An analysis of the history of Russian music, including a focus on its impact on present day Russian society.
This paper describes the ups and downs of Russian music throughout the Soviet Union’s tumultuous history. The paper examines the impact that music has on Russians today. This paper also discusses the music during the pre-revolutionary years, post-revolutionary years, the Stalin years, the post-Stalin years, and Gorbachev’s perestroika years.
“The years before the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Russian revolution of 1917 are considered the pre-revolutionary years. The Russian Revolution of 1905 was an unsuccessful attempt to topple the ruling czar and it all started with the Bloody Sunday Massacre. The Russian revolution of 1917 succeeded in overthrowing the imperial government and replacing them with the Bolsheviks. The pre-revolutionary years, in Russia, were filled with Byzantium liturgical chants, nationalistic folk songs, operas, and symphonies. In 988, Prince Vladimir of Kiev decided that Russian’s national religion would be Byzantine Orthodoxy and that’s how the Byzantium liturgical chants ended up in Russia. However, after the Russians created their own style of liturgical chants, it was called znammeny chants. This type of music was entirely vocal and there were no musical instruments accompanying the chants.”