Publisher Description

The German-Jewish emigre composer Stefan Wolpe was a vital figure in the history of modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop and the kibbutz movement to bebop, Abstract Expressionism and Black Mountain College. This is the first full-length study of this often overlooked composer, launched from the standpoint of the mass migrations that have defined recent times. Drawing on over 2000 pages of unpublished documents, Cohen explores how avant-garde communities across three continents adapted to situations of extreme cultural and physical dislocation. A conjurer of unexpected cultural connections, Wolpe serves as an entry-point to the utopian art worlds of Weimar-era Germany, pacifist movements in 1930s Palestine and vibrant art and music scenes in early Cold War America. The book takes advantage of Wolpe's role as a mediator, bringing together perspectives from music scholarship, art history, comparative literature, postcolonial studies and recent theories of cosmopolitanism and diaspora.

Author Biography

Brigid Cohen is Assistant Professor of Music at New York University. Her teaching and research focus on twentieth-century avant-gardes, questions of migration and diaspora, theories of cosmopolitanism and relationships between music, the visual arts and literature. Her work has been recognized with awards from the American Musicological Society, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Paul Sacher Foundation and the J. Paul Getty Research Institute. She is a recipient of the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Wolpe's self-revelatory poetics and critical reflections, circa 1951; 2. Weimar-era montage and avant-garde community; 3. 'Amalgamated' musics and national visions in 1930s Palestine; 4. The mid-century poetics and politics of experimental community; Epilogue: the witnessing memory; Select bibliography.

Review

"The importance of this well-researched book on German-born composer Stefan Wolpe lies as much in descriptions of milieux as in its treatment of Wolpe and his music ... The book compares favorably with extant Wolpe scholarship ... It will be required reading for scholars of twentieth-century music."
Choice

Prizes

Winner of Lewis Lockwood Award, American Musicological Society 2013

Review Quote

"The importance of this well-researched book on German-born composer Stefan Wolpe lies as much in descriptions of milieux as in its treatment of Wolpe and his music....The book compares favorably with extant Wolpe scholarship....It will be required reading for scholars of 20th-century music." --Choice

Promotional "Headline"

Cohen traces a history of modernism in migration through the composer Stefan Wolpe, from the Bauhaus to Black Mountain College.

Description for Bookstore

The German-Jewish

Description for Library

The German-Jewish

Details