Musical Realism Of Nineteenth Century In France And Russian

Realism in nineteenth century music was a musical feature that was affected by critical realism which existed as a genre in nineteenth century Literature and Fine Arts. It's contents drew from the nineteenth century realism of Literature, Fine Arts and Aesthetics. For example, characteristics about objective reproduction of real life; intense criticism of the social reality; personality sharping in typical environment were embodied in certain music works of nineteenth century. And these characteristics were dominant in operas with words, characters and plot. Bizet's Carmen and Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov were adapted from homonymous literary works of Merimee and Pushkin. So, the author applied the critical realism in France and Russian of nineteenth century Literature and Fine Arts to music on the one hand, and according to the historical background and cultural environment of two countries, analysed characteristics of musical realism in Carmen and Boris Godunov on the other hand, in terms of the creation, plot, character, and description of real life by music techniques in opera. Finally, contrasted similarities and differences between the two operas.This dissertation could divide into four parts. The first part, showed the reason of choosing this topic, introduced the research object and the situation of this study. Before writing this papers, the author accounted for some relevant descriptions. The second part, explained what is realism in Literature, Fine Arts and Music of nineteenth century. Moreover, discussed the critical realism in Literature and Fine Arts of nineteenth century. The third part, analysed the opera of Carmen in terms of its realism characteristics, under the cultural background of France. The last part, analysed realism characteristics of Boris Godunov. The author drew the conclusion that both two operas depicted the real life, shaped typical character in typic environment, criticized the social system. But they were used different subject matter, the former is contemporary, the latter is historical. While it was unified in critical characteristic of nineteenth century realism, it reflected the difference of social background between France and Russian. One was capitalist system, which the contradiction was between the third estate and the magnate. Other was the feudal serf system, which the contradicton was between the great masses and the feudal landlord class.This dissertation drew theory characteristics and theoretical principles from critical realism of nineteenth century Literature and Fine Arts. Realism in nineteenth century Literature and Fine Arts existed as a climate, or a genre. However we could't think it so in music, with the simplistic assertion that realism characteristics existed in music was equal to generate the music genre. Realism in nineteenth century music was only a music charateristic. It manifested in individual works and did not constitute Zeitgeist and universality in nineteenth century music.