Russian Music and Nationalism

Challenging what is widely regarded as the distinguishing feature of Russian music - its ineffable "Russianness" - Marina Frolova-Walker examines the history of Russian music from the premiere of Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar" in 1836 to the death of Stalin in 1953, the years in which musical nationalism was encouraged and endorsed by the Russian state and its Soviet successor. The author identifies the two central myths that dominated Russian culture during this period - that art revealed the Russian soul, and that this nationalist artistic tradition was founded by Glinka and Pushkin. She shows how nationalist ideas were endlessly recycled and elaborated in the writings of composers, critics and historians of music, even when supporting evidence was scant or non-existent. Against this background, the author offers a critical account of how the imperatives of nationalist thought fired up individual invention, pushed composers to engage with folk, popular, and church music traditions, and caused them to reject certain Western paradigms, or even stand them on their head. In this way, she provides a new perspective on the brilliant creativity, innovation and eventual stagnation to be found within the tradition of Russian nationalist music.

ISBN 0300112734   Pages 336 ISBN13 9780300112733 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Yale University Press   Weight (grammes) 889 Imprint Yale University Press   Published in New Haven Format Hardback   Height (mm) 234 Publication date 14 Dec 2007   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress 2007033565   Spine width (mm) 40 DEWEY 780.94709034   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate DEWEY edition DC22

1		Constructing the Russian national character: literature and music		1
2		The Pushkin and Glinka mythologies		52
3		Glinka's three attempts at Russianness		74
4		The beginning and the end of the Russian style		140
5		Nationalism after the Kuchka		226
6		Musical nationalism in Stalin's Soviet Union		301
		Notes		356
		Glossary of names		380
		Index		396

"[This] was a book waiting to be written that very few could have attempted. . . . [It] is erudite in scope, sophisticated in critical and analytical discussion, and beautifully written, with a blessed absence of jargon or verbosity . . ." -- Pauline Fairclough, "Music & Letters"

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