SESSION FOUR MUSIC IN RUSSIA/SOVIET UNION, APRIL 3, 2015

Transcription

1 SESSION FOUR MUSIC IN RUSSIA/SOVIET UNION, APRIL 3, 2015 LOUISE HUDSON IMAGE Our own Louise Hudson has sent me a picture of herself that relates to the depiction of the dust bowl in the 1930s in the United States. This is the caption she wrote: LH & Drought Cattle This shows a piece of the dusty 1930 s. I was sitting on my grandmother s fence around her yard, watching as the last of an enormous number of drought-stricken cattle, all those who can still move, are being driven to the levee less than a block from our house (next to my grandmother s). Beyond the levee they were loaded onto barges to be shipped up the Mississippi River to the stock yards in Chicago where they would all be slaughtered because no one had water or feed for them. I was not quite three years old. RUSSIA IN 1919 In 1919 Russia was still Russia, and not yet the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Russia s roles in the war and in the peace were distinctively different from all the other nations we will discuss. In 1914 the Russian Empire, under the leadership of Tsar Nicholas II, had entered World War I on the side of the allies, and for the usual reason: not because it was ready for war, not because it wanted war, but only because it was bound to do so by treaties with its friends and in this case, relations. As you may know, Tsar Nicholas II was a first cousin to English King, George V. Before long Russia suffered enormous casualties under poor military leadership, and was wracked by political scandal and economic unrest. 1

2 In February 1917 the Czar s government was overthrown in a revolution. The moderate new communist government led by Alexander Kerensky soon gave way to a more extreme government led by Vladimir Lenin. In 1917 Lenin signed a separate treaty with the Central Powers, thus taking the Russia out of the war. And so this nation, now called the Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, emerged from World War I weak, politically divided, poverty-stricken and industrially backward. A year later, in 1918, Tsar Nicholas was assassinated. Although Russia under the Tsars was a vast, multi-ethnic and multi-national nation, the culture of its ruling class was decidedly western European influenced primarily by France and Germany. In the 19 th century a succession of talented composers - from Glinka, to Borodin, to Tchaikovsky to Rimsky-Korsakov, established a strong nationalistic musical tradition. Then, in 1922, only five years after the rise of Lenin s more severe, more doctrinaire version of communism, Russia was rechristened the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - a political union of thirteen separate ethnic states. SOVIET REALISM In the Soviet Union music, as in every other aspect of life, was centrally managed, with the Communist Party setting policies enforced by an elaborate set of rewards and punishments. Lenin himself set the tone for how the arts were to be managed with these famous words: Every artist, everyone who considers himself an artist, has the right to create freely according to his ideal, independently of everything. However, we are Communists and we must not stand with folded hands and let chaos develop as it pleases. We must systemically guide this process and form its result." One final note: despite the Communist rhetoric of freedom and equality, ethnicity also played a very important role in Soviet music. The Soviet Union was a union of eleven ethnic regions. One of 2

3 these, Russia, played the leading role politically and culturally. In the Soviet era, members of the Russian ethnic group enjoyed preferential treatment in many ways. The three leading composers of the Soviet era, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky and Shostakovich were ethnic Russians. The Armenian composer, Aram Khachaturian, was the only non-russian to gain prominence in the party or the culture. SERGEI PROKOFIEV In 1919 Sergei Prokofiev had already demonstrated that he was a Young Turk of great daring and ability. Prokofiev was from an affluent and cosmopolitan family, which turned out to be great advantages. During the war he had made a spectacular impression as a composer of virtuosic and dissonant piano concertos, then of ballets and operas. When the second revolution came, in 1917, Prokofiev left Russia and lived for almost twenty years in the United States, Germany and France, where his works were widely performed, and where he appeared frequently as a conductor and piano soloist. Thus during his formative years he avoided being influenced by soviet realism and the problems that might have come his way as an avant-garde composer. But after 1929 the Great Depression made it almost impossible to arrange for performances of his operas and ballets, and he returned voluntarily to the Soviet Union in 1936 and spent the rest of his life, somewhat uneasily, in Moscow. DADA AND SURREALISM Prokofiev s opera, The Love for Three Oranges, is a famous example of surrealism, a prominent trend in the arts in the interwar period. Or rather, of two closely-related trends; Dadaism: to undermine post-war culture s excessive rationality and oppressive order Surrealism: to allow the unconscious to express itself, usually in dream-like, unnerving or illogical images 3

4 FUR-LINED CUP, SAUCER AND SPOON, 1936 The most famous representation of the Dada trend is the Swedish artist Meret Oppenheim s creation: Fur-Lined Cup, Sauces and Spoon, of THE LOVE FOR THREE ORANGES, 1919 The Love for Three Oranges was first performed guess where - at the Chicago Auditorium in As with many of Prokofiev s early works, the opera caused a scandal; as one local critic said, It left many of our best people dazed and wondering. The work is intended to poke fun. As far as I am able to discern, it pokes fun chiefly at those who paid money to hear it. Even by 20 th century standards, but especially in 1921, The Love for Three Oranges was a revolutionary kind of opera: jokey, irreverent, playful mocking and surrealistic in style- in short a complete irony, the art of saying one thing and meaning something quite different. Here is a summary of the plot: The leading character is King of Clubs, who is trying to find a cure for his son s intense melancholy. He goes to a witch, Fata Morgana, for help, but when she becomes angry, she casts a spell over the Prince so that henceforth he will be consumed with a love for three oranges. And here s another irony, one definition of Fata Morgana is an optical illusion frequently seen on shipboard just above the horizon. This is a scientific term and a real phenomenon, as shown in this recent photograph. In another context, Fata Morgana is a sorceress, an important character in King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. FATA MORGANA, AUSTRALIAN COAST As we listen to part of The Love for Three Oranges, we ll see some images from Russia and the Soviet Union during the interwar period. 4

5 SLIDE SHOW (PLAY DURING) MUSIC IN RUSSIA, 1919 Now, if you are wondering how a government that just adopted Soviet Realism will deal with an ironic, surrealistic opera well, you re on the right track. Remember that Prokofiev had left Russia in 1917 and lived as a refugee (although a celebrity refugee in France, German, and the United States until But more about those years in a moment. TRADITIONS In 1919 the traditions of Russian Music included: 1. Nationalism: music about Russia, its people, history and culture 2. Russian folk music, the traditional music of the people 3. The traditional musical forms of the19 th century: symphony, sonata, symphonic poem, song, mass, oratorio, character pieces for piano, written by important Russian composers such as Glinka, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. INFLUENCES Folk music, including the music and folk tales of ancient Russia, was a leading influence on Igor Stravinsky and other Russian composers. All the pieces that established his reputation - The Rite of Spring, The Fire Bird, Petrouchka, and Les Noces were based on ancient folk legends. Jazz was also an early influence on the younger generations. Prokofiev s The Love for Three Oranges and Stravinsky s Piano Rag Music and A Soldier s Tale are examples. STALIN S GUIDELINES None other than Joseph Stalin himself, along with his closest advisors, took on the job of enforcing the policy of Soviet Realism in music. His guidelines were simple and non-negotiable: 5

6 Music Is Propaganda: Its style should be simple enough to be easily understandable by the proletariat (working classes) Its role is to celebrate the proletariat the downtrodden victims of capitalism and their eventual political and economic victory (echoes of Pirate Jenny!) Its purpose is to glorify the Soviet State, especially its military victories and economic progress It is to avoid the cult of personality, that is, any style of music that favored personal expression above the needs of the state. Joseph Stalin was, among other things, a talented amateur singer, was highly interested music s potential as propaganda. Thus he took a personal interest in enforcing the doctrine of Soviet Realism, by: controlling what was composed and performed maintaining personal relationships with the leading Soviet musicians rewarding and punishing individual composers according to whether their compositions were suitable as propaganda. GENERATIONS Old Guard, age 50 + Middle, age Young Turks, age

7 Rising, age COMPOSERS IN 1919 The Old Guard Alexander Glazunov, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov The Middle Generation Nicolai Medtner, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky The Young Turks Sergei Prokofiev Rising Generation Dmitri Kabalevsky, Aram Khatchaturian, Dmitri Shostakovich THE OLD GUARD IN 1919 But in the year 1919, composers of the Old Guard generation still adhered to the 19 th century traditions: the big, blended sounds; the long, flowing melodies; the traditional harmonies; and the 19 th century forms of symphony, sonata, song, opera, and chamber music. The most celebrated of these composers was 54-year-old Alexander Glazunov. Like other composers of the Old Guard generation, his compositions reveal little if any response to the War. During the war Glazunov continued to write music in all genres: operas, symphonies, piano music, songs, and chamber music. Typical of this music was his String Quartet No. 6, of This is a beautiful, virtuoso piece, Tchaikovsky-like in nature music for the salon or the concert hall, where only upper-class ethnic Russians were in attendance. 7

8 GLAZUNOV PIC STRING QUARTET NO. 5, 1921 Glazunov s String Quartet No. 5, a 1921 composition, is a great example of this late-nineteenth century style. You hear the big, blended sound, long, flowing melodies, and traditional harmonies of the previous era, all worked out in the familiar string quarter genre. PLAY BREAK THE MIDDLE GENERATION The Middle Generation of 1919 was the final generation of Russian, not Soviet, composers. Their musical style was already wellestablished, and well-known, before the Communist revolution. Due to the political situation in Russia they all became refugees of one kind or another: Sergei Rachmaninoff came to the United States and lived the remainder of his life in Los Angeles. Igor Stravinsky spent the war years in Switzerland and the remainder of the interwar period in France, before settling permanently in New York. Nikolai Medtner traveled throughout Europe as a piano soloist, but after tiring the concert life, settled permanently in England. Perhaps now is the time to consider the exile of so many leading composers more broadly. Not only were Russian composers in exile: last week we saw the same phenomenon among German composers, as Arnold Schonberg fled Nazi Germany to settle permanently in Los Angeles; as Paul Hindemith did the same, living briefly in Turkey and Switzerland before a long-term residency in the United States, and as Kurt Weill fled the Nazis as soon as they came to power and settled permanently in New York at the young age of 35. 8

9 As the inter-war period continues, we will see ever more composersin-exile, even composers as refugees. Which raises an interesting question: how shall we think of these composers - and how did they think of themselves as they left their countries of origin early in life, and spent long periods or even their entire lives in other countries? Shall we still call them by their birth countries? Their adopted countries? As composers of the world, somehow free of national influences? To consider the most famous example of all, shall we refer to the most famous Middle Generation Russian composer. Shall we consider Igor Stravinsky Russian? Swiss? French? American? A composer without a country? Perhaps it is best to think of him as a composer of the world, with deep and complex roots in his early teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, but also in Russian folk music, American jazz, the Greek Orthodox religion, Greek mythology, and the entire history and traditions of western music. RACHMANINOFF PIC Sergei Rachmaninoff, 46 years old in 1919, represents the final generation of romantic, non-soviet composers. The Rachmaninoffs were a wealthy and aristocratic family who had served the families of the Tsars for 150 years. Sergei was a musical prodigy and entered the Moscow Conservatory at the age of 10 to study piano and composition. His family was deeply religious and he was taken by nannies to Russian Orthodox services from an early age. Beginning in 1906 he held a number of important musical positions outside Russia, including a lengthy tour of the United States as a pianist in But after the revolution of 1917 he was forced to leave Russia and settled permanently in Los Angeles he loved the subtropical vegetation and the warm, sunny weather. THREE RUSSIAN SONGS, 1927 No influence of world events can be found in Rachmaninoff s Three Russian Songs of Listening to this piece, it would be easy to imagine the Tsar and his family listening to it also, perhaps in the Bolshoi Theatre at the turn of the century. 9

10 The songs are scored for a chorus of altos and basses accompanied by a large orchestra. The sound reminds one of the music of Rimsky-Korsakov. The texts are Russian folk poems. Here is the first one: Across a little swift river, a-la-la, Along a little bridge, tra-la-la, Along a steep one, fa-la-la, Along the little bridge, tra-la-la, He is crossing over, fa-la-la, He is escorting a gray duck, tra-la-la!. A gray duck is he escorting, fa-la-la, The gray duck got frightened, tra-la-la, She got frightened, tra-la-la. Ah! She flew away, fal-la-la! He stands and he cries, fal-la-la! He stands and he cries, fal-la-la! PLAY MEDTNER PIC And now for some quite different-sounding music. Nikolai Medtner was a friend and slightly younger contemporary of Rachmaninoff. After an early life as a pianist, Medtner found the frantic, public life of a traveling virtuoso not to his liking, and chose a quiet, reflective life devoted to musical composition. He and his wife settled in England in the early 1930s and lived out their lives in a small English village. Medtner s compositions are primarily for the piano, but in addition he wrote over a hundred songs. His music, like his personality, stands in strong contrast to that of Rachmaninoff, and these differences illustrate an important point in understanding why music sounds the way it does. The difference I am referring to is that of personality. Rachmaninoff was a strong extrovert charming 10

11 and outgoing, and his music seems to reach out to us also, as if to say, just give a listen here is something I really want you to hear. The music of Nikolai Medtner, by contrast, requires more careful listening and reveals less on first hearing, as if to say, listen if you like - as long as you are quiet - while probe my deepest inner feelings. Even so, today, sixty years after his death, many concert pianists are devoted to Medtner s piano works and perform them widely in public. SONATA ROMANTICA, 1930 The Sonata Romantica is a virtuosic, four-movement work and one of the most frequently played of Medtner s works. Improvisational, sometimes difficult pianistic effects Introverted and quiet in mood Fewer singable melodies than Rachmaninoff PLAY THE YOUNG TURKS We have already heard a piece by the most talented member of Russia s Young Turk Generation, Sergei Prokofiev. So let s turn to the most interesting and best known - generation, the Soviet NOT Russian - composers of the Rising Generation. THE RISING GENERATION The Rising Generation in 1919 composers born around includes several world-famous names: Dmitri Kabalevsky, Aram Khatchaturian, and Dmitri Shostakovich. Besides the inherited traditions and influences of their Russian musical heritage, from an early age these composers were required to follow the principles of Soviet realism dictated by Communist Party leadership. Some of these composers found it easier than did others to integrate the party s expectations with their own musical ideas. 11

12 SHOSTAKOVICH PIC Dmitri Shostakovich, the most talented of this generation and one of the supremely important composers of the entire 20 th century, found it most difficult to meet the party s demands. Shostakovich was already a well-known, avant-garde composer when Soviet realism was announced in He tried to comply, but found it difficult to do so. Twice denounced by Joseph Stalin on the front page of Pravda, the all-important Party newspaper, Shostakovich managed to strike an uneasy balance between expressing the reality of Soviet life and adhering to the requirements of the Party. He was a life-long Communist Party member and for most of his life was allowed to publish and perform his work. Shostakovich s compromise with Soviet Realism, worked out over time and with great personal cost, finally enabled him to satisfy the Party s demands and to express himself deeply and personally. He achieved this after noticing that Communist Party censors primarily attended large musical events operas, ballets and symphony concerts, but were much less likely to attend smaller concerts in smaller halls, where songs, piano works and chamber music were featured. His list of compositions after 1934 reflect this: there are a series of symphonies, some patriotic, some severe, but all satisfactory to Soviet Realism guidelines. And then there are the string quartets, in which Shostakovich expressed his deepest, most personal, feelings. I ve given you a link to one of the quartets on our home page. This is the String Quartet No. 4, an almost unbearable tense and profoundly anguished work. SYMPHONY NO. 5, 1937 Such is the stature of Shostakovich in today s world of music that it was difficult for me to choose just one of his compositions for this session. How could I not choose his wonderful Piano Quartet, surely one of the great masterpieces of the inter-war era? But how could I omit his scandalous opera, The Nose, which so enraged the operaloving Joseph Stalin, especially after its hit revival this season by the Metropolitan Opera? And then there s the ground-breaking 12

13 String Quartet No. 1, the first of a series of 15 quartets in which Shostakovich expressed his deepest personal feelings. But finally I chose that most famous of all 20 th -Century symphonies, Shostakovich s Symphony No. 5, of The Fifth Symphony was a turning point in Shostakovich s career as a composer. A year before, in1936, Joseph Stalin had begun a nationwide campaign of political repression, accompanied by public denunciations, relentless surveillance, and mass executions. This period, now known as the Great Purge or more commonly, the Great Terror. lasted until the outbreak of World War II. As part of this campaign, Shostakovich had been officially reprimanded on the front page of Pravda, the Community Part Newspaper, for writing music that did not meet the requirements of Soviet Realism. His music was too complex for the masses to understand, it was charged: decadent and satirical rather than lofty and heroic. This situation would not be tolerated. Hastily, Shostakovich withdrew his just-complete Fourth Symphony, and made an earnest attempt to restore his reputation and, more literally to save his life. He consulted with friends about a new symphony, played piano versions for various musicians, and attempted to find a musical language that would satisfy both the party leadership and his own aspirations as a composer. What he finally produced was something of a miracle or rather, two miracles: a political statement that Communist authorities heard as lofty and patriotic and a personal statement that the concert-going public heard as an expressing the deep suffering they were experiencing under Stalin s dictatorship. The critics were so hostile that they demanded a second hearing before pronouncing their opinions, but they were won over. The huge public and critical success of the Fifth Symphony also meant that Shostakovich had found a musical style that was sufficiently ambiguous to keep him both safe and popular for years to come but not forever, for he was denounced again in 1950, again on the front page of Pravda, for the same transgressions. But 13

14 that story belongs, not here, but in a course on Post-World War II music. On the surface, the Fifth Symphony is a traditional, four-movement work, with the usual mix of instruments. Its varied moods range from witty to tragic, from eloquent to raucous, from sober to nervous very much like to complex nature of the man Shostakovich himself. PLAY 14