Synopses & Reviews
A prevailing belief among Russiaandrsquo;s cultural elite in the early twentieth century was that the music of composers such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Aleksandr Scriabin, and Nikolai Medtner could forge a shared identity for the Russian people across social and economic divides. In this illuminating study of competing artistic and ideological visions at the close of Russiaandrsquo;s andldquo;Silver Age,andrdquo; author Rebecca Mitchell interweaves cultural history, music, and philosophy to explore how andldquo;Nietzscheandrsquo;s orphansandrdquo; strove to find in music a means to overcome the disunity of modern life in the final tumultuous years before World War I and the Communist Revolution.
Review
andquot;In this fascinating and poignant analysis of a nationandrsquo;s search for its musical and cultural destiny, Rebecca Mitchell is a shrewd but sympathetic guide through the dizzying optimism, haunting self-doubt and finally, the despair of Russiaandrsquo;s cultured elite as the spectre of revolution first stalked, then overwhelmed, their country.andquot;andmdash;Pauline Fairclough, University of Bristol
Review
andldquo;Modernity fragments, but music unites: such is the thesis of this haunting, provocative book.andnbsp; Highlighting Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and the Medtner brothers, Mitchell examines those intense pre-Bolshevik decades when Russian musicians and music-lovers drew on Schopenhauer, Soloviev, and the youthful Nietzsche to elevate and harmonize their homeland. Their andlsquo;musical metaphysicsand#39; promised apocalyptic synthesis. Like Orpheus, all was soon dismembered.andrdquo;andmdash;Caryl Emerson, Princeton University
Review
andquot;A fascinating and deeply informed study of how cultural elites in late imperial Russia invested music with salvific power -- of how and#39;musical metaphysicsand#39; formed their worldview and shaped their search for meaning in the midst of crisis, war, and revolution.andquot;andmdash;Randall A. Poole, The College of St. Scholastica
About the Author
Rebecca Mitchell is assistant professor of history at Middlebury College. She lives in Vermont.