Russia: Music and Nation from Glinka to Stalin - Hardcover

Frolova–walker, Marina

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300112734 ISBN 13: 9780300112733

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2007

Synopsis

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 and discusses 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. The author also offers a critical account of how the imperatives of nationalist thought affected individual composers. In this way Frolova-Walker provides a new perspective on the brilliant creativity, innovation, and eventual stagnation within the tradition of Russian nationalist music.

About this title

Review:

"... a particularly interesting writer on Russian music ... Impressive ... illuminating and refreshing ... original and persuasive ... sane and informed."

About the Author:

Marina Frolova-Walker is senior lecturer in music in the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Clare College.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0300112734
• ISBN 13: 9780300112733
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336