Blog Post 09/12

The one idea that I found interesting in both readings for Thursdays class was how nations can be manipulated and molded into exactly what the leader, Stalin in this case, wants. In the article “National in Form, Socialist in Content” the author comments on Stalin’s influence on music by saying “Had he remained in obscurity, his interpretation would have been of no consequence, but he had every intention of seeing his definition reflected in the republics of the Soviet Union. And Stalin, unlike other men, had the power to adjust the world to match his words,” (Frolova-Walker, Marina. “”National in Form, Socialist in Content”: Musical Nation-Building in the Soviet Republics.”). I found this quote interesting, and very telling of Stalin’s power because if he could control the music in this way then he could easily control the nation as well. Especially because as we had already discussed in class music is a powerful tool for human control. We see this idea of using culture as a way to control and amass nations again in the article “Soviet Music and Society Under Lenin and Stalin”. This article discusses the creation and perpetuation of socialist nation states, but the key point that I found related to my earlier point, and the bulk of the class, was why culture and music were the ways Stalin’s government choose to control its nation. In the paragraph entitled “Why Culture, Why Music” the author tells us that culture and music were the preferred way to spread ideology because they allowed a message to be widespread, but it also then became inherent to society and a part of one’s identity (Edmunds, Neil. “Soviet Music and Society Under Lenin and Stalin.”). For class we should discuss if others found this interesting as well. We also prepared for class by watching the “Dance of the Kurds and Sabre Dance”. I found that this was one of the more interesting pieces that we have been assigned so far. The music wasn’t too repetitive, like “Life is Better Now”, but it was also simple enough that the average everyday person could enjoy it. I think this piece shows the balance of nationalism versus socialism that was discussed in the articles we read. I felt that is was a happy medium compared to other things we watched and listened to. One question I have is does everyone else think that this is a balanced musical and performance piece?