{"title":"Musical Evolution and the Other: From State-Sponsored Musical Evolutionism in the USSR to Post-Soviet Crimean Tatar Indigenous Music","authors":"M. Sonevytsky","doi":"10.5406/21567417.66.1.05","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n In the Soviet Union, logics of evolutionism undergirded the Communist party-state's interventions into many aspects of Soviet life, including the realm of “folk music.” In this article, I draw on the example of the Soviet institutionalization of a Crimean Tatar folk orchestra to demonstrate how Soviet musical evolutionism ordered and constrained vernacular musical practices in ways that have had long-term political consequences, especially concerning the politics of post-Soviet indigeneity. I argue that to delink teleology from musical evolution—akin to how evolution is understood in the physical sciences—would take a fundamental step toward decolonizing music studies. I conclude by comparing the Soviet case to contemporary discourses of musical evolutionism, observing how it risks exiling some musics to a present that is “less evolved.”\n Crimean Tatar language, translated by Adel Khairutdinova, Muslim Umerov, and Ayla Bakkalli","PeriodicalId":51751,"journal":{"name":"ETHNOMUSICOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ETHNOMUSICOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5406/21567417.66.1.05","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"MUSIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In the Soviet Union, logics of evolutionism undergirded the Communist party-state's interventions into many aspects of Soviet life, including the realm of “folk music.” In this article, I draw on the example of the Soviet institutionalization of a Crimean Tatar folk orchestra to demonstrate how Soviet musical evolutionism ordered and constrained vernacular musical practices in ways that have had long-term political consequences, especially concerning the politics of post-Soviet indigeneity. I argue that to delink teleology from musical evolution—akin to how evolution is understood in the physical sciences—would take a fundamental step toward decolonizing music studies. I conclude by comparing the Soviet case to contemporary discourses of musical evolutionism, observing how it risks exiling some musics to a present that is “less evolved.”
Crimean Tatar language, translated by Adel Khairutdinova, Muslim Umerov, and Ayla Bakkalli
期刊介绍:
As the official journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Ethnomusicology is the premier publication in the field. Its scholarly articles represent current theoretical perspectives and research in ethnomusicology and related fields, while playing a central role in expanding the discipline in the United States and abroad. Aimed at a diverse audience of musicologists, anthropologists, folklorists, cultural studies scholars, musicians, and others, this inclusive journal also features book, recording, film, video, and multimedia reviews. Peer-reviewed by the Society’s international membership, Ethnomusicology has been published three times a year since the 1950s.