Description
Book SynopsisA woman wearing a ballgown singing in the snow for returning ski troops; a technician’s tears ruining a master recording of a new wartime song; fresh recruits spontaneously standing and doffing their caps to a new song, thereby creating the new wartime anthem. This well researched, multi-faceted book depicts the relationship between song and society during WWII in the USSR. Chapter topics range from the creation and distribution of the songs to how the public received and shaped them. The body of song that came out of that era created a true cultural legacy which reflected both the hearts of the individuals fighting as well as the narrative of the party and state in bringing the nation to victory.
Trade Review“Suzanne Ament’s apparent enthusiasm for the living presence of the war songs among the Russians she encountered and interviewed verges sometimes on the romantic. She does not shy away from grand statements of music as a life-saving force in times of extreme violence and inhumanity. Her emotional involvement shines through the whole book, but is kept in balance by her extraordinary command of a wide range of sources and her meticulous analysis of all the factors involved. The most valuable contribution of this book to the understanding of Soviet history and culture is the light it sheds on the relationship between official cultural policy and grassroots reactions. The success of specific songs often ran counter to official opinion or ideological expectations. … The Great Patriotic War has rightly been called the great unifier of the Soviet people. Suzanne Ament’s timely study adds a much-awaited piece of explanation of how that peculiar agreement between State and People could arise in Soviet society at that time.” —Francis Maes, Ghent University, Belgium, European History Quarterly Vol. 49(4)
“Of the many ways in which the Soviet experience of World War II was institutionalized, both at the time and thereafter, music was one of the most powerful. Suzanne Ament’s new monograph adds considerably to our understanding of this process, as well as filling a significant gap in our understanding of the history of Soviet music more generally. ... Ament’s approach is rich, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary in focus, offering both a sweeping synoptic account of the period, and some occasional instances of more detailed analysis and interpretation. … Ament’s book is to be welcomed for the light it sheds on cultural life during the Great Patriotic War and for taking us back to a much mythologized moment in Soviet history.” —Philip Ross Bullock, Wadham College, University of Oxford, Russian Review
“Drawing on Russian-language scholarship, archival sources, a handful of interviews, and memoirs, Sing to Victory! paints an extremely detailed picture of wartime song in the Soviet Union—the first book-length treatment of the topic to appear in English. Over seven chapters, the author studies the songs themselves, their themes, their creators, their organizational contexts and networks of distribution, and their place in everyday life, both then and now. … Written with sympathy for its subject and filled with stories of human resilience in inhuman conditions, Sing to Victory! is certain to become a go-to work for students of Soviet wartime song and a solid starting point for future research.”
—Matthew Honegger, Princeton University, MUSICultures
“One of the most notable aspects of Soviet culture during World War II was the creation of a distinctive body of song, the ‘songs of the war years.’ Sing to Victory!: Song in Soviet Society during World War II by Suzanne Ament is a comprehensive study of these songs and their context, with consideration of composers and song writers and the roles of performers and artistic brigades. … With Sing to Victory! Ament has made an important contribution to our understanding of Soviet/Russian society and culture. The war was an experience uniting the Russian government and the people in a common endeavor and remains a legacy shared by the state and society. Through the lens of song, Ament argues, we can see this experience even more clearly.”
—Deborah Pearl, Women East/West
Table of Contents
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- Introduction
- PART I - THE SONGS AND THEIR CREATORS
- Chapter 1 THE SONGS OF THE WAR YEARS: Themes, Tunes, and Trends
- Prewar Songs and Their Influence
- Blitzkrieg: The Early War Songs
- Farewell to Normality: The Early Lyrical Songs
- War Is Here To Stay: Songs about Wartime Life
- Victory on the Horizon: The Tone Shifts
- Victory Becomes a Reality
- Chronologies, Shifts, and Variations in The Wartime Songs
- Chapter 2 THE SOLDIERS OF THE SONG FRONT: Composers and Poets during the War
- The Composers
- The Poet-Lyricists
- Relations between Composers and Poets
- Remuneration: Contracts and Contests
- Amateur Song Writing
- Critiques and Debates on Song
- Chapter 3 COMMAND AND CONTROL: Official Policy and Institutional Responsibility over Song
- The Creative Unions
- Party and State Structures
- Trade Unions and Other Organizations
- Military Involvement
- Censorship Control
- International Relations and the Arts
- Conclusions
- PART II - SONG DISTRIBUTION AND RECEPTION
- Chapter 4 PRINT, PLASTIC, AND SOUND WAVES: Mass Media and Song Distribution
- Songbooks and Other Musical Publications
- Newspapers
- Radio
- Records
- Film
- Conclusions
- Chapter 5 BALL GOWNS AND BOMBS: Performers and Brigades in Battle and at Home
- Diversity and Quantity of Performance Groups
- The Response to War
- The Experience of War: Brigade Travel, Performances and Living Conditions
- At the Front
- In Home Towns
- In the Rear
- Working Together
- PART III - SONG RECEPTION AND LEGACY
- Chapter 6 FROM DAWN ’TIL DUSK: Song in Everyday Life
- Audience and Memory
- Children’s Experiences
- Home Front Adult Experiences
- Song at the Front
- The Power of Song
- Chapter 7 THE LEGACY OF THE WAR SONGS
- The Audience
- The State
- Fans and Idols
- Song Function
- The Legacy in the Body
- Post War Images of Freedom
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Appendix 1
- Appendix 2
- Appendix 3
