Pravda articles
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk
I am doing a project for college, and would very much like to
read the article from Pravda 28 January 1936: 'Muddle Instead
of Music'. Does anyone know of a site on the internet where I
could find this article? Also, any reviews of the premier
of his fifth symphony would be helpful.
Hope someone can help!
Thanks, and happy new year
Emmma x
Caius Marcius
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk writes:
>
>Hello,
>
> I am doing a project for college, and would very much like to
>read the article from Pravda 28 January 1936: 'Muddle Instead
>of Music'. Does anyone know of a site on the internet where I
>could find this article?
From Pravda, January 29, 1936
Chaos Instead of Music
With the general cultural development of our country there grew also
the necessity for good music. At no time and in no other place has the
composer had a more appreciative audience. The people expect good
songs, but also good instrumental works, and good operas.
Certain theatres are presenting to the new culturally mature Soviet
public Shostakovich's opera *Lady Macbeth* as an innovation and
achievement. Musical criticism, always ready to serve, has praised the
opera to the skies, and given it resounding glory. The young composer,
instead of hearing serious criticism, which could have helped him in
his future work, hears only enthusiastic compliments.
From the first minute, the listener is shocked by deliberate
dissonance, by a confused stream of sound. Snatches of melody, the
beginnings of a musical phrase, are drowned, emerge again, and
disappear in a grinding and squealing roar. To follow this "music" is
most difficult; to remember it, impossible.
Thus it goes, practically throughout the entire opera. The singing on
the stage is replaced by shrieks. If the composer chances to come upon
the path of a clear and simple melody, he throws himself back into a
wilderness of musical chaos - in places becoming cacophony. The
expression which the listener expects is supplanted by wild rhythm.
Passion is here supposed to be expressed by noise. All this is not due
to lack of talent, or lack of ability to depict strong and simple
emotions in music. Here is music turned deliberately inside out in
order that nothing will be reminiscent of classical opera, or have
anything in common with symphonic music or with simple and popular
musical language accessible to all. This music is built on the basis
of rejecting opera - the same basis on which "Leftist" Art rejects in
the theater simplicity, realism, clarity of image, and the unaffected
spoken word - which carries into the theater and into music the most
negative features of "Meyerholdism" infinitely multiplied. Here we
have "leftist" confusion instead of natural human music. The power of
good music to infect the masses has been sacrificed to a
petty-bourgeois, "formalist" attempt to create originality through
cheap clowning. It is a game of clever ingenuity that may end very
badly.
The danger of this trend to Soviet music is clear. Leftist distortion
in opera stems from the same source as Leftist distortion in painting,
poetry, teaching, and science. Petty-bourgeois "innovations" lead to a
break with real art, real science and real literature.
The composer of Lady Macbeth was forced to borrow from jazz its
nervous, convulsive, and spasmodic music in order to lend "passion" to
his characters. While our critics, including music critics, swear by
the name of socialist realism, the stage serves us, in Shostakovich's
creation, the coarsest kind of naturalism. He reveals the merchants
and the people monotonously and bestially. The predatory merchant
woman who scrambles into the possession of wealth through murder is
pictured as some kind of "victim" of bourgeois society. Leskov's story
has been given a significance which it does not possess.
And all this is coarse, primitive and vulgar. The music quacks,
grunts, and growls, and suffocates itself in order to express the love
scenes as naturalistically as possible. And "love" is smeared all over
the opera in the most vulgar manner. The merchant's double bed
occupies the central position on the stage. On this bed all "problems"
are solved. In the same coarse, naturalistic style is shown the death
from poisoning and the flogging - both practically on stage.
The composer apparently never considered the problem of what the Soviet
audience looks for and expects in music. As though deliberately, he
scribbles down his music, confusing all the sounds in such a way that
his music would reach only the effete "formalists" who had lost all
their wholesome taste. He ignored the demand of Soviet culture that
all coarseness and savagery be abolished from every corner of Soviet
life. Some critics call the glorification of the merchants' lust a
satire. But there is no question of satire here. The composer has
tried, with all the musical and dramatic means at his command, to
arouse the sympathy of the spectators for the coarse and vulgar
inclinations and behavior of the merchant woman Katerina Ismailova.
*Lady Macbeth* is having great success with bourgeois audiences abroad.
Is it not because the opera is non-political and confusing that they
praise it? Is it not explained by the fact that it tickles the
perverted taste of the bourgeois with its fidgety, neurotic music?
Our theatres have expended a great deal of energy on giving
Shostakovich's opera a thorough presentation. The actors have shown
exceptional talent in dominating the noise, the screaming, and the roar
of the orchestra. With their dramatic action, they have tried to
reinforce the weakness of the melodic content. Unfortunately, this has
served only to bring out the opera's vulgar features more vividly. The
talented acting deserves gratitude, the wasted efforts - regret.
(Translated by Victor Seroff)
Also, any reviews of the premier
>of his fifth symphony would be helpful.
