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This well researched, multi-faceted book depicts the relationship between song and society during WWII in the USSR. The songs from that era created a true cultural legacy which reflected both the hearts of the individuals fighting and the narrative of the party and state in bringing the nation to victory.
List of contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
PART I - THE SONGS AND THEIR CREATORS
Chapter 1
THE SONGS OF THE WAR YEARS: Themes, Tunes, and Trends
Prewar Songs and Their Influence
Blitzkrieg: The Early War Songs
Farewell to Normality: The Early Lyrical Songs
War Is Here To Stay: Songs about Wartime Life
Victory on the Horizon: The Tone Shifts
Victory Becomes a Reality
Chronologies, Shifts, and Variations in The Wartime Songs
Chapter 2
THE SOLDIERS OF THE SONG FRONT: Composers and Poets during the War
The Composers
The Poet-Lyricists
Relations between Composers and Poets
Remuneration: Contracts and Contests
Amateur Song Writing
Critiques and Debates on Song
Chapter 3
COMMAND AND CONTROL: Official Policy and Institutional Responsibility over Song
The Creative Unions
Party and State Structures
Trade Unions and Other Organizations
Military Involvement
Censorship Control
International Relations and the Arts
Conclusions
PART II - SONG DISTRIBUTION AND RECEPTION
Chapter 4
PRINT, PLASTIC, AND SOUND WAVES: Mass Media and Song Distribution
Songbooks and Other Musical Publications
Newspapers
Radio
Records
Film
Conclusions
Chapter 5
BALL GOWNS AND BOMBS: Performers and Brigades in Battle and at Home
Diversity and Quantity of Performance Groups
The Response to War
The Experience of War: Brigade Travel, Performances and Living Conditions
At the Front
In Home Towns
In the Rear
Working Together
PART III - SONG RECEPTION AND LEGACY
Chapter 6
FROM DAWN ’TIL DUSK: Song in Everyday Life
Audience and Memory
Children’s Experiences
Home Front Adult Experiences
Song at the Front
The Power of Song
Chapter 7
THE LEGACY OF THE WAR SONGS
The Audience
The State
Fans and Idols
Song Function
The Legacy in the Body
Post War Images of Freedom
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
About the author
Suzanne Ament teaches Russian and World history at Radford University. With degrees in Russian area studies and history, her interests focus on music and culture. In addition to this book, she has written on the Soviet bard duo Ivashchenko and Vasil’ev, changes in Soviet music, and Russian revolutionary song.
Summary
Depicts the relationship between song and society during WWII in the USSR. Chapter topics range from the creation and distribution of the songs to how the public received and shaped them. The body of song that came out of that era created a true cultural legacy.
Additional text
“Drawing on Russian-language scholarship, archival sources, a handful of interviews, and memoirs, Sing to Victory! paints an extremely detailed picture of wartime song in the Soviet Union—the first book-length treatment of the topic to appear in English. Over seven chapters, the author studies the songs themselves, their themes, their creators, their organizational contexts and networks of distribution, and their place in everyday life, both then and now. … Written with sympathy for its subject and filled with stories of human resilience in inhuman conditions, Sing to Victory! is certain to become a go-to work for students of Soviet wartime song and a solid starting point for future research.”
—Matthew Honegger, Princeton University, MUSICultures
