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The Composers’ Guild of Great Britain and “unofficial” musical diplomacy …
“A Musician in Eastern Europe”
With this context in mind, it is now possible to examine Bush’s activities
in Eastern Europe in greater detail. In 1947, the year in which he acted as
Chairman of the Composers’ Guild, the composer engaged in a busy pro-
19
gramme of travel, as shown in detail in Table 1. He undertook two con-
ducting tours, one in January and February and one in October and Novem-
ber of that year. In the interim, he attended the First International Congress
of Composers and Music Critics at Prague in May 1947, and took his choir,
the Workers’ Music Association Singers, to the first World Festival of Youth
and Students in Prague in July and August. It is not clear exactly how of-
ficial all these visits were in terms of formally representing the Compos-
ers’ Guild. Already in August 1946, before being elected, Bush was planning
his first concerts in Czechoslovakia and lobbying Shneerson to organize for
20
the composer to add some time in the Soviet Union to the trip. By 30 No-
vember, he had been elected Chairman of the Guild and finalized his Czech
plans, but was only beginning to explore the possibility of visiting Yugosla-
via (while also still lobbying for a visit to the Soviet Union). In fact, noting
21
the details of his appointments in Prague in Table 1, it seems likely that in
this immediate postwar period of rapid change and ad hoc arrangements, he
was only able to make the proper contacts and formalise his tour arrange-
ments for Yugoslavia and Bulgaria once already in Czechoslovakia. Never-
theless, Bush himself later presented the various visits as activities on behalf
of the Composers’ Guild and it is likely that his invitation to the First In-
22
ternational Congress, at least, was as a representative of his organisation.
In addition, he certainly viewed the tours as acts of musical diplomacy, in-
volving both the showcasing of recent British music and opportunities to
learn from organizations abroad that were also reconstructing musical life
23
after the Second World War, especially as newly socialist nations. Notably,
19 Bush wrote about his journey in letters, in a draft article, ‘A Musician in Eastern Eu-
rope’, which was published as: Alan Bush, “Musical Journey Through the Balkans,”
Changing Epoch 1 (London: Birch Books, 1947), 11–22, in a reproduction from the
Workers’ Music Association’s Keynote magazine. “A Musician in Eastern Europe” is
extant as a typescript manuscript in the Alan Bush Archive, Histon.
20 Alan Bush to Grigori Shneerson, 23 August 1946, MS Mus. 440.
21 Alan Bush to Grigori Shneerson, 30 November 1946, MS Mus. 440
22 See: Miss N.E. Wadsley [BBC] to Major Badham, 11 March 1948, The National Ar-
chives: Public Record Office (TNA: PRO) KV2/3516: Bush, Alan D.
23 See: Alan Bush, “Script for Broadcast to Jugoslavia” (1947), Alan Bush Archive, 4.
Bush wrote therein: “I am greatly looking forward to a future opportunity of acting as
a kind of musical ambassador.”

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