Tortured Muses? Soviet Composers, 1932-1953

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Hardly any composer of the Stalin era fell victim to the Soviet regime's terror. How to explain this exception? The research project will examine life and work of famous and nearly forgotten composers as reflected in Stalinist cultural policy and ideology. The key supposition of the proposal is that the regulation of musical life by the Stalinist apparatus and its consequences for the individual composers was less coherently organized than in literature or visual arts. A possible explanation can be found in the unique language of music: Scrambled by notes, music acts on an abstract level which is non-visually and subjective-emotionally adopted by consumers. Due to this specific characteristic, it seems to be more difficult to instrumentalize music than other genres of art. Although Stalin's cultural bureaucracy used similar techniques of regulation by creating Artists Unions and organizing ideological campaigns aiming to achieve extensive control over artists and creative work, music was taking on a specific role within Soviet cultural life, not least because of Stalin's personal interest in music. By examining the composer's individual lives and experiences, the research project will provide insights into the functioning of modern dictatorships.