2012/01/01 by Pauline Fairclough · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Ambivalence #Appropriation #Art #Bourgeoisie #Choir #Eastern European Communism and Reforms #Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics #History #Ideology #Law #Linguistics #Literature #Musical #Period (music) #Philosophy #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Repertoire #Soviet and Russian History #Soviet union #Visual arts
paper · doi:10.1525/jams.2012.65.1.67
openalex publication_date 2012/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract Despite official hostility to religion and ambivalence towards Western bourgeois culture, the Soviet Union's major orchestras and choirs retained a high number of Western sacred works in their concert repertoire. In this article, I examine the apparent incongruity of this aspect of Soviet concert practice, with specific focus on the two most important Soviet choirs in Moscow and Leningrad: the Leningrad Capella, and the Moscow-based Russian Choir of the USSR. I argue that the process of cultural appropriation in the Soviet Union embraced a sufficiently broad conception of Western musical culture for this repertoire to be considered not only safe, but of central canonic importance. With an appropriate ideological varnish, and even textual alteration, a careful selection of Western sacred music could be rendered “Soviet” enough to remain core repertoire, albeit subject to fast-changing currents in cultural politics throughout the period 1917–53.