Soviet Musicology: Pro et Contra. Work on Archival Materials from the Soviet Era

Abstract

The article describes the process of work on researching Soviet musicology of the time period from the 1920s to the 1940s. The study was carried out under the RFBR project “The Phenomenon of Soviet Musicology and Its Influence on the Formation of Russian Musical Culture.” The history of Soviet musicology is studied on the basis of archival documents that make it possible to reconstruct little-known historical events, and also to characterize the peculiarities of musicology in the context of each decade. The first post-revolutionary decade passed under the sign of the search for its own academic scholarly institutions, which were alternately made available and then closed down, in accordance with the state policy. However, it was during this period that the fundamental foundations of 20th century Russian musicological thought were laid. Of special interest is the work on creating a complex of tutorial literature. Starting from 1936 (since the time of the creation of the All-Union Committee for the Affairs of Art), work on creating textbooks has become one of the main forms of scholarly activity of the musicological departments of the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories, later the Gnesins’ State Musical Pedagogical Institute and the Institute of Art History of the USSR Academy of Sciences (presently, the State Institute of Art Studies), both established in 1944. Discussions of issues of paramount importance – such as the historical periodization of Russian music history, the content and methodology of training courses, – frequently took place for many days in a row, with the results of the discussion reflected in the central newspapers and magazines. The transcripts of these sessions, in certain cases, exceed 1,500 pages. An important direction of this research was also the study of the main directions in the development of musicology. Along with the creation of textbooks, monographs and other academic works, dissertation work began in the 1930s–1940s. This contributed to a great extent to the integration of musicology into the general scholarly humanitarian field. In the same period, numerous discussions of new Soviet compositions began – primarily, operas and symphonies.