Music and Change in the Eastern Baltics Before and After 1989

by Ruta Staneviciute (Editor), Malgorzata Janicka-Slysz (Editor)

Overview

This volume provides a transnational study of the impact of musical cultures in the Eastern Baltics—Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Russia—at the end of the Cold War and in the early post-Communist period. Throughout the book, the contributors explore and conceptualize transnational musical collaboration and the diffusion of information, people, and ideas focusing on musical activity which shaped the moral and artistic outlook of several generations. The volume sheds light on the transformative power of politically and socially engaged music and offers a deeper understanding of the artistic potential of societies and its impact on social and political change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781644698945
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	11/15/2022
Series:	Studies in the History and Sociology of Music
Pages:	362
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz is a music theorist, head of the Department of Theory and Interpretation of Musical Work at Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow, a member of the editorial board of the journal Theory of Music, and professor at the Academy of Music, Krakow. She is the author of Vytautas Bacevićius i jego idee muzyki kosmicznej (2001) and Poetyka muzyczna Karola Szymanowskiego. Studia i interpretacje (2013).

Rūta Stanevičiūtė is a musicologist, director of the Research Centre at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and a chief-editor of the journal Lithuanian Musicology. She is the author of The Figures of Modernity: The International Society for Contemporary Music and the Spread of Musical Modernism in Lithuania (VDA, 2015), and the co-author of Nylon Curtain: Cold War, International Exchange and Lithuanian Music (LMTA, 2018), and Sound Utopias: Lithuanian Music Modernization in Context (2021).

Table of Contents

Introduction

Rūta Stanevičiūtė and Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz

Part One: Cultural Encounters and Musicians’ Networking

1. From Ignorance to Familiarity: Lithuanian and Polish Musical Networking During the Cold War
Rūta Stanevičiūtė, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre

2. On Forms of Memory and Freedom in Polish and Lithuanian Music before and after 1989
Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow

3. The Musical Meetings in Baranów and Sandomierz as Oases of Freedom
Dominika Micał, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow

4. Rebellion and Identity: A Generational Breakthrough in Polish Music in the 1970s
Kinga Kiwała, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow

Part Two: The Musical Expression of Cultural and Political Liberation

5. The Idea of Freedom in Krzysztof Penderecki’s Works: From Experience to Expression
Iwona Sowińska-Fruhtrunk, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow

6. Nodes and Turning Points in the Life and Art of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki as a Resonance of Polish Politics and History in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
Teresa Malecka, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow

7. The Dimensions of Freedom in Wojciech Marczewski’s Movie Escape from the “Liberty” Cinema and Witold Leszczyński’s Siekierezada (Axiliad): Music Functions in Films
Ewa Czachorowska-Zygor, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow

8. Lithuanian Music in Transition: Independent Festivals of the 1980s and 1990s
Vita Gruodytė, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre

Part Three: Music and Politics before and after the Fall

9. Disco Culture and the Ritual Journey in the Soviet 1980s
Kevin C. Karnes, Emory University

10. The Ganelin Trio, Rova Saxophone Quartet, and US-Soviet Cultural Exchanges in the 1980s
Peter J. Schmelz, Arizona State University

11. On the Other Side of Freedom: The Band Miłość and the Polish Yass Scene
Andrzej Mądro, Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music, Krakow

12. Critics’ Choice: New Russian Music Criticism and Leonid Desyatnikov
Olga Manulkina, Saint Petersburg State University

Editors and Contributors
Index of Names

Editorial Reviews

This collection evokes a rich music historiography, underscoring the value of focusing on scenes and local events, notably highlighted by Karnes. It features a methodological emphasis on network-driven analysis, facilitating a comparative exploration of intricate musical interconnections. Furthermore, several discussions, especially by Schmelz, accentuate the perpetual flux in interpretive meanings, particularly regarding concepts such as ‘freedom’. They elucidate the continuous reinvention and dynamic nature of these ideas for both scholars and the musicians they study. Collectively, these significant perspectives intertwine, offering a multifaceted lens to comprehend the complex musical narratives within the Eastern Baltics.”

— Živilė Arnašiūtė, SEER

From the Publisher