Major historical feature · Tulsa and Oklahoma City
The Tulsa–Oklahoma City “Music War”
The phrase describes a political and administrative struggle over Federal Music Project symphonic resources in Oklahoma during the 1930s. The surviving evidence supports a real conflict, but some later retellings go farther than the original documents currently available to this project.
What is documented
- Tulsa Civic Symphony emerged before the Federal Music Project. Later federal support intersects with Tulsa’s symphonic history, but the exact legal continuity between the civic and federal organizations remains unresolved.
- Oklahoma Historical Society research places the Tulsa Federal Music Project symphony in operation by approximately January 1936.
- Political and administrative disagreement over federal music support culminated in the end of the Tulsa federal symphony phase around August 1937. Federal symphonic activity shifted toward Oklahoma City.
- The Oklahoma Federal Symphony Orchestra was licensed in Oklahoma City to serve the state.
- The federal orchestra gave its first Oklahoma City concert under conductor Ralph Rose.
- The Oklahoma City federal orchestra continued as a statewide relief-music institution, with symphonic performances, children’s programming and touring activity.
Why Tulsa and Oklahoma City collided
The Oklahoma project was trying to employ trained musicians during the Depression while building public music programs. Dean Richardson’s planning identified a large pool of relief musicians and envisioned significant symphonic units in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Federal administration, local sponsorship, political influence and the question of where a statewide orchestra should be centered became intertwined.
Kenneth E. Hendrickson Jr.’s Chronicles of Oklahoma study, “Politics of Culture: The Federal Music Project in Oklahoma,” is the principal secondary study behind the “Music War” account. Its notes point to federal correspondence and Oklahoma newspapers that are not all presently recovered in this project’s source package.
What we will not claim yet
- That every musician in the Tulsa federal orchestra simply moved to Oklahoma City.
- That every later Tulsa or Oklahoma City symphony was the same legal organization as its Federal Music Project predecessor.
- That unrecovered newspaper stories said exactly what later summaries attribute to them.
- That the dispute can be reduced to a simple rivalry between two cities; federal rules, local sponsorship and political administration were also involved.
The larger story
The dispute matters because it sits inside a much larger Oklahoma Federal Music Project. The program also involved dance bands in Ardmore and Shawnee, an African American dance band, music teachers in 92 small schools, proposed activity in Okmulgee and other statewide work.
Explore the full Federal Music Project in Oklahoma feature →
Sources and unresolved leads
- Kenneth E. Hendrickson Jr., “Politics of Culture: The Federal Music Project in Oklahoma”
- Oklahoma Historical Society — Federal Music Project
- Oklahoma Historical Society — Tulsa Philharmonic Orchestra
- Oklahoma Historical Society — Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra
- National Archives — Record Group 69
Still sought: original 1937 Tulsa and Oklahoma City newspaper coverage, the Oklahoma Federal Music Project correspondence identified in archival citations, and source-level confirmation of disputed musician transfers between the two cities.
Expanded statewide context
Statewide historical context
About this history
This record treats “Music War” as a documented historical press and political framing for the 1937 conflict surrounding Tulsa's collapsing federal symphony relationship and the organization of an Oklahoma City relief orchestra.
What the evidence shows
- The original Oklahoma FMP planning contemplated symphonic projects in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
- Dean Richardson initially judged that Oklahoma lacked enough relief-eligible professional musicians to sustain two quality symphonic projects simultaneously.
- A 1937 personnel reduction left only sixteen Tulsa orchestra members on the federal payroll.
- Tulsa local sponsors objected to federal requirements concerning administration, relief eligibility, publicity, and acknowledgment of WPA support.
- In July 1937, the Tulsa Symphony Association voted to reject further WPA assistance.
- Local fundraising did not replace the lost federal support; musicians were furloughed.
- Oklahoma City renewed efforts to establish a relief orchestra.
- Tulsa civic leaders feared Oklahoma City would recruit Tulsa musicians; complaints alleged “piracy” of players. Richardson rejected that characterization.
- Newspapers in Tulsa and Oklahoma City described the dispute as a “music war.”
- Fourteen furloughed Tulsa musicians ultimately transferred to Oklahoma City.
Interpretive control
OBH must not adopt accusations of “piracy,” bad faith, or motive as its own conclusions. These are historical claims by participants and newspapers and must remain attributed.
The dispute involved overlapping issues:
- unemployment and relief eligibility;
- federal cultural policy;
- local civic sponsorship;
- publicity and political identity;
- professional musician mobility;
- competition for cultural prestige and resources;
- institutional survival.
County links
- Tulsa County — Tulsa Symphony Association, city leadership, local fundraising, furloughs, collapse.
- Oklahoma County — organization of the Oklahoma City relief orchestra and later Oklahoma Federal Symphony activity.
Key people
- Dean Richardson — Oklahoma FMP state director.
- Mrs. Walter Ferguson — Tulsa Symphony Association president during the dispute.
- T. A. Penny — Tulsa mayor involved in complaints over musician recruitment.
- Robert Gordon — Tulsa Symphony Association promotions manager.
- Senator Elmer Thomas — recipient of Tulsa complaints.
Current coverage
Documented now
- 1937 Tulsa funding and control crisis.
- Tulsa/Oklahoma City competing claims with attribution.
- Fourteen-musician transfer as a documented outcome.
- “Music War” as contemporary press framing.
Still incomplete
- Full set of original Tulsa Tribune and Daily Oklahoman articles cited by later scholarship.
- Complete federal correspondence and personnel files.
- Full identities and employment histories of the fourteen transferred musicians.
Sources used
The Federal Music Project and Its Oklahoma Program1985 Music Wars article- Kenneth E. Hendrickson Jr., “Politics of Culture: The Federal Music Project in Oklahoma.”
- Tulsa County county history.