“Perilous Blessing of Leisure”

This chapter provides an overview of the rationales, efforts, and results of public and private initiatives promoted by musicians, educators, government officials, businessmen, and other advocates, to encourage active music making as a leisure activity in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Following the establishment of professional organizations promoting community music in the early twentieth century, private industries began to sponsor musical activities as recreational for their workers. State, county, and municipal governments funded programs to create opportunities for active music making in the community. The Federal Music Project of the Works Projects Administration (1935–1939) employed thousands of musicians and music educators across the country to perform concerts, teach music classes, and create new musical organizations. The chapter concludes with a description of a survey of music making in the industrial city of Pueblo, Colorado, conducted by sociologist and music educator Max Kaplan.