From Active Participatory Music Making to Passive Appreciation:

Changes in the W.W.I Era Community Music Movement

Julia Chybowski
jjchybow@students.wisc.edu

Abstract

Christopher Small, in his book Musiking, uses music as a verb to insist that music be viewed as an activity rather than something to be passively consumed This paper will explore the early twentieth-century growth of American community music in light of Small's definition. In the years leading up to World War I and in war-time community music, or civic music as it was sometimes called, was a form of community service, a democratic cause, and a participatory activity for the populus to contribute to a larger purpose--the war effort at home. Community music was a moral cause and an extension of domestic music making and largely women's promotional domain for many decades. After the war, music making activities that were associated with a feminized moral cause came under heavy criticism, and the movement changed its direction. The focus of community music leaders changed to emphasize appreciation training and professional performances over amateur music making opportunities.

Thus, I assert that to view the changes in the community music movement as part of a progression leading to American musical production of a higher quality is a mistake. We should remember that community music leaders who called for progress and development often did so out of the fear that American music would be feminine music In the name of progress, community music leaders narrowed the definition of appropriate and accepted musics, insisted on professionalism in community music, and emphasized music appreciation training in place of music making opportunities. The community music movement that came to feminize and devalue music and musical activities did so at the expense of men and women who were composing modern American music and the patrons that supported them. A narrow definition of quality music hindered acceptance of diverse American musical traditions. In replacing active participatory music with passive appreciation of professional performance, the community music movenent inhibited the recognition and acceptance of unique and diversified American musics that were unlike the Western European tradition.

Julia Chybowski

University of Wisconsin-Madison

(608) 259-0519
jjchybow@students.wisc.edu