Cacophonous Island: Musical Multiculturalism at the 193901940 San Francisco World’s Fair

Elisse La Barre
Music
UC Santa Cruz

This research project investigates the music written, performed, and played at San Francisco’s 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) and examines how the music reflects the social, political, and cultural consciousness of San Francisco, the State of California, and the countries of the Pan-Pacific region in the final years before World War II in relation to previous and concurrent World Fairs. Decades before the term multiculturalism was coined, the GGIE was the first massed spectacle to create the sense of a unified Pacific. This dissertation elaborates in further detail the specific performers, programming, and ensemble histories with a trans-disciplinary approach.