The Dissemination and Publication of Prokofiev’s Violin Sonatas in the USA and the UK Between 1944-194

The war alliance between the USSR, the USA, and the UK stimulated cultural musical exchanges between the Embassies, and the Soviet organizations VOKS (the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Counties) and Preslit (the Press and Publisher Literary Service). The dissemination of Soviet music scores became a means of establishing cordial relations with its allies. In the mid 1940s Preslit was the sole owner of all Soviet musical works of any genre, and according to its agreement with the Soviet composers, it retained worldwide publication and rental rights. In 1944 New York’s Am-Rus Literary-Music Agency established contacts with Moscow’s VOKS and Preslit. The contract between Am-Rus and Preslit led to the creation of the Am-Rus edition, a series of publications of Soviet music published by the Leeds Music Corporation in New York. In the UK, a similar contract between Moscow’s Preslit and London’s publishing company Boosey Hawkes led to the establishment of the Anglo-Soviet Music Press in 1946. The paper examines the Soviet organizations that coordinated music exchanges and how Soviet music scores were disseminated between VOKS, the USA, and the UK in the 1940s. The paper starts by discussing the functions of VOKS and its censorship role in processing Western cultural inquiries. The paper proceeds by discussing the agreements between Preslit, Am-Rus, and Boosey Hawkes that led to the first Anglo-American publication of Soviet music in 1946 by the Leeds Music Corporation and the Anglo-Soviet Music Press. Finally, the dissemination and publication of Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Sonatas opus 80 and 94bis is discussed in detail as a case study, placed in the wider historical and political context of the 1940s.