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9780195341935

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Peter Schmelz's book is an impressive achievement. He has researched it with great thoroughness, and offers many subtle and unexpected insights. Such Freedom, If Only Musical is one of the most satisfying books on Russian music that I have read in the past ten years, and quite possibly the best. --Marina Frolova-Walker, University of Cambridge A fascinating study of 'unofficial' composers like Denisov, Part and Schnittke during the post-Stalin Thaw. Enriched with interviews and archival findings, Peter Schmelz details how they were able to obtain information on twentieth-century Western composers and have their own works performed, despite sanctions that are inconceivable to most Americans. This is required reading for anyone interested in how politics impacts musicians' lives. --Patricia Hall, Editor, Music and Politics Schmelz presents a well-researched and well-written account of Soviet musical modernism during the Khrushchev and early Brezhnev eras. The book promises to make a major contribution to the history of twentieth-century music. -- Anne Shreffler, Harvard University This pioneering study offers abundant starting points for continuing investigations...Schmelz's book is the powerful and concentrated result of an historical and musicological survey of the unofficial musical landscape in the Soviet Union. Herein lies the great merit of this study. --Osteuropa Schmelz's book is thoroughly researched. Its author's command of languages is impressive, and his attention to detail commendable. Schmelz paints a true, recognizable picture of the Soviet musical life during the Thaw-a less majestic picture, perhaps, but a more realistic one. This kind of representational art our field sorely needs. -The Russian Review Excellent...Schmelz has written a highly engaging and significant book...The book is thought-provoking and elegantly written and should attract the attention of historians interested in social practices and cultural meanings of music produced and consumed in the liminal zone between officially promoted and oppositional music in the Soviet Union and other authoritarian societies. --American Historical Review [A] landmark contribution to a still under-studied field...This is an invaluable addition to a steadily growing body of literature dealing with the musical culture of a part of the world that we still tend to overlook. --Slavic and East European Journal An outstanding piece of scholarship, rigorously researched and backed by a sensitive, probing attitude to its complex subject. --Notes

<br> Peter Schmelz's book is an impressive achievement. He has researched it with great thoroughness, and offers many subtle and unexpected insights. Such Freedom, If Only Musical is one of the most satisfying books on Russian music that I have read in the past ten years, and quite possibly the best. --Marina Frolova-Walker, University of Cambridge<br> A fascinating study of 'unofficial' composers like Denisov, Part and Schnittke during the post-Stalin Thaw. Enriched with interviews and archival findings, Peter Schmelz details how they were able to obtain information on twentieth-century Western composers and have their own works performed, despite sanctions that are inconceivable to most Americans. This is required reading for anyone interested in how politics impacts musicians' lives. --Patricia Hall, Editor, Music and Politics<br> Schmelz presents a well-researched and well-written account of Soviet musical modernism during the Khrushchev and early Brezhnev eras. The book promises t

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Peter J. Schmelz is Assistant Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis. His primary area of interest is twentieth-century music (and especially music after 1945), with a focus on the music produced in the Soviet Union, including that by Shostakovich and Schnittke. He received a 2004 National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, and is Chair and founder of the American Musicological Society's Cold War and Music Study Group.

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