Organizers: Doc. Dr. Lenka Křupková, head of the chair of musicology at Univerzita Palackého in Olomouc / PD Dr. habil. Rüdiger Ritter, fellow at Univerzita Palackého in Olomouc
Recently, scholars working on the countries of the former Eastern Bloc have pointed out the central role of cultural politics as an important element for governmental control. For the governments of these countries culture simply was far too important for its development to remain a result of chance or of a free competition of artists.
According to Marxist-Leninist ideology, culture was perceived as a powerful instrument for the steering of emotions, and, as a consequence, culture had an important significance in terms of power politics.
ON the field of music and musical life, this led to the installation of Composers’ Unions already in the first years after the implementation of State Socialist order after the Soviet model (i. e. in the end of the 1940s). For every active composer and music maker, musicologists and critics, membership was strongly recommended, if not obligatory. Hence, state cultural politics had created a forum to control composers and also, by means of well-defined sponsoring, to direct them. The existence of both control and sponsoring is typical for State socialist cultural politics. This demonstrates that Composers‘ Unions cannot perceived simply as places of repression of composers, musicians or the musical public.
Composers‘ Unions also were the place of discussions on basic problems of musical aesthetics. Here, members determined with which stylistic means should be composed in order to make music usable for the purposes of the state. This led also to an intensive reception of international stylistic phaenomena. But the effect of Composer‘ Unions was not limited to the musical sphere, but went far beyond: Creating a directive for cultural production also meant shaping a model of the development of the whole society. Composers‘ Unions together with the unions for the other arts proved to be one of the most important instruments of State-Socialist cultural politicians to create identification of the public with the State Socialist order via implementation of music.
For the conference, papers to the following topics are welcome:
- Making of Composers‘ Unions at the end of the 1940s
- Problems of musical aesthetics (formalism, dealing with „Western“ styles such as dodecaphony, Jazz, Rock, Pop etc.)
- Options and limitations of composers, band, musical ensembles
- Composers‘ Unions and unions for the other arts (writers, fine arts etc.)
We are open for case studies on concrete examples and for comparative approaches as well. The conference is oriented to established scholars and young professionals as well. Conference languages are English, German, and Czech.
place: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
date: 11.-12.11.2021
For paper presenters, organizers will cover accommodation for two nights and the travel costs.
Please send your paper proposals (title, abstract of max. 500 signs) by 15.8.2021 to the following addresses: Lenka.krupkova@upol.cz, RRitter@gmx.de.
The conference will be organized in the frame of the research project “Composers’ Unions and Cultural Policy in socialist Countries in the 1950s and 1960s” at Univerzita Palackého in Olomouc sponsored by the Czech Republic. The conference is sponsored by the Johann-Gottfried-Herder-Forschungsrat, Marburg, Germany.