federal music project
The Federal Music Project was a short-lived (1935-41) US federal work project under the umbrella of Federal Project Number One. At the program’s height the project employed 16,000 musicians who gave lessons to children in rural and urban areas, transcribed/recorded folk songs for archival purposes, and performed in thousands of concerts (34 new orchestras were created under the FMP, which would often perform works by American composers). The guide (in .pdf form) to Federal Music Project-related materials in the Library of Congress can be found here.
Below the cut: some awesome WPA posters of Federal Music Project concerts.
These images were found via the Library of Congress, Google Images, and rainfall.com (which has some of these posters for sale). I quite like the aesthetics of the posters: stripped-down, industrial and utilitarian.
Poster for a Brahms symphony series in NYC, via rainfall.com
A concert series of "unusual music" presented in NYC
The "Colored Concert Band." Possibly my favorite, from a design perspective
A poster for one of the FMP's "Composers' Forum-Laboratory" concert series, via rainfall.com
Another Composers' Forum-Laboratory poster
"Training in Music"
"Gaieties of 1936," a revue presented at the Greek Theatre in Griffith Park (Los Angeles). Mostly girls!
Johann Strauss Jr.'s operetta "Die Fledermaus," staged in the San Bernadino HS auditorium
A Beethoven concert series from 1937
WPA poster for a performance of Handel's "Messiah" in Sioux City, Iowa
Summer concert series (conducted by Nikolai Sokoloff, the FMP's administrator) in San Diego's Balboa Park
Promotional poster for a NYC performance of a chamber opera called "The Romance of Robot"
An amazing red, white and blue Carmen, promoting a FMP performance in Long Beach
March 1st, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Previously on four-thirty-three: movie posters from poland
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Der Fledermaus: 3 Euros
March 5th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Casey: Best (and most cryptic) inside joke EVER.
March 5th, 2009 at 9:02 am
ha.
actually, i have a funny story regarding der fledermaus (who doesnt?!?). when i was just a wee little thing one of my art teachers brought in a record of it for us to listen to. she asked us to draw what we thought of when we heard the music. well, being 8 i thought it was pronounced “deflator mouse” and i drew mice slashing car tires. i think i might have it somewhere….