Slonimsky Nicolas. Soviet Music and Musicians

Article published in the «Slavonic and East European Review. American Series» — 1944 — Vol. 3 — Issue 4 (Dec.) — pp. 1-18Soviet music affords an interesting study for the sociologist as well as the musician. For it reflects, in its ideological evolution, the changing course of Soviet society. The evolution of Soviet music may be divided into three principal phases: (1) from 1917 to 1921, marked by attempts to create a new revolutionary art on the ruins of the old; (2) from 1921 to 1932, signalized by the rise and fall of the concept of proletarian music sui generis; (3) from 1932 to the present, governed by the principle of Socialist Realism, within the national tradition, thus effecting the connection with pre-revolutionary art as “cultural heritage of the past.