Date of Award
Spring 2020
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
School of Music
First Advisor
Kunio Hara
Abstract
This thesis is comprised of two case studies of the works Ruslan and Lyudmila and the Mystic Chorus, which were composed by two nineteenth century Russian composers Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) and César Cui (1835–1918). The Chapter on Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila trances the influence of German romantic thought on the opera as a reinterpretation. The theories of Novalis” (1772–1801); Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829); and E.T.A. Hoffman (1776–1822) contribute to the reinterpretation of the opera as a dream that privileges German romantic ideas over Russia nationalistic ones. The Chapter on Cui’s Mystic Chorus, on the other hand, focuses on mysticism and the influence of Dante’s Divina Commedia. Being a lesser-known work, the Mystic Chorus does not fit the traditional mold of a Russian nationalistic work but instead shows influences of western European romanticism. These case studies aim to display and elevate the romantic tendencies of each piece to counter the excessive role nationalism has contributed to the scholarship of Russian romantic compositions.
Rights
© 2020, Jeffrey Crayton Yelverton Jr.
Recommended Citation
Yelverton, J. C.(2020). Romanticism in Nineteenth-Century Russian Nationalistic Music: Case Studies of Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila and Cui’s Mystic Chorus. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/5810