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This volume brings together analyses of works by thirteen Russian composers from across the twentieth century, showing how their approaches to tonality, modernism, and serialism forge forward-looking paths independent from their Western counterparts. Russian music of this era is widely performed, and much research has situated this repertoire in its historical and social context, yet few analytical studies have explored the technical aspects of these composers' styles. With a set of representative analyses by leading scholars in music theory and analysis, this book for the first time identifies large-scale compositional trends in Russian music since 1900.
The chapters progress by compositional style through the century, and each addresses a single work by a different composer, covering pieces by Rachmaninoff, Myaskovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Mansurian, Roslavets, Mosolov, Lourié, Tcherepnin, Ustvolskaya, Denisov, Gubaidulina, and Schnittke. Musicians, scholars, and students will find here a starting point for research and analysis of these composers' works and gain a richer understanding of how to listen to and interpret their music.
List of contents
Table of Contents
Contributors
Introduction
Part I: Tonality
Chapter 1
Tonal Pairing in Two of Rachmaninoff's Songs
Ellen Bakulina
Chapter 2
Abundant Novelty of Antitonic Harmony in the Music of Nikolai Myaskovsky
Scott Murphy
Chapter 3
House of Mirrors: Distorted Proportions in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1
Rebecca Perry
Chapter 4
A Curiosity in the Early String Quartets of Shostakovich, and Its Precedents in Previous Works
Patrick McCreless
Chapter 5
Navigating Post-Soviet Armenia: On Decoloniality in Tigran Mansurian's Requiem
Knar Abrahamyan
Part II: Modernism
Chapter 6
Fifths' Paths through Nikolai Roslavets's Three Poems of Zinaida Gippius
Inessa Bazayev
Chapter 7
Alexander Mosolov's Piano Sonata No. 1 and Its Synthetic Modernism
Daniil Zavlunov
Chapter 8
The Rebirth of Melody in Lourié's Post-Neoclassical Concerto da camera
Klára Móricz
Chapter 9
The Features of Alexander Tcherepnin's Nine-Step Scale and Its Use in the First Movement of His First Symphony
Joshua Bedford
Chapter 10
Timbre and Vibration in Galina Ustvolskaya's Composition No. 1, "Dona nobis pacem"
Maria Cizmic
Part III: Serialism
Chapter 11
Edison Denisov and Multiple-Row Serialism
Zachary Cairns
Chapter 12
Historical and Stylistic Reconciliation in Sofia Gubaidulina's Reflections on the Theme BACH
Joseph Straus
Chapter 13
Monogram, Theme, and Large-Scale Form in Alfred Schnittke's Viola Concerto
Christopher Segall
Index
About the author
Inessa Bazayev is Paula G. Manship Associate Professor of Music Theory and Theory Area Coordinator at Louisiana State University.
Christopher Segall is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.
Summary
Musical analyses of works by thirteen Russian composers show how approaches to tonality, modernism, and serialism forge forward-looking, independent paths from their western counterparts. Drawing from composers active throughout the twentieth century, this volume for the first time identifies large-scale trends in this repertoire.
