charles seeger -notes 1948

8/11/2019 Charles Seeger -Notes 1948

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UNESCO, February 1948Author(s): Charles SeegerSource: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Mar., 1948), pp. 165-168Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/891431

Accessed: 11/11/2010 17:45

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UNESCO,

FEBRUARY

1948

by

CHARLES

SEEGER

"Since

wars

begin

in the

minds

of

men,

it

is in

the minds

of men

that

the defenses of peace must be constructed."-Preamble to Constitution

of

United

Nations

Education,

Scientific

and

Cultural

Organization.

When

the United

Nations

Organization

was

set

up

in

San

Francisco,

provision

was made

for

a

number of

dependent

agencies.

Upon

the

high-

est

level

were the

General

Assembly,

the

International

Court of

Justice

and

the

Security

Council.

Upon

a

second

level

were the

Secretariat,

the

Trus-

teeship

Council

and

the

Economic

and Social

Council.

Dependent upon

the

last

mentioned,

though

with

no

definitely

established

relationship,

were

a

numberof special agencies having to do with Human Rights, Health,Food

and

Agriculture,

Labor,

Statistics,

Finance, etc.,

and a

United

Nations

Educational,

Scientific

and

Cultural

Organization

(UNESCO).

There

was

general

agreement

that

such

a

body

should

be

authorized.

But the

name

(which

had

quite

a bit

to

do with

the

function and

was

suggested

by

the

British

Delegation)

gave

pause

upon

two

grounds.

First,

considerable

doubt

existed as

to

inclusion

of the

word

"education" in

the

title.

United

States

Delegate

Vandenberg,

among

others,

feared

it

smacked

too

much

of

propaganda.

United

States

educators

relayed

the

news

back

home

and

such a flood of telegrams came in that the Delegation yielded. A second

trouble was

what

to call

the

"and-so-forth"

nterests,

not

strictly

scientific

or

educational,

that

were

involved-libraries,

museums,

fine

arts,

letters,

humanities,

theatre,

dance,

folklore, radio,

cinema,

press.

The

blanket

term

"cultural"

was

adopted,

following

practice

in

most

foreign

offices

and

many

other

organs

of

governments,

and

on

November

16,

1945,

repre-

sentatives

of

43

of

the 55

Member

States

of

United

Nations

signed

in

London

the

Final

Act

of the

Conferencefor

the

establishment

of

UNESCO.

By

September

1,

1947

there

were

32

members,

among

them

the

United

States. Unofficially, t was said on February1, 1948, 41 nationshad joined.

From

the

beginning,

the

promise

of

a

union

of

intellectual

rationale

and

political

common-sense

that

gave

birth

to

the

Organization

has

proven

an

inspiration

to all

who

have

worked

in

UNESCO

or

watched

its

growing

pains.

The

difficulties

of

making

the

union

work

in

day-to-day

practice

have

proven

enormous.

Some of

them,

uppermost

in

the

minds

of

those

most

concerned

with

the

program,

have

been

the

supposition

that

peace

can

be

taken

by

storm,

the

spreading

of

too

little

over

too

much

and the

pressure

of

special

interests.

These

are

largely political

difficulties.

But

there are technical difficulties;not so

easily

identified. So

rapid

has

been

the

development

of

intellectual

progress

in

modern

times

that

a

lag

of

portentous

size

has

grown

between

it

and

the

progress

of

political

thinking

and

action.

The

naivete

of

the

intellectual

in

minimizing

this

lag

is

as

165


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4/5

and

Humanities.

Music

Education will

be taken

care

of

by

the Arts

and

Letters Section

in

cooperation

with

the

Section of

Education

in a

project

calling

for

three

consultants

and

a

meeting

of

experts.

A

sum

of

$8,750

is

allocated for

that

purpose.

Music

Library might

claim

to be

divided

between the Library Section and that of Arts and Letters. But in this

latter

there

is a

project

"in

collaboration

with

experts

and institutions

concerned

with

music,

to

prepare

a

catalog

of

world

music,

listing

music

which

is

already

available

in

recorded form

and music

which

should

be

recorded

to

supplement

existing

materials;

provided

that

the

Director-

General

should

seek

sponsors

to bear the

cost of

publication,

which

should

not be

borne

by

UNESCO."

A

sum

of

approximately

$8,000

was

allocated

to

this

project.

Musicians,

music

librarians

and

music

administratorswill

be

interested

in several dozen projects listed under Mass Communication(headings of

Audio-visual

aids

and

Telecommunication),

but

more

particularly

under

Libraries,

where

there are

15

projects

involving

preparation

and

guidance

of

librarians,

a

multilingual

dictionary

of

librarianship,

creation of

union

catalogs,

standardization

of

classificatory

systems,

bibliography,

archive

development,

etc.

Music and

books about

music

might

be

concerned

in

the

general

sections

Books,

Publications,

Journals,

and

Copyright.

An

im-

portant

liaison for

music

activity

is found in

the

project

"Fundamental

Education"

in

which a

regional

conference

has

already

been

announced

by

the Pan American Union in cooperation with UNESCO. Others are in

Reconstruction,

Exchange

of

Persons,

and

Education in

International

Un-

derstanding.

Luiz

Heitor

Correa de

Azevedo,

distinguished

Brazilian

music

historian

and

folklorist,

who

will

be

in

charge

of

Music

Affairs in

the

Section

of

Arts

and

Letters

during

1948

(with

one

assistant),

will

have

his

hands

full.

Perhaps

the

action

most

significant

to

musicians

was

the

resolution,

adopted

in

Mexico

upon

motion

of

Helen

White

of the

United

States Dele-

gation,

instructing

the

Director-General

"to

make

preliminary

enquiries

for the establishmentof an InternationalMusic Institute and

prepare

pro-

posals

for

furthering

such a

project

for

submission to

the

Third

Session

of the

Conference

in 1948."

A

large

number of

such

institutes,

councils

and

commissions

already

exist

in

special

fields,

among

them

an

Interna-

tional

Theatre

Institute,

an

International

Commission

on

Folk

Arts and

Folklore,

an

International

Federation

of

Library

Associations,

an

Interna-

tional

Commission

of

Museums,

etc.

There

is

no

reason

to

believe

that

a

music

institute

or

council

cannot

take its

place

among

them.

The

picture,

then,

of

UNESCO-an

inter-governmentagency, dealing

only

with

governments

and other international

organizations-surrounded

by

a

planetary

family

of

autonomous

specialized

organizations

with

which

it

can

deal,

but

which

are

controlled

and

directed

by

private

initiative,

makes

considerable

sense.

UNESCO

has

sufficient

funds

to

aid

many

of

167


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charles seeger -notes 1948

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