For this, check out Solomom Volkov's St. Petersburg: A Cultural History
(the chapter on DSCH)
- CMC
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk
I'm supposed to be writing a review of the premier of symphony
no.5, as though I was there. For some reason it's taking me
bloody ages. Anyone got any amazing suggestions, they'd be
welcome!
Cheers,
Emmma x
Alan D Glick
the reactions of the premier of the 5th that he attented ( I don't have my
copy nearby so I'm can't be certain if it was the premier or not).
Be forwarned that some on this newgroup would have us believe that
"Testimony" is a fake. Just remember that all of the composer's relatives
and associates have claimed that it truely reflects his beliefs. See, for
example: http://www.siue.edu/~aho/musov/testimony.html
The emotion that is evidenced in many of their posts leads me to believe
that some of them are motivated by something other than a search for truth:
mainly a dogmatic desire to believe that Shostakovich was a loyal communist
and that his music was inspired by communist ideals.
Lots of luck on your report.
Alan Glick
<cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk> wrote in message
news:84tdit$qbq$1...@plutonium.compulink.co.uk...
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk
I'm aware of the debate for and against 'Testimony', and find
it absurd that anyone should believe, or want to believe, that
Shostakovich was inspired in any positive way by Stalin.
Got to finish this thing off now...
Emmma x
Peter McNelly
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote in message
<8507e0$557$1...@plutonium.compulink.co.uk>...
Good for you. Never let your common sense be steered off its course by
academic nonsense.
Peter..
Caius Marcius
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk writes:
>
>Thank you very very much! This is really useful.
>
>I'm supposed to be writing a review of the premier of symphony
>no.5, as though I was there. For some reason it's taking me
>bloody ages. Anyone got any amazing suggestions, they'd be
>welcome!
In the words of Foghorn Leghorn, now pay attention, son: I've already
referred you to Solomon Volkov's St. Petersburg: A Cultural History.
See pages 420-425 for an incomparable description of the Fifth's
premiere.
- CMC
Bernard
> I'm reading 'Testimony' ATM - what an incredible book!
>
> I'm aware of the debate for and against 'Testimony', and find it
> absurd that anyone should believe, or want to believe, that
> Shostakovich was inspired in any positive way by Stalin.
How naive of you. Many many millions of people adored Stalin.
Bernard
Bernard
> Be forwarned that some on this newgroup would have us believe that
> "Testimony" is a fake. Just remember that all of the composer's
> relatives and associates have claimed that it truely reflects his
> beliefs.
Which merely means it reflects the beliefs those relatives would like to
have of DDS, nothing more.
> a dogmatic desire to believe that Shostakovich was a loyal communist
> and that his music was inspired by communist ideals.
Depends on the year you're talking about. Life is long. As an average
member of the "intelligentia", his faith would have worn very thin
indeed towards the end of his life; such were the times.
Bernard.
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk
> In the words of Foghorn Leghorn, now pay attention, son:
> I've already referred you to Solomon Volkov's St.
> Petersburg: A Cultural History. See pages 420-425 for an
> incomparable description of the Fifth's premiere.
Cheers - but my library doesn't seem to have a copy, so I
can't get hold of it.
Emmma x
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk
really a humble 'reply to just criticism', with a nice,
optimistic finale? I'm curious - when I first played that
piece, I knew hardly anything about the composer, but I felt
very strongly that the piece was tragic, not triumphant.
I know this is just one of those never-ending debates, but as
a newcomer, I find it really interesting.
As a musician, I find it impossible to imagine living in the
USSR, working under the conditions that composers and
musicians were forced to work under, and actually 'adoring'
the people (or person) who were enforcing this way of life on
me. What evidence is there to suggest that Shostakovich really
supported Stalin?
It's difficult not to let personal feelings about the subject
(of which I have many) distort the truth. That goes for both
sides of the argument.
Emmma x
Daria Wieczorek
Pun intended? ;)
Daria
Diane Wilson
> cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
>
> > I'm reading 'Testimony' ATM - what an incredible book!
> >
> > absurd that anyone should believe, or want to believe, that
> > Shostakovich was inspired in any positive way by Stalin.
>
> How naive of you. Many many millions of people adored Stalin.
Just as many people adored Mao, and many people adored Hitler.....
Ooops, I think I just killed this thread.
--
Diane Wilson (di...@firelily.com, anon-...@anon.twwells.com)
Web design: http://www.firelily.com/
Personal: http://www.firelily.com/goddess/
It is neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never
question anything. (Joseph Heller)
Peter McNelly
>> Be forwarned that some on this newgroup would have us believe that
>> "Testimony" is a fake. Just remember that all of the composer's
>> relatives and associates have claimed that it truely reflects his
>> beliefs.
Bernard wrote:
>Which merely means it reflects the beliefs those relatives would like to
>have of DDS, nothing more.
