Editing Federal Music Project (section)

{{short description|U.S. New Deal program}}
[[File:mns fmp.jpg|thumb|"Midsummer Night Symphonies", Southern California Federal Music Project, WPA, ca. 1937]]
The '''Federal Music Project''' ('''FMP''') was a part of the [[New Deal]] program [[Federal Project Number One]] provided by the U.S. federal government which employed musicians, conductors and composers during the [[Great Depression]].<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/956692/WPA-Federal-Music-Project
|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Online
|title=Encyclopædia Britannica, "WPA Federal Music Project."
|date=26 Sep 2009
}}</ref> In addition to performing thousands of concerts, offering music classes, organizing the Composers Forum Laboratory, hosting music festivals and creating 34 new orchestras, employees of the FMP researched American traditional music and folk songs, a practice now called [[ethnomusicology]]. In the latter domain the Federal Music Project did notable studies on [[cowboy]], [[Louisiana Creole music|Creole]], and what was then termed [[Negro]] music. During the Great Depression, many people visited these symphonies to forget about the economic hardship of the time. In 1939, the FMP transitioned to the [[Works Progress Administration]]'s Music Program, which along with many other WPA projects, was phased out in the midst of World War II.<ref>Peter Gough and Peggy Seeger, ''Sounds of the New Deal: The Federal Music Project in the West'' (2015)</ref>