A History of Russian Music

by Maes, Francis; Pomerans, Arnold J.; Pomerans, Erica

• ISBN13: 9780520248250
• ISBN10: 0520248252
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Francis Maes's comprehensive and imaginative book introduces the general public to the scholarly debate that has revolutionized Russian music history over the past two decades. Based on the most recent critical literature,A History of Russian Musicsummarizes the new view of Russian music and provides a solid overview of the relationships between artistic movements and political ideas. The revision of Russian music history may count as one of the most significant achievements of recent musicology. The Western view used to be largely based on the ideas of Vladimir Stasov, a friend and confidant of leading nineteenth-century Russian composers who was more a propagandist than a historian. With the deconstruction of Stasov's interpretation, stereotyped views have been replaced by a fuller understanding of the conditions and the context in which composers such as Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Stravinsky created their oeuvres. Even the more recent history of Soviet music, in particular the achievement of Dmitry Shostakovich, is being assessed on new documentary grounds. A more complex conception of Russian music develops as Maes explores the cultural and historical milieu from which great works have emerged. Questioning and re-examining traditional views, the author considers the personal development of composers, the relationship of art to social and political ideals in Russia, and the ideologies behind musical research.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	ix
Preface	xi
1. Introduction: Natasha's Dance, or Musical Nationalism	1	(10)
2. "I'm Finished with Russian Music": Mikhail Glinka	11	(19)
3. "There's Petersburg for You!": The Birth Pangs of a Music Culture	30	(19)
4. The Clash of Ideas: The Quest for the Essence of the New Russian Music	49	(14)
5. The Theory in Practice: Musical Creation	63	(30)
6. "Truth in the Realm of the Pseudo": Russian Opera	93	(39)
7. "The Musician-Human": Pyotr Chaikovsky	132	(35)
8. "A Musical Conscience": Rimsky-Korsakov and the Belyayev Circle	167	(29)
9. Imagination and Renewal: The Silver Age	196	(40)
10. "The Cleansing Catastrophe": Early Soviet Music	236	(35)
11 "Russia's Loss": The Musical Emigration	271	(27)
12. From Yezhovshchina to Zhdanovshchina	298	(20)
13. "Prokofiev Must Return to Us"	318	(25)
14. "The Secret Diary of a Nation": The Works of Shostakovich	343	(32)
Notes	375	(20)
Bibliography	395	(8)
Index	403