Musical tribute to the abolition of serfdom in Russia

Abstract

In 1911, on the fiftieth anniversary of the abolition of serfdom in Russia, the Russian musician Alexei Abutcov composed two musical pieces to commemorate the decree of Tsar Alexander II. Abutcov sets to music two lyrics that celebrate the emancipatory act, but our question is whether, regardless of the text, music per se can be a vehicle of ideology. For this we take, as a theoretical framework, the postulates of Slavoj Žižek and Leonard Meyer, since these authors take into account the non-explicit aspects of ideology. To fulfill our objective, we analyzed the works through the “eclectic method” proposed by Lawrence Ferrara, since