When reading through Aaron J. Leonard’s book, The Folk Singers and the Bureau, I was delighted to discover the single mention of a curious 1930s musical outfit: the Composers’ Collective of New York. The collective consisted of a group of left-wing composers in the U.S.

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When reading through Aaron J. Leonard’s book, The Folk Singers and the Bureau, I was delighted to discover the single mention of a curious 1930s musical outfit: the Composers’ Collective of New York.

The collective consisted of a group of left-wing composers in the U.S. who, to varying degrees, wished to use their music to help the working class. “Members” of the collective, a term used loosely here, seeing as membership was not necessarily official, included famous and less-famous composers like Aaron Copland, Hans Eisler (who co-wrote Composing for the Films with Theodor Adorno), Earl Robinson, Elie Siegmeister, and Marc Blitzstein.

Grappling with what it meant to create “proletarian music” in the age of conflicting modernist and popular trends, they also debated how directly composers should be involved with politics.

The playlist can be accessed here.

Cheers, everyone.