Alan Bush, Modern Music, and the Cold War
The Cultural Left in Britain and the Communist Bloc

The first major study of British communist composer Alan Bush, providing new perspectives on music and politics during the Cold War.

Joanna Bullivant (Author)

9781009158794, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 December 2022

288 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1.5 cm, 0.504 kg

'Alan Bush's reputation as a serious composer remains and, as the Cold War fades into memory, those dichotomous views of Bush which have so long prevailed are also becoming more blurred. This book makes a substantial contribution to this process, and offers new perspectives on a phenomenon which still fascinates us today …' Toby Thacker, Twentieth-Century Music

The first major study of Alan Bush, this book provides new perspectives on twentieth-century music and communism. British communist, composer of politicised works, and friend of Soviet musicians, Bush proved to be 'a lightning rod' in the national musical culture. His radical vision for British music prompted serious reflections on aesthetics and the rights of artists to private political opinions, as well as influencing the development of state-sponsored music making in East Germany. Rejecting previous characterisations of Bush as political and musical Other, Joanna Bullivant traces his aesthetic project from its origins in the 1920s to its collapse in the 1970s, incorporating discussion of modernism, political song, music theory, opera, and Bush's response to the Soviet music crisis of 1948. Drawing on a wealth of archival sources, including recently released documents from MI5, this book constructs new perspectives on the 'cultural Cold War' through the lens of the individual artist.

Introduction
1. Bush as modernist: material and performance
2. Bush as activist: the idea of workers' music
3. Bush as outsider: music and communism in wartime
4. Building in the rubble: the winter journey and Lidi?e
5. Bush as Stalinist: the year 1948
6. Bush and the self: Wat Tyler's rituals of becoming
7. Bush and East Germany: opera, sex, and the communist body.

Subject Areas: Marxism & Communism [JPFC], The Cold War [HBTW], Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]