the input and advice of so many kind and insightful people. It is a real pleasure to thank them here. This project got its start at Columbia University, and was most profoundly in- fluenced by Volker Berghahn, who provided scholarly criticism as well as much encouragement. Brad Abrams gave of his time on occasions too many to count, and Mark von Hagen has been a real friend as well as a crucial critical presence. The sug- gestions of Boris Gasparov, Walter Frisch, and István Deák were much appreciated. Over the years, many other colleagues have read various chapter and article drafts or helped in various key ways, and although I can’t mention everyone, I’d especially like to thank Eliza Ablovatski, Jan Behrends, John Bohstedt, Beata Bolesławska, Joy Haslam Calico, John Connelly, Winson Chu, Philip Ewell, Anna Fishzon, Eagle Glassheim, Gundula Kreuzer, Molly Wilkinson Johnson, Vejas Liulevicius, Dan Magilow, Ben Martin, Ryan Minor, Denise Phillips, Gilya Schmidt, Christian Schmidt-Rost, Adrian Thomas, Max Vögler, Kimberly Elman Zarecor, and Lisa Zwicker. Celia Applegate’s close reading of the manuscript has made it much stronger. More broadly, I thank all my colleagues at the University of Tennessee and Carleton College for the intangible and stimulating atmosphere that strengthens a book like this. And I’d especially like to acknowledge Ari Sam- martino, who more than anyone else has been there with helpful criticism and friendly support from the beginning to the end. In Central Europe, I’d like to thank Christoph Kleßmann and the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung for welcoming me to the Berlin area and offering advice. Barbara Murach at the German Music Archive in Berlin was always a smiling presence while listening to the best that socialist-realist music has to of- fer. The staffs at the Archiwum Akt Nowych in Warsaw and the Bundesarchiv in Berlin were of course indispensable. Dariusz Jarosz aided me in navigating both Polish archives as well as the early stages of this project. Krystyna Kersten also helped me to crystallize my initial ideas, as did Jan Lencznarowicz. The staff at ix x ♦ Composing the Party Line the archive of the Polish Composers’ Union, especially Izabela Zymer, unfail- ingly brought me the correct dusty protocol as well as a warm cup of tea. For es- sential nonacademic support while abroad, I’d like to thank Krystyna Gott, Rafał Taranowski, the Bielowicz family, and the Simon family. This project has been made possible by the generous support of a number of organizations, including the American Council of Learned Societies, the Ful- bright Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, Carleton College, the Germanistic Society of America, the Harriman Institute, the International Re- search and Exchanges Board, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the National Security Education Program, the Social Science Research Council’s Berlin Program for Advanced Studies, and the University of Tennessee. In the early stages of this project, I had the pleasure of taking part in the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Junior Scholars Training Seminar as well as the German Historical Institute’s Transatlan- tic Doctoral Seminar, and I offer my thanks to the participants for their comments.