RUSS 019. Russian Culture Through Music

(Cross-listed as MUSI 004C)
Music has always played a central role in Russian cultural life. By shaping and responding to various cultural, social, and political changes, it has served as a space for the construction and negotiation of individual and national identity. This course will begin with a brief historical survey, touching upon the folk tradition and the beginning of Russian classical music and opera - Glinka, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, etc. We will also examine the development of Russian music through different historical periods, concentrating on an area of common interest for the specific group of students enrolled in the course. Some of the questions this course will pose, and hopefully answer, at least partially, are: How does a piece of music reflect the ideological and political situation of its time? How does it reveal the aesthetic sensibilities and aspirations of the composers, their listeners, and society at large? How has music’s function as breeding ground for social and cultural values changed in post-Soviet times?
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: Modern Languages and Literatures: Russian
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/russian

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