“Music is an A-Political Subject”
North American Musicologists in the Soviet Union, 1960s-1970s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21836084 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Olga Panteleeva, Ольга Викторовна Пантелеева (0000-0002-6616-656X, Library of Congress, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Publication date | 2020-08-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Music and Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1938-7687 • E-ISSN: 1938-7687 |
| Publisher | University of Michigan Library (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.3998/mp.9460447.0014.207 |
| OpenAlex | W3048321473 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
The article details experiences of the US musicologists who applied for the travel grant that was established in the wake of the Lacy-Zarubin agreement (1958).Highly competitive, these grants propelled the careers of the future trend-setters in Russian and Soviet music studies, including Malcolm Hamrick Brown, Laurel Fay, and Richard Taruskin.The funded research topics reflected what was seen as respectable musicological scholarship in the 1960s United States.Contrary to later musicological trends, the selected proposals avoided political subject matter altogether.First, the article analyzes how Cold War politics were manifested through biopolitics.Those who went on exchange were to function as "sources of unbiased information" for Soviet citizenry about the "American way of life"-a concept that was raced, gendered, and conformed to strict standards of sexuality, ability, and mental health.The second half of the article deals with the lens through which the American musicologists perceived the disciplines of music history and theory in the Soviet Union, as well as personal connections resulting from the exchange program.Results of such exposure would come to fruition during the 1980s and 1990s, when the former exchange participants put forth less othering, less Cold-War-prone approaches to Soviet music.The apartment I'm in is sort of the local "night club."Starting about 9 pm, the crowd begins to assemble around the miniature pool table in the kitchen.When 9 or more get in, an involuntary limit prevents others from entering, so now that I've conned the other Americans at the [Moscow State University] out of one of the two Embassy record players, the remaining crowd settles in the main bedroom to play and re-play the only two jazz records I have. . . .My roommates have spared me no scorn for not bringing good jazz records along.I asked Mr. Catherman . . . to please order some Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, Dave Brubeck, Modern Jazz Quartet, etc
Library science · Media studies · Musicology · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |