Representing Russia's Orient: From Ethnography to Art Song

Description

Throughout history, Russia's geo-political and cultural position between the East and West has shaped its national identity. Representing Russia's Orient tells the story of how Russia's imperial expansion and encounters with its Asian neighbors influenced the formation and development of Russian musical identity in the long nineteenth century. While Russia's ethnic minorities, or inorodtsy, were located at the geographical and cultural periphery, they loomed large in composers' perception and musical imagination and became central to the definition of Russianness itself. Drawing from a long-forgotten archive of Russian musical examples, visual art, and ethnographies, author Adalyat Issiyeva offers an in-depth study of Russian art music's engagement with oriental subjects. Within a complex matrix of politics, competing ideological currents, and social and cultural transformations, some Russian composers and writers developed multidimensional representations of oriental "others" and sometimes even embraced elements of Asian musical identity. In three detailed case studies―on the leader of the Mighty Five, Milii Balakirev, Decembrist sympathizer Alexander Aliab'ev, and the composers affiliated with the Music-Ethnography Committee―Issiyeva traces how and why these composers adopted "foreign" musical elements. In this way, she provides a fresh look at how Russians absorbed and transformed elements of Asian history and culture in forging a national identity for themselves. Dedication Contents List of Illustrations List of Musical Examples Acknowledgments Note on Dates and Transliteration Introduction PART I 1 Unveiling Tradition: Oriental “Others” in Nineteenth-Century Russian (Folk) Song Collections 2 Building Images of the “Other”: Russian Music Ethnographies on Inorodtsy 3 Aryanism and Asianism in the Quest for Russian Identity PART II 4 Alexander Aliab’ev, Decembrism, and Russia’s Orient 5 Milii Balakirev, His Orient, and the Mighty Five 6 Ethnographic Concerts in the Service of Empire In Place of a Conclusion Appendix 1: Collections of Bylinas and Folk, Soldier, and Children’s Songs Appendix 2: Programs of the Ethnographic Concerts in Moscow Notes Bibliography Index