A Study Of Russian Religious Music In The Twentieth Century

Russian religious music entered its heyday in the 20th century. A number of world-famous Russian composers created their own religious works, different in number though. They incorporated their own ideas of religion into the composition in this particular genre, and gained both considerable experience and significant achievement, which is not only of great value to the scholarship on music history but also exerted profound influence on other fields, such as music aesthetics and music psychology. Meanwhile, the prosperity of religious composition reflected the development of the modern society of Russia. Thus, the study of such music can lead to more knowledge and deeper recognition of the history, philosophy and arts of Russia.This dissertation, with religious idea and musical structure as its point of departure, traces the origin of the traditional Russian culture and analyzes the Russian religious works of the 20th century. Based on the study of these aspects, the dissertation tries to explore the common spiritual structure shared by culture and music, and to identify, through the connection between religion and music, the characteristics of the self-consciousness of the Russian nation. In so doing, the author attempts to offer a general discussion of the Russian religious music in the 20th century. In the dissertation, the religious history, philosophy and culture are attached equal importance as that of compositional techniques, and the dominant influence of religious ideas on compositional techniques are emphasized.This dissertation consists of introduction, the main body and conclusion. The main body includes two parts. Besides, the translation of the text of the Russian church music, from anciant Slavic to Chinese by the author, is attched as two appendixes.The first part of the main body is made up of two chapters. The first chapter is a review of the history of the religious ideas and traditioanl religious music of Russia. It focuses on the formation and development of eschatology and the consciousness of Messiah and their influence on music compositional techniques, in the historical, political and cultural circumstances. The second chapter systematically traces the development of the Russian religious music of the 20th century and gives an outline of the periodization, tendencies and the primary religious ideas that impacted musical composition.The second part of the main body is composed by the final five chapters of the dissertation. The first three chapters of this part deal with three representative Russian religious musical works of the 20th century respectively. By means of various analytical methods, the author closely examines the structural patterns and processes of these works, aiming to explore the relationship between composers' personal religious ideas and the formal processes of the music. The sixth chapter discusses the development of the structural patterns of general religious music in terms of pluralistic themes, polyphonic technique and orchestration. Speaking of the phenomenon that the crisis of belief and "religious cult" maintain very close connection, the final chapter probes into the relationship between religious belief and national cohesion. Moreover, it also summarizes the artistic characteristics of Russian religious music.All in all, with such a long-standing and time-honored tradition, eschatology and the consciousness of Messiah have become an important part of the collective unconsciousness of the Russian nation. They also serve as the spiritual core of the Russian religious music of the 20th century. The composers, in turn, enabled the Russian religious culture to be passed on and progress by incorporating relevant ideas into their music. In this sense, the flourishment of musical composition hepls to promote the process of religious history.