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Area Studies Showcase Lecture: Musical Evolution and The Other: State-Sponsored Musical Evolutionism in the USSR and the Conundrum of Post-Soviet Crimean Tatar Indigenous Music

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November 5, 2020
2:00PM - 3:00PM
Online

Date Range
Add to Calendar 2020-11-05 14:00:00 2020-11-05 15:00:00 Area Studies Showcase Lecture: Musical Evolution and The Other: State-Sponsored Musical Evolutionism in the USSR and the Conundrum of Post-Soviet Crimean Tatar Indigenous Music This lecture is part of the Area Studies Showcase Lecture Series: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. It is being hosted by it is being hosted by the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of California Berkeley. Watch Live on Youtube. Abstract: In the Soviet Union, logics of teleological evolutionism undergirded the Communist party-state’s interventions into many aspects of Soviet life, including the realm of “folk music.” In this article, Dr. Sonevytsky draws 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 with regard to the politics of post-Soviet indigeneity. She concludes by comparing the Soviet case to a contemporary discourse of musical evolutionism, observing how it risks exiling some musics to a present that is “less evolved.” Speaker Bio: Professor Maria Sonevytsky’s research focuses primarily on post-Soviet Ukraine, where she has investigated topics such as discourses of sovereignty and “wildness” in post-Soviet Ukrainian popular music, folklore revivals after state socialism, and the effects of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster on the revival of rural musical repertoires. In 2015, Smithsonian Folkways released “The Chornobyl Songs Project: Living Culture from a Lost World,” which she produced and developed in collaboration with Professor Yevhen Yefremov (Kyiv Academy of Music), the Yara Arts Group, and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance. Her first book, Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine, was published in the Music/Culture series of Wesleyan University Press in October 2019. About the Series: This lecture series is a collaborative effort to showcase an area studies specialist from each center focusing on the Russian, East European, and Central Asia world region. The series is sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University; the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; the Russian, East European & Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the Russian and East European Institute at Indiana University; the Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies at the University of Michigan; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin; the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center at Indiana University; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh; the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin - Madison; the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies at The University of Chicago; and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies at The Ohio State University. If you have any questions about accessibility or wish to request accommodations, please contact us at csees@osu.edu. Typically, a two weeks' notice will allow us to provide seamless access. Online Center for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies cseees@osu.edu America/New_York public

This lecture is part of the Area Studies Showcase Lecture Series: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. It is being hosted by it is being hosted by the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of California Berkeley.

Watch Live on Youtube.

Abstract: In the Soviet Union, logics of teleological evolutionism undergirded the Communist party-state’s interventions into many aspects of Soviet life, including the realm of “folk music.” In this article, Dr. Sonevytsky draws 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 with regard to the politics of post-Soviet indigeneity. She concludes by comparing the Soviet case to a contemporary discourse of musical evolutionism, observing how it risks exiling some musics to a present that is “less evolved.”

Speaker Bio: Professor Maria Sonevytsky’s research focuses primarily on post-Soviet Ukraine, where she has investigated topics such as discourses of sovereignty and “wildness” in post-Soviet Ukrainian popular music, folklore revivals after state socialism, and the effects of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster on the revival of rural musical repertoires. In 2015, Smithsonian Folkways released “The Chornobyl Songs Project: Living Culture from a Lost World,” which she produced and developed in collaboration with Professor Yevhen Yefremov (Kyiv Academy of Music), the Yara Arts Group, and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance. Her first book, Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine, was published in the Music/Culture series of Wesleyan University Press in October 2019.

About the Series: This lecture series is a collaborative effort to showcase an area studies specialist from each center focusing on the Russian, East European, and Central Asia world region. The series is sponsored by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University; the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley; the Russian, East European & Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the Russian and East European Institute at Indiana University; the Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies at the University of Michigan; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin; the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center at Indiana University; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh; the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia at the University of Wisconsin - Madison; the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies at The University of Chicago; and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies at The Ohio State University.

If you have any questions about accessibility or wish to request accommodations, please contact us at csees@osu.edu. Typically, a two weeks' notice will allow us to provide seamless access.