MHMUS H446 — Honors: Music and the Cold War, 1945–1990

3 credits
Spring
Jonathan Yaeger

Prerequisite: MHMUS 311 . The struggle for supremacy between the United States and the Soviet Union dominated postwar international politics; composers, performers, and audiences were affected by that struggle and played important roles in it. We will trace the Cold War chronologically, beginning in 1945 and continuing through the 1990s. We will focus on the United States and the Soviet Union but also move beyond that duality to study Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and China. We will explore the ways in which pieces of music can participate in and affect politics while also remaining artworks unto themselves. We’ll focus on classical music, but there will be repeated looks at jazz and popular music, because the Cold War touched everything. Composers and musicians considered will include (but not be limited to) Louis Armstrong, Van Cliburn, Aaron Copland, Sofia Gubaidulina, Hong-Ying Ho, Nikolai Kapustin, Paul Robeson, Dmitri Shostakovich, Carlos Varela, and Frank Zappa. This is an Honors course and may be taken to fulfill academic honors requirements.