Tchaikovsky and His Contemporaries - (Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance) by Alexandar Mihailovic (Hardcover)

About the Book

Commemorating the centenary of Tchaikovsky's death, these essays reassess the life and work of the composer from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the musicological and biographical to broader ones addressing his place in the development of the arts in Europe and America. As they make clear, there is much about Tchaikovsky's achievement that has been taken for granted, and the essays included in this collection represent as much acts of reevaluation as of celebration.

After a broad synthesis of Tchaikovsky's relation to the literature, music, and theater of the 18th and 19th centuries, there are sections devoted to Tchaikovsky and his musical contemporaries; Tchaikovsky's lost opera, The Oprichnik; Tchaikovsky's mature operatic work; his place in Russian Orthodoxy and nationalism; and contemporary perspectives on his life and works. The volume concludes with discussions on Tchaikovsky scholarship, the place of the composer in American and Russian musical education, and the interpretation and performance of his ballets. It is an important collection for scholars and other researchers involved in Russian music and ballet.

Book Synopsis

Commemorating the centenary of Tchaikovsky's death, these essays reassess the life and work of the composer from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the musicological and biographical to broader ones addressing his place in the development of the arts in Europe and America. As they make clear, there is much about Tchaikovsky's achievement that has been taken for granted, and the essays included in this collection represent as much acts of reevaluation as of celebration.

After a broad synthesis of Tchaikovsky's relation to the literature, music, and theater of the 18th and 19th centuries, there are sections devoted to Tchaikovsky and his musical contemporaries; Tchaikovsky's lost opera, The Oprichnik; Tchaikovsky's mature operatic work; his place in Russian Orthodoxy and nationalism; and contemporary perspectives on his life and works. The volume concludes with discussions on Tchaikovsky scholarship, the place of the composer in American and Russian musical education, and the interpretation and performance of his ballets. It is an important collection for scholars and other researchers involved in Russian music and ballet.

Review Quotes

?A classic of this kind, this invigorating book will prove to be a useful tool for all those whose field of scholarship is to be found in Russian music and culture in the second half of the nineteenth century.?-The Russian Review

"A classic of this kind, this invigorating book will prove to be a useful tool for all those whose field of scholarship is to be found in Russian music and culture in the second half of the nineteenth century."-The Russian Review

About the Author

ALEXANDAR MIHAILOVIC is Associate Professor of Russian at Hofstra University. An expert on Russian literature, he has written extensively on the subject, including Corporeal Words: Mikhail Bakhtin's Theology of Discourse.