Arti musices, Vol. 56 No. 1, 2025.
Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.21857/9xn31cwd6y
Sketches of the Music Biennale Zagreb and New Music from the Journal Sovetskaya muzïka (1961–1991)
Magdalena Marija Meašić
orcid.org/0009-0008-8713-3549
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci, Rijeka, Hrvatska
Sažetak
This study examines and contextualizes the attitudes of Soviet musicologists and musicians towards avant-garde and modernist trends in Croatia, primarily based on materials about the Zagreb Music Biennale published in the journal Sovetskaya muzïka from 1961 to 1991. Additionally, by referencing the Soviet repertoire performed at the Biennale, this research aims to elucidate the image that the Soviet Union actively sought to project at one of the few festivals where composers from both sides of the Iron Curtain regularly convened, despite the ongoing Cold War rivalry.
Regarding the repertoire performed at the Biennale, it is evident that during the 1960s, a balanced representation of Western and Eastern music was well-established, with numerous works by contemporary Soviet composers featured. However, interest in the Soviet repertoire declined sharply in the 1970s, resulting in the near-total disappearance of Soviet composers from the program. This trend reversed somewhat in the 1980s, though Soviet compositions never regained the prominence they had enjoyed in the 1960s.
Two key tendencies are noticeable regarding the Soviet artistic delegations and the repertoire they presented at the Biennale in Zagreb. First, Soviet performers regularly participated from 1963 to 1969 but were entirely absent from the program during the 1970s. Although they reappeared in 1981 and 1983, continuity was not reestablished, and they did not participate again until 1991, during the final Biennale held in the existence of both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Second, while the Soviet artistic delegations did present »new music«, it cannot be generally characterized as avant-garde or modernist in the Western sense. Despite the festival’s inception in 1961 during Khrushchev’s Thaw, the nature of the repertoire reflects a consistent tendency in Soviet cultural policy to reject Western avant-garde movements and adhere to a more traditional approach to new music. The tendency to reject Western and radical avant-garde vogue is also reflected in the reports from the Biennale published in the journal Sovetskaya muzïka, as well as in texts related to the Yugoslav Music Tribune.
Ključne riječi
Music biennale Zagreb; Socialist Republic of Croatia; Soviet Union; Sovetskaya muzïka
Hrčak ID:
334240
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.7.2025.
Posjeta: 195 *