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Commemorating the centenary of Tchaikovsky's death, these essays reassess the life and work of the composer from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the musicological and biographical to broader ones addressing his place in the development of the arts in Europe and America. As they make clear, there is much about Tchaikovsky's achievement that has been taken for granted, and the essays included in this collection represent as much acts of reevaluation as of celebration.
After a broad synthesis of Tchaikovsky's relation to the literature, music, and theater of the 18th and 19th centuries, there are sections devoted to Tchaikovsky and his musical contemporaries; Tchaikovsky's lost opera,
The Oprichnik; Tchaikovsky's mature operatic work; his place in Russian Orthodoxy and nationalism; and contemporary perspectives on his life and works. The volume concludes with discussions on Tchaikovsky scholarship, the place of the composer in American and Russian musical education, and the interpretation and performance of his ballets. It is an important collection for scholars and other researchers involved in Russian music and ballet.
List of contents
Introduction: Tchaikovsky as Our Contemporary by Alexandar Mihailovic
Changing Perspectives on the ComposerTchaikovsky: A New View--A Centennial Essay by Richard Taruskin
Tchaikovsky and His Music in Anglo-American Criticism, 1890s-1950s by Malcolm Hamrick Brown
The Tchaikovsky Myths: A Critical Reassessment by Alexander Poznansky
Tchaikovsky and His Musical ContemporariesTchaikovsky and Wagner: A Reassessment by Rosamund Bartlett
Analysis and Influence: A Comparison of Rhythmic Structures in the Instrumental Music of Schumann and Tchaikovsky by Joseph C. Kraus
Truth vs. Beauty: Comparative Text Settings by Musorgsky and Tchaikovsky by Leslie Kearney
The Oprichnik: Tchaikovsky's "Lost" OperaCulture and Nationalism: Tchaikovsky's Visions of Russia in The Oprichink by Susan Beam Eggers
The Intrigue of Love and Illusion in Tchaikovsky's The Oprichink by Anne Swartz
The Mature Operatic ComposerTchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin: Tatiana and Lensky, the Third Couple by Truman Bullard
"But Was My Eugene Happy?": Musical and Dramatic Tensions in Eugene Onegin by Byron Nelson
Musical Historicism in The Queen of Spades by James Parakilas
Tchaikovsky, Russian Orthodoxy, and NationalismTchaikovsky's Roots in the Russian Choral Tradition by Olga Dolskaya
A Stranger in a Strange Land: Tchaikovsky as a Composer of Church Music by Vladimir Morosan
Tchaikovsky, the Tsars, and the Tsarist National Anthem by William H. Parsons
Other Perspectives, Contemporary and ModernTchaikovsky: The Love that Dare Not Speak Its Name by Samuel Lipman
The Image of the Composer in Modest Tchaikovsky's Play The Symphony by Stephany Gould
Exploding the Romantic Myth: Ken Russell's The Music Lovers by James H. Krukones
Round-Table DiscussionsBiographical Issues in Tchaikovsky Scholarship, Moderated by John Marcus
Tchaikovsky in American and Russian Musical Education, Moderated by Joel Sachs
Tchaikovsky's Ballets: Interpretation and Performance, Moderated by Jeanne Fuchs
Appendix I: Musical Examples
Appendix II: Conference Program
Index
About the author
Alexandar Mihailovic is Visiting Professor of Literature at Bennington College and Professor emeritus of Russian and Comparative Literature at Hofstra University, USA. His books include:
Corporeal Words: Mikhail Bakhtin's Theology of Discourse (1997),
The Mitki and the Art of Postmodern Protest in Russia (2018; updated Russian translation, 2021), and the forthcoming
Illiberal Vanguard: Populist Elitism in the United States and Russia (2023).
ALEXANDAR MIHAILOVIC is Associate Professor of Russian at Hofstra University. An expert on Russian literature, he has written extensively on the subject, including
Corporeal Words: Mikhail Bakhtin's Theology of Discourse.
