Ryan, Helen Chandler

Lesson Book Cover, "Spanish American Folk Songs of New Mexico" (Box 1, Folder 10).

The Federal Music Project (FMP) was organized in 1935 as an agency of the Works Progress Administration to provide work relief for unemployed musicians. The project was headed by Nikolai Sokoloff until his resignation in May 1939, after which time it underwent a major reorganization. Subsequently, the program became known as the WPA Music Program. At its peak in 1936, the program employed almost 16,000 people. The program lasted until 1943.

The FMP was administered through offices in each of the forty-eight states. Federal relief efforts focused on New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston, traditional centers for musical activity. However, one third of federal relief was divided among the remaining states, including New Mexico. The Federal Music Project organized orchestras, bands, dance bands, chamber music ensembles, opera and choral units, and composers' forums across the country. Putting resources into music education in rural as well as urban areas, the FMP provided jobs for music teachers. To avoid competing with self-supported music teachers, music classes were offered to those who were unable to pay. Classes offered included composition, theory, appreciation, history, vocal and instrumental music. These classes reached almost 14 million students nationwide, many of whom never had taken music classes before. FMP offered programs in public schools, parks, hospitals and many other places. Preservation of folk music was another important goal of the FMP, which provided copying, researching, arranging, binding, and other services for the performing units.

Administration of the Federal Music Project in New Mexico was directed by Helen Chandler Ryan. The program operated between 1936-1943. By October of 1939, the program became known as the New Mexico Music Project, and by September 1942 it became the War Services Program - Music Phase. The New Mexico project focused on music education, performance, and preserving local musical heritage, especially Hispanic folk music. According to the "Evaluation Report of Music Project in New Mexico," January 1943,

"The Project, sponsored by the State Department of Education, took music into isolated rural communities, into C.C.C. and N.Y.A. work camps, and into State institutions whose budgets were too low to employ music directors. It gave instruction in applied music to persons living in urban communities who could not afford private lessons. It supplied leadership and direction for countless community activity, choruses, orchestras, and bands that, in turn, offered wholesome leisure time activity to the participants and relaxation and entertainment to the public. It revived interest in Spanish American folk lore by collection and arranging it for use and placing it in permanent records of Americana. Furthermore, it renewed a pride in the hearts of New Mexicans in their folk heritage so that folk-singing, -dancing and -playing are now more popular with the young generation. It did much to bring the maligned guitar back into its own right as the local accompaniment for Spanish folk music, by giving proper instruction, and it organized numerous tipica orchestra groups that played for community dances and fiestas."

From the guide to the Helen Chandler Ryan New Mexico Federal Music Project Collection, 1936-1943, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)