Music in a 'classless society': Activities of members and 'fellow travelers' of Communist party of Yugoslavia on the construction of conceptual and practical basis of the new musical order

Abstract

On account of its illegal status in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the CPY underwent many transformations in its organizational structure and methods of political struggle during the 1920s and 1930s. Although there are different periodizations of the pre-Second World war history of the CPY, most historiographers designate as most important moments the termination of the five-year long dictatorship of King Aleksandar in 1934 and the implementation of new policies in Comintern in 1935. After that, the CPY began very dynamic political campaigning attempting to reach different parts of the population which affected the definition and application of its cultural policies. Closer alignment with the leftist element of the field of culture created fertile ground for the construction of a broad cultural programme as well as the institutional circuit that enabled the implementation of some of its parts. A group of music specialists among the left-oriented cultural actors contributed to the process of the conceptual and practical articulation of the parts of the programme regulating musical practice. The so-called ‘left music front’ activists developed plural perspectives in the discussion of the music order in a classless society, interpreting the problem of the popularization of high-art music as well as the emancipation of proletarian music from different ideological positions. In that process they leaned on a specific version of the canon of composers both in the local and international music traditions and also on a historical narrative grounded in a dialectical materialism that was deduced from the Soviet model of the history of music. At the dawn of the Second World War, ‘left music front’ became more homogenized which was the result of strict ideological disciplining of members of the CPY in that period. Unlike the leftist segment of the literary field in which party policies were strongly opposed and criticized publicly, there were no ideological conflicts of that sort in its musical counterpart. Because of strict political control of the public sphere, activists of the ‘left music front’ had difficulties in the implementation of their cultural programme. They focused mostly on cultural work within workers’ and students’ organizations and societies that gave them an opportunity to promote in the public some of the core concepts of that programme. Although the activities in the abovementioned organizations gave modest results in the process of the institutionalization of the CPY’s cultural policies, they could be seen as an important basis for the development of musical practices after the Second World War. Together with other artistic projects in the leftist part of the cultural field, the musical undertakings of the members and ‘fellow travelers’ of the CPY contributed to the pluralisation and differentiation of that field, creating an alternative understanding of the production of music as well as of cultural policies on music.

U ovom radu razmatraćemo proces konstituisanja levičarski orijentisanog segmenta u polju muzike i kulture u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji, koncentrisanog oko članova i simpatizera KPJ i srodnih organizacija, kao i aktivnosti koje su sprovodile njegove pristalice. Ukazujući na ključne aktere i događaje koji su doprinosili javnom izrazu takozvanog levog muzičkog fronta u jugoslovenskoj sredini fokusiraćemo se na analizu sledećih pojava: 1. diskursa o muzici u novom, besklasnom društvu, kao i 2. njegovih aktuelizacija u praksi. Cilj nam je da predstavimo programske okvire kulturne politike KPJ u oblasti muzike razvijene u dijalogu šireg kruga pristalica levičarskih ideja, kao i pokušaje njene institucionalizacije. Osim toga, namera nam je da istaknemo istorijski značaj međuratnog levog muzičkog fronta kao važnog ishodišta muzičke prakse nakon Drugog svetskog rata.