A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar / Edition 1

by Francis Maes, Arnold Pomerans, Erica Pomerans

Overview

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 Music summarizes 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 With the deconstruction of Stasov's interpretation, stereotyped views have been replaced by a fuller understanding of the conditions and the context in which composers such as Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Stravinsky created their oeuvres.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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520248250
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	02/20/2006
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	441
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Francis Maes is Artistic Director of the Flanders Festival and the editor of The Empire Resounds: Music in the Days of Charles V (1999).

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Introduction: Natasha's Dance, or Musical Nationalism
2. "I'm Finished with Russian Music": Mikhail Glinka
3. "There's Petersburg for You!" The Birth Pangs of a Music Culture
4. The Clash of Ideas: The Quest for the Essence of the New Russian Music
5. The Theory in Practice: Musical Creation
6. "Truth in the Realm of the Pseudo": Russian Opera
7. "The Musician-Human": Pyotr Chaikovsky
8. "A Musical Conscience": Rimsky-Korsakov and the Belyayev Circle
9. Imagination and Renewal: The Silver Age
10. "The Cleansing Catastrophe": Early Soviet Music
11. Russia's Loss: The Musical Emigration
12. From Yezhovshchina to Zhdanovshchina
13. "Prokofiev Must Return to Us"
14. "The Secret Diary of a Nation": The Works of Shostakovich
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Glossing over lesser-known composers and stopping short of the post-Soviet period, the book is worthwhile for seeing how Russia's politics affected her music.

Booklist

Russian music scholarship has been completely overhauled over the last 20 years, largely through the writings of influential musicologist Richard Taruskin (Berkeley). Now Maes, a Dutch writer who as a Fulbright scholar worked closely with Taruskin, presents an overarching view of Russian music history that draws upon and extends the new historical approach espoused by Taruskin. In brief, this school argues for a rejection of the 19th-century view absolutely equating Russian nationalism and folklorism with political and social progressivism. The new view, based on rigorous scholarship and unbiased musical analysis, reveals a far more nuanced and complex picture of Russian music. Originally published in Dutch in 1997, Maes's work is superbly translated here and proceeds from Mikhail Glinka to Dmitri Shostakovich in 14 chronological chapters, each rich in detail and illuminating in content. While no musical examples are presented, Maes does on occasion refer to specific terminology but always in ways that are clear to the lay reader. An excellent addition to all collections. Larry Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal