Russian culture is frequently perceived in terms of its tendency to logocentrism, a feature that has long tended to shape the development and perception of the various non-verbal art forms. Music is no exception to this rule, characterised as it is by the dominance of texted forms, most notably opera and song. Take, for instance, the nineteenth-century fascination with Pushkin, which extends from Glinka’s

and

, via Tchaikovsky’s [Chaikovsky’s]

,

and

, as well as Musorgsky’s

, to the various attempts to set his

(Cui, Dargomyzhsky, Rakhmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov). Similarly, almost all of Russia’s poetic tradition has been explored in the song repertoire, where intensely debated…

3349 words

Citation: Bullock, Philip Ross. "Shostakovich and Literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 June 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1732, accessed 23 November 2024.]