To which I would like to say:
This does not follow. You have to prove this, Bernard. This implication of
your statement is that we should take the word of you - some unknown and
occasional contributor of mostly sarcastic put-downs of the ideas of other
posters -over the views of Shostakovich's friends and relatives (the people
who knew him). I don't think so.
By the way, are you a Russian? I heard you are from the Netherlands.
Peter..
Ernest Jones
Do come and join us on DSCH-L,There are a number of self styled know all
musicologists there who have to be deflated and kept in their
place.You will love it!
Ernest Jones
Retired Music & Cruise Crazy Brit.
On Sunny Isles Beach
Life is an Opera
Bernard
Don't believe all you see, and less of what you hear.
Bernard
Bernard
> As a musician,
"As a musician"? What does that have anything to do with it. Since we
are debating a psychological phenomenon, and a well-researched one to
it, you'd better leave you musicianship out of it.
> I find it impossible to imagine living in the USSR, working under the
> conditions that composers and musicians were forced to work under, and
> actually 'adoring' the people (or person) who were enforcing this way
> of life on me.
The majority of people blame their immediate superiors. When you work at
Apple, and your shift manager is a parasite, you don't go home with a
bad feeling about Steve Jobs.....
> It's difficult not to let personal feelings about the subject (of
> which I have many) distort the truth. That goes for both sides of the
> argument.
<shrug> With personal feelings, you're not going to get a long way in
research. Only truth matters; your feelings about it are irrelevant.
Bernard
Alan D Glick
"Bernard" <5521...@g23.relcom.ru> wrote in message
news:387A2531...@g23.relcom.ru...
>
> The majority of people blame their immediate superiors. When you work at
> Apple, and your shift manager is a parasite, you don't go home with a
> bad feeling about Steve Jobs.....
>
I find it hard to believe that someone living and suffering under the
Stalinist system would put more blame on the local Stalinist underlings
rather than Stalin himself. Jews suffering under the Hitlerite regime
assuredly laid the blame for their suffering at Hitler's doorstep rather
than the particular Nazi representative who broke down their door.
The above quote is an excellent example of the ridiculous lengths people
will to forced to resort to when trying to defend a position that does not
have truth or logic on its side.
Alan Glick
cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk
<387A2531...@g23.relcom.ru>, 5521...@g23.relcom.ru
(Bernard) wrote:
> cyril...@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
>
> > As a musician,
>
> "As a musician"? What does that have anything to do with it.
> Since we are debating a psychological phenomenon, and a
> well-researched one to it, you'd better leave you
> musicianship out of it.
What? Stop picking. I was merely making an observation, and
showing which angle I was coming from.
> The majority of people blame their immediate superiors. When
> you work at Apple, and your shift manager is a parasite, you
> don't go home with a bad feeling about Steve Jobs.....
You have totally missed any point I was making. I was saying
that the idea of people being forced to work in crazy
conditions, their creativity being completely suffocated for
no reason, living in fear and probably without enough food,
and actually enjoying this and finding creative inspiration
from this is quite unbelievable. I was referring to
Shostakovich, but it applies to people in general. I was also
referring to Stalin, not 'Steve Jobs', which you probably knew
anyway, but avoided responding to.
Emmma
Bernard
> "Bernard" <5521...@g23.relcom.ru> wrote in message
> news:387A2531...@g23.relcom.ru...
> >
> > The majority of people blame their immediate superiors. When you
> work at
> > Apple, and your shift manager is a parasite, you don't go home with
> a
> > bad feeling about Steve Jobs.....
> >
>
> I find it hard to believe that someone living and suffering under
> the Stalinist system would put more blame on the local Stalinist
> underlings rather than Stalin himself.
What you do or don't "find hard to believe" is irrelevant to historical
facts; it only tells us something about your psychological makeup and
level of education in the matter discussed. I have spoken to such
people, as have researchers who focused on this phenomenon.
> Jews suffering under the Hitlerite regime assuredly laid the blame for
> their suffering at Hitler's doorstep rather than the particular Nazi
> representative who broke down their door.
Hitler personally prided himself that he was taking care of the "Jewish
problem". Stalin personally prided himself that he was taking care of
the problem with "traitors". Now figuring out who is or isn't a Jew is
not an arbitrary matter. Deciding on who is or isn't a traitor, takes a
court or law, or a council or even a single individual. But someone will
have to decide, and it's not Stalin personally who does this. Stalin can
issue an instruction as to how many he wants jailed on a certain day,
but you wouldn't know about that, would you. It's the man from the local
precinct who seems to have decided what you're made of and where you
belong.
> The above quote is an excellent example of the ridiculous lengths
> people will to forced to resort to when trying to defend a position
> that does not have truth or logic on its side.
Cheap parallels won't replace knowledge of facts.
B
Peter McNelly
>> By the way, are you a Russian? I heard you are from the Netherlands.
And you replied:
>Don't believe all you see, and less of what you hear.
But what is anyone to make of this? It doesn't answer the question, though
it does remind me of my mother's good advice, which I suppose counts for
something.
Peter..