Music for the Revolution: Musicians and Power in Early Soviet Russia

Amy Nelson. Music for the Revolution: Musicians and Power in Early Soviet Russia. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. xvi, 330 pp. Notes. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Musical Examples. $45.00, cloth.

The question of the relationship between music and politics has been debated for centuries. The difficulty in precisely defining musical meaning or content has made this relationship more complicated than in most other cultural or artistic realms. This was a problem confronted by the Soviet regime in the years following the revolution. How was such an abstract and non-representational art form to be harnessed to promote the aims of the …