aesthetics of the Composer’s Collective and the cultural activities of the Communist youth
organization, The Young Pioneers. Proceeding chronologically, Chapter 3 details The Second
Hurricane’s relationship to the inclusive social vision of the Popular Front. Attending to its
multifaceted relationship with Popular Front pedagogy, I study Copland’s operetta at length.
Using techniques adopted from the leftist types of epic theater and mass song, The Second
Hurricane is a finely crafted pedagogical tool that teaches leftist morality to parents and children
alike. In the fourth chapter, I describe scenes from The Hither and Thither of Danny Dither as a
reflection of a gradual softening of rhetoric within leftist education immediately prior to the
Second World War. By considering the relationship of these works to each other and the broader
ideals of leftist educational during the period, I reveal their full musical and cultural significance