An Acoustic Geography of Romanticism: Russian Art-Song in the Early Nineteenth Century

Lecture by Philip R. Bullock, Paris IAS fellow

Abstract

A key feature of European Romanticism is its emphasis on a return to national roots after the universalizing claims of the Enlightenment. But how does this work on the context of a multinational, multiethnic and multilingual state such as the Russian Empire? This talk will revisit the question of Romanticism in Russian culture, examining it from the point of view of the production and circulation of art-song in domestic salons across the Empire. This repertoire contains not only 'Russian' songs which gives voice to a growing sense of national identity in the eras of Alexander I and Nicholas II, but also examples of non-Russian voices from across the Empire. Romanticism is, moreover, seen not just as a search for an 'authentic' national style, but also as a mode of textual circulation, in which adherence to Russian national identity is facilitated through participation in cultural acts and the dissemination of cultural models through print.

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