Federal Music Project

Federal Music Project
Name	Federal Music Project
Formation	1935
Dissolution	1939
Parent organization	Works Progress Administration
Country	United States
Leader title	Director
Leader name	Walter Damrosch
Headquarters	New York City

Contents

Federal Music Project

The Federal Music Project was a New Deal arts program created under the Works Progress Administration to employ musicians, promote classical music and folk music, and provide public performances during the Great Depression. It operated from 1935 to 1939 and involved orchestras, choirs, music education, and radio broadcasts, interacting with institutions such as the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. The program engaged prominent figures from the American Federation of Musicians, the International Workers Order, and conservatories including the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music.

Background and Establishment

The project was authorized as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal relief efforts administered by the Works Progress Administration and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, emerging from consultations with cultural leaders such as Harry Hopkins, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Burrill Philips. Debates in Congress involved members of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and legislators allied with Al Smith and Huey Long; funding and scope were influenced by directives from the National Recovery Administration and decisions at the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. The initiative drew on precedents set by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Public Works Administration for large-scale employment programs.

The national administration was headquartered in New York City under directors including Walter Damrosch and later administrators connected to the Department of the Interior and the Federal Theatre Project. Regional offices coordinated with state arts bodies such as the California State Relief Administration, the Illinois Arts Project, and municipal agencies in Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, and Los Angeles. Programs included symphony orchestras modeled on the New York Philharmonic, community choirs resembling the Paulist Choristers, brass bands inspired by the United States Marine Band, and music education initiatives partnered with conservatories like the New England Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. Radio projects collaborated with broadcasters such as NBC, CBS, and WNYC, and recordings were made with labels connected to facilities like the Library of Congress's archive.

Staff and participants ranged from established conductors and composers to community musicians: conductors and pedagogues associated with the Metropolitan Opera, soloists with ties to the Carnegie Hall, composers connected to the American Composers Alliance, and folk collectors from the Library of Congress circle. Notable names linked to the project’s activities included performers associated with Aaron Copland's milieu, scholars of the Smithsonian Folkways tradition, and administrators who had worked with Serge Koussevitzky and Efrem Zimbalist. The project employed members of the American Federation of Musicians and featured collaborations with educators from the Peabody Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

The project sponsored concerts in municipal auditoriums, parks, schools, and prisons, echoing models used by the New York City Parks Department and the USO for outreach. It supported radio series on networks like NBC and CBS, mounted symphonic seasons comparable to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and produced educational curricula adopted by institutions including Columbia University Teachers College and the University of Chicago. The project influenced the folk revival associated with collectors such as John Lomax and Alan Lomax and intersected with labor cultural movements linked to the Farm Security Administration and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Its public concerts featured repertoires that brought works by Bach, Beethoven, and contemporary American composers into communities, fostering commissions and premieres connected to the League of Composers and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

Funding came from appropriations overseen by the Works Progress Administration and approvals involving fiscal committees in the United States Congress. Administrative oversight involved the WPA Federal Project Number One framework and intersected with federal investigations conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee and critiques from conservative figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy's antecedents in anti-Communist politics. Critics from cultural institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Philharmonic argued about competition and standards, while labor leaders in the American Federation of Musicians raised concerns about wage scales and hiring priorities. Supporters included municipal mayors, university presidents, and philanthropic organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation that engaged in parallel arts funding.

Decline began as New Deal priorities shifted and as the WPA reorganized federal projects amid intervening debates in Congress and changing cultural policy under the Roosevelt administration. Programs wound down with transfers to local arts agencies, conservatories like the Peabody Conservatory and civic orchestras including Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra absorbing personnel and repertory initiatives. The project left archival collections at the Library of Congress, influenced music education in public schools associated with the School Music Association of America, and informed later federal arts initiatives culminating in the creation of institutions similar to the National Endowment for the Arts. Its legacy persisted in community orchestras, radio programming traditions at stations like WNYC, and in scholarship produced by historians at Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Category:New Deal programs Category:Music history of the United States