388
CHAPTER
16
CLASSICAL MUSIC, JAZZ,
AND MUSICAL THEATER
AFTER WORLD WAR II
I
n 1946 the United States was the world’s chief military power. And as manu-
facturers turned from weapons to new cars and new houses, the domestic
economy boomed, bringing to the postwar era a new level of prosperity.
Thousands of military veterans returned to school, supported by the GI “Bill of
Rights.” Marriage and birth rates rose dramatically, creating the Baby Boom.
But even as peace and prosperity promised a bright future, dangers clouded
the postwar mood. African American servicemen returning to the South
encountered a segregated society that showed little gratitude for the service
they had performed for their country. As veterans returned to the workplace,
they displaced the women who had taken factory jobs during the war. The
atom bomb, a key factor in ending the war, loomed as a symbol not only of
American superiority in science and but also of the perils of progress. The sweet-
ness of victory had turned sour as the United States found itself in a global Cold
War. The Soviet Union, a wartime ally, now occupied much of Eastern Europe
and was developing into a second global superpower. From 1950 until 1953
U.S. soldiers fought in Korea in a confl ict that started as a civil war but soon
involved troops from China. Moreover, the Holocaust—the Nazi attempt to rid
Europe of Jews and other “undesirables”—left faith in human nature itself badly
shaken.
The confl icting realities of prosperity and insecurity, idealism and moral
failure, led many postwar artists and intellectuals to a pessimistic outlook. On
the international front, new enemies replaced old; at home, Americans grew
increasingly conscious that there was no adversary more to be feared than the
evil within themselves.CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE POSTWAR YEARS
After World War I, a gap had opened between concert audiences and the com-
posers who were exploring the contemporary world through music. By the 1940s
a Euro-American modernist tradition had existed for decades, and the end of
World War II opened the door to an infusion of new music and ideas. The concert172028_16_386-411_r3_sd.indd 388 23/01/13 10:55 AM