COMPOSERS As PUBLIC SERVANTS
Russia’s Government Has An Ear For Music
This survey of Russian music will be musically illustrated next Sunday when 2YA broadcasts the feature "Music of Russia" at 2 p.m.
ay HE Russian songs’- not the Russian arms defeated me," exclaimed Napoleon, speaking of his retreat from Moscow. The songs of Russia, then, were the spirit of Russia, the spirit of a nation united against a common foe. Now, when Russia is attacked by Napoleon’s more noisy successor, there is evidence that the Russians are still singing and may once again: inspire themselves to throw back the enemy. Music for the Russians has always been important, and is always characteristic. But its characteristics have not always been permitted to develop. Under the old regime, native music was officially ousted by foreign importations. But now the State acts godfather to the artists who carry on the work begun after Napoleon’s invasion by Glinka. The Beginning With his opera, Life for the. Czar, Glinka founded the modern school: of Russian rationalistic music. Before him, only the foreign product was noticed by the Court. ‘
The immense store of folk-songs that has been collected during the best part of a century had previously been more or less under a ban, owing to the refusal of the Church to sanction references which it contained to pagan deities and ceremonials. And the native musician was forced to remain a humble being. With the events of 1812, however, dermant Russian patriotism suddenly raised its head. Glinka was eight years old at the time of the Moscow fire. His Life for the Czar was produced in 1834. Truly Russian It is not too much to say that if Glinka had not existed, Russian music in its most vigorous and characteristic ‘manifestation, would never have existed either. He was the first composer to delve down into the roots of the Russian temperament as revedled in Russian history, in the Russian landscape, and above all, in Russian folk-music. He cut adrift from the foreign influences which till "then had dominated Russian life. Balakirev, a less gifted composer, but a much more forceful personality, carried on the work initiated by Glinka,
It was he who inspired the formation of the Russian National School which comprised himself, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and Moussorgsky. Their programme was definite, they claimed freedom from the classical traditions; they aimed at the * picturesque, and they sought to express a vivid Russian nationalism. Among the radio listeners of New Zealand, those seriously interested in music know that the works of Glinka and the "Russian Five," as the others are called, are fairly represented in NBS _programmes, Characteristics Russian music at its best has always been coloured by national characteristics. This is certainly true of Stravinsky despite the fact that he is cosmopolitan. Rimsky-Korsakov, when he was not tapping Russian history and legend, cultivated the Oriental outlook, which manifests itself intermittently in Russian music. The almost fantastically Russian Moussorgsky turned time and again to Oriental themes, while Cui, Borodin, Balakirev and Tchaikovski found inspiration at some time or other in the near Far East. Exuberance and a certain excessiveness are also typical of the Russian temperament. The great Russians never sought to appeal to a limited intellectual audience capable of assimilating subtleties beyond the.ken of the com- mon people. Rachmaninoff and Glazounov, to mention only two, have written barely a bar of music that is not full of interest to ordinary people and free from obscurity. Under the Soviet Under the Soviet regime there has ariseri a clever band of composers whose livelihood is guaranteed by the State. They live in Moscow in one big building, which is divided into a series of soundproof studios. It is early yet to assess even the prospective results of this new system, but Russia promises to become one of the two great leaders in music this century -- the other nation being Britain. What makes a tremendous difference to Russian composers of the present and the future is the guarantee that their works will be performed. A work of genius is of little avail if it is never heard. The Russian Government has seen to ‘it that composers are assured of liberal treatment. Russian contemporary composers like Stravinsky, Prokofieff and Szostakowicz, have still much to say. Those who now work in Moscow are being joined by many Russian artists who -have been invited to return home from abroad. The fusion of both sections should produce a vigorous result as the years go on, The Government has also a leading foreign conductors to visit Russia and to conduct both Russian and fe works, so, as the years go by, we should see a blaze of brilliance in new works of all kinds.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 14
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791COMPOSERS As PUBLIC SERVANTS New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 14
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