Richard Taruskin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520249790
- eISBN:
- 9780520942806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520249790.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter highlights general understanding and interpretation of Russia's emergence as a producer of art music, and the cultural evaluation of the music. It is extremely mendacious and tendentious ...
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This chapter highlights general understanding and interpretation of Russia's emergence as a producer of art music, and the cultural evaluation of the music. It is extremely mendacious and tendentious historiography that emanates from the U.S.S.R. Russian music, above all, in terms of its Russianness, has ingrained many prejudices and lazy habits of thought. It is often taken for granted that everything which happened in Russian music has a direct relationship, positive or negative, to the national question, which is often very reductively construed in terms of “sources in folk song and church chant.” This in turn can, and often does, become a normative criterion: an overtly quotational national character is taken as a mark of value or authenticity; and its absence, conversely, as a mark of valuelessness.Less
This chapter highlights general understanding and interpretation of Russia's emergence as a producer of art music, and the cultural evaluation of the music. It is extremely mendacious and tendentious historiography that emanates from the U.S.S.R. Russian music, above all, in terms of its Russianness, has ingrained many prejudices and lazy habits of thought. It is often taken for granted that everything which happened in Russian music has a direct relationship, positive or negative, to the national question, which is often very reductively construed in terms of “sources in folk song and church chant.” This in turn can, and often does, become a normative criterion: an overtly quotational national character is taken as a mark of value or authenticity; and its absence, conversely, as a mark of valuelessness.
James Loeffler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300137132
- eISBN:
- 9780300162943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300137132.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Psychology of Music
This chapter examines the contribution of composer Joel Engel to Russian Jewish music at the turn of the century. It explains that Engel pioneered the scholarly study of Jewish music and the idea of ...
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This chapter examines the contribution of composer Joel Engel to Russian Jewish music at the turn of the century. It explains that Engel pioneered the scholarly study of Jewish music and the idea of Jewish national art music, and that his twin search for an art and science of Jewish music fused the German science of Judaism and Russian musical ethnography. The chapter also discusses Engel's discovery that the actual voices of the Jewish people threatened to collapse his whole folkloric model of Russian Jewish music.Less
This chapter examines the contribution of composer Joel Engel to Russian Jewish music at the turn of the century. It explains that Engel pioneered the scholarly study of Jewish music and the idea of Jewish national art music, and that his twin search for an art and science of Jewish music fused the German science of Judaism and Russian musical ethnography. The chapter also discusses Engel's discovery that the actual voices of the Jewish people threatened to collapse his whole folkloric model of Russian Jewish music.
Richard Taruskin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520288089
- eISBN:
- 9780520963153
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288089.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
A reconsideration of the habit of classifying Russian music according to a crude binary (nationalist/non-nationalist) that is more the product of its foreign reception than its domestic significance. ...
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A reconsideration of the habit of classifying Russian music according to a crude binary (nationalist/non-nationalist) that is more the product of its foreign reception than its domestic significance. The contributions of two of its most active early publicists, Vladimir Stasov at home (and atypical) and Rosa Newmarch abroad (and typical), are given a detailed assessment, particularly as regards their treatment of Tchaikovsky.Less
A reconsideration of the habit of classifying Russian music according to a crude binary (nationalist/non-nationalist) that is more the product of its foreign reception than its domestic significance. The contributions of two of its most active early publicists, Vladimir Stasov at home (and atypical) and Rosa Newmarch abroad (and typical), are given a detailed assessment, particularly as regards their treatment of Tchaikovsky.
Boris Gasparov
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300106503
- eISBN:
- 9780300133165
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300106503.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This book gazes through the lens of music to find an unusual perspective on Russian cultural and literary history. It discusses six major works of Russian music from the nineteenth and twentieth ...
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This book gazes through the lens of music to find an unusual perspective on Russian cultural and literary history. It discusses six major works of Russian music from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, showing the interplay of musical texts with their literary and historical sources within the ideological and cultural contexts of their times. Each musical work becomes a tableau representing a moment in Russian history, and together the works form a coherent story of ideological and aesthetic trends as they evolved in Russia from the time of Pushkin to the rise of totalitarianism in the 1930s. The book discusses Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla (1842), Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (1871) and Khovanshchina (1881), Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (1878) and The Queen of Spades (1890), and Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony (1934). Offering new interpretations to enhance our understanding and appreciation of these important works, this book demonstrates how Russian music and cultural history illuminate one another.Less
This book gazes through the lens of music to find an unusual perspective on Russian cultural and literary history. It discusses six major works of Russian music from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, showing the interplay of musical texts with their literary and historical sources within the ideological and cultural contexts of their times. Each musical work becomes a tableau representing a moment in Russian history, and together the works form a coherent story of ideological and aesthetic trends as they evolved in Russia from the time of Pushkin to the rise of totalitarianism in the 1930s. The book discusses Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmilla (1842), Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov (1871) and Khovanshchina (1881), Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (1878) and The Queen of Spades (1890), and Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony (1934). Offering new interpretations to enhance our understanding and appreciation of these important works, this book demonstrates how Russian music and cultural history illuminate one another.
Richard Taruskin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520249790
- eISBN:
- 9780520942806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520249790.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter provides an introduction to Russian music, and descriptions of composers ranging from Bortnyansky in the eighteenth century to Tarnopolsky in the twenty-first, as well as all of the ...
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This chapter provides an introduction to Russian music, and descriptions of composers ranging from Bortnyansky in the eighteenth century to Tarnopolsky in the twenty-first, as well as all of the famous names in between. Some of these pieces, such as the ones on Chaikovsky's alleged suicide and on the interpretation of Shostakovich's legacy, have won fame in their own right as decisive contributions to some of the most significant debates in contemporary musicology. The chapter also presents the main issues and a justification of Taruskin's approach, seen both in the light of his intellectual development and in that of the changing intellectual environment, which has been particularly marked by the end of the cold war in Europe.Less
This chapter provides an introduction to Russian music, and descriptions of composers ranging from Bortnyansky in the eighteenth century to Tarnopolsky in the twenty-first, as well as all of the famous names in between. Some of these pieces, such as the ones on Chaikovsky's alleged suicide and on the interpretation of Shostakovich's legacy, have won fame in their own right as decisive contributions to some of the most significant debates in contemporary musicology. The chapter also presents the main issues and a justification of Taruskin's approach, seen both in the light of his intellectual development and in that of the changing intellectual environment, which has been particularly marked by the end of the cold war in Europe.
Richard Stites
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300108897
- eISBN:
- 9780300128185
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300108897.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Serf-era and provincial Russia heralded the spectacular turn in cultural history that began in the 1860s. Examining the role of arts and artists in society's value system, this book explores this ...
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Serf-era and provincial Russia heralded the spectacular turn in cultural history that began in the 1860s. Examining the role of arts and artists in society's value system, this book explores this shift in a history of visual and performing arts in the last decades of serfdom. Provincial town and manor house engaged the culture of Moscow and St. Petersburg while thousands of serfs and ex-serfs created or performed. Mikhail Glinka raised Russian music to new levels and Anton Rubinstein struggled to found a conservatory. Long before the itinerants, painters explored town and country in genre scenes of everyday life. Serf actors on loan from their masters brought naturalistic acting from provincial theaters to the imperial stages. The book offers new perspectives on the origins of Russia's nineteenth-century artistic prowess.Less
Serf-era and provincial Russia heralded the spectacular turn in cultural history that began in the 1860s. Examining the role of arts and artists in society's value system, this book explores this shift in a history of visual and performing arts in the last decades of serfdom. Provincial town and manor house engaged the culture of Moscow and St. Petersburg while thousands of serfs and ex-serfs created or performed. Mikhail Glinka raised Russian music to new levels and Anton Rubinstein struggled to found a conservatory. Long before the itinerants, painters explored town and country in genre scenes of everyday life. Serf actors on loan from their masters brought naturalistic acting from provincial theaters to the imperial stages. The book offers new perspectives on the origins of Russia's nineteenth-century artistic prowess.
Benedict Taylor
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190206055
- eISBN:
- 9780190206079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190206055.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition, Philosophy of Music
Moving from subjective to intersubjective temporality, this chapter examines how music may reflect a culture’s historical understanding of time. It has long been a truism of music criticism that ...
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Moving from subjective to intersubjective temporality, this chapter examines how music may reflect a culture’s historical understanding of time. It has long been a truism of music criticism that nineteenth-century Russian symphonic music somehow lacks a genuine sense of development in comparison with a ‘normative’ German model. This chapter puts forward an alternative way of approaching Russian instrumental music, from the perspective of a different conception of musical and historical time. By interrogating this idea of temporality both musically and culturally, it suggests a potential distinction between a specifically Western Enlightenment model of time and historical progress, and a static, repetitive, even timeless conception that may apply to many pieces of the nineteenth-century Russian repertoire. Yet ultimately this binary opposition is seen to be overly simplistic, the chapter arguing for a richer understanding of music’s relation with time within both Russian and Austro-German traditions.Less
Moving from subjective to intersubjective temporality, this chapter examines how music may reflect a culture’s historical understanding of time. It has long been a truism of music criticism that nineteenth-century Russian symphonic music somehow lacks a genuine sense of development in comparison with a ‘normative’ German model. This chapter puts forward an alternative way of approaching Russian instrumental music, from the perspective of a different conception of musical and historical time. By interrogating this idea of temporality both musically and culturally, it suggests a potential distinction between a specifically Western Enlightenment model of time and historical progress, and a static, repetitive, even timeless conception that may apply to many pieces of the nineteenth-century Russian repertoire. Yet ultimately this binary opposition is seen to be overly simplistic, the chapter arguing for a richer understanding of music’s relation with time within both Russian and Austro-German traditions.
Boris Gasparov
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300106503
- eISBN:
- 9780300133165
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300106503.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the influence of literary and historical texts on musical composition in Russia during the nineteenth and twentieth ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the influence of literary and historical texts on musical composition in Russia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This volume examines the problem arising from the relation between the voice of Russian music and its message and the consequences of the ideological and textual dependence of Russian music on historical and literary consciousness. It analyzes several relevant works. These include Mikhail Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila, Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov, Pyotr Ilyich's Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, and Dmitri Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the influence of literary and historical texts on musical composition in Russia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This volume examines the problem arising from the relation between the voice of Russian music and its message and the consequences of the ideological and textual dependence of Russian music on historical and literary consciousness. It analyzes several relevant works. These include Mikhail Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila, Modest Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov, Pyotr Ilyich's Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, and Dmitri Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony.
Richard Taruskin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520249790
- eISBN:
- 9780520942806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520249790.003.0036
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter focuses on the discussions on Russian classical music and operas presented at the music festival titled “The Russian Contemporary Music Festival,” organized by the Iowa City institution ...
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This chapter focuses on the discussions on Russian classical music and operas presented at the music festival titled “The Russian Contemporary Music Festival,” organized by the Iowa City institution at the University of Iowa in Iowa, U.S., in 2000. The festival featured Russian composers and musicologists, with three full-length concerts and several conference sessions on the developments related to music in post-Soviet Russia. It was a showcase of unknown Russian composers aged 29 to 70, whose music was performed there: Vladislav Agafonnikov, Yuri Butsko, Irina Dubkova, Andrei Golovin, Faradzh Karayev, Leonid Karev, Mikhail Kollontay, Nikolai Korndorf, Roman Ledenyov, Vladimir Nikolayev, Olga Rayeva, Dmitri Ryabtsev, Albina Stefanou, Vladimir Tarnopolski, Aleksandr Vustin, and Sergei Zagny. The chapter compares the music and operas presented by these composers at the music festival to highlight the trends in music in post-Soviet Russia.Less
This chapter focuses on the discussions on Russian classical music and operas presented at the music festival titled “The Russian Contemporary Music Festival,” organized by the Iowa City institution at the University of Iowa in Iowa, U.S., in 2000. The festival featured Russian composers and musicologists, with three full-length concerts and several conference sessions on the developments related to music in post-Soviet Russia. It was a showcase of unknown Russian composers aged 29 to 70, whose music was performed there: Vladislav Agafonnikov, Yuri Butsko, Irina Dubkova, Andrei Golovin, Faradzh Karayev, Leonid Karev, Mikhail Kollontay, Nikolai Korndorf, Roman Ledenyov, Vladimir Nikolayev, Olga Rayeva, Dmitri Ryabtsev, Albina Stefanou, Vladimir Tarnopolski, Aleksandr Vustin, and Sergei Zagny. The chapter compares the music and operas presented by these composers at the music festival to highlight the trends in music in post-Soviet Russia.
Richard Taruskin
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520249790
- eISBN:
- 9780520942806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520249790.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter presents the contribution of Mikhail Glinka in the Russian music culture, and also reviews the work of David Brown, the author of Mikhail Glinka: A Biographical and Critical Study. ...
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This chapter presents the contribution of Mikhail Glinka in the Russian music culture, and also reviews the work of David Brown, the author of Mikhail Glinka: A Biographical and Critical Study. Glinka is seen as “the boundary between the past and the future of Russian music.” As early as the première of A Life for the Tsar in 1836, his work was hailed as “a wonderful beginning” (Gogol) and as the harbinger of “a new element in art” (Odoyevsky). Clearly, something was there that set Glinka immediately apart from all his musical predecessors and compatriots, and time has only magnified his image as founding father, surrounding his name with a mystique the way Ives's name is surrounded on these shores. But even without going so far as to challenge the time-honored evaluation of Glinka's contribution, one has to speculate, precisely, its basis. The more one knows of Glinka and his works, the more elusive the answer becomes.Less
This chapter presents the contribution of Mikhail Glinka in the Russian music culture, and also reviews the work of David Brown, the author of Mikhail Glinka: A Biographical and Critical Study. Glinka is seen as “the boundary between the past and the future of Russian music.” As early as the première of A Life for the Tsar in 1836, his work was hailed as “a wonderful beginning” (Gogol) and as the harbinger of “a new element in art” (Odoyevsky). Clearly, something was there that set Glinka immediately apart from all his musical predecessors and compatriots, and time has only magnified his image as founding father, surrounding his name with a mystique the way Ives's name is surrounded on these shores. But even without going so far as to challenge the time-honored evaluation of Glinka's contribution, one has to speculate, precisely, its basis. The more one knows of Glinka and his works, the more elusive the answer becomes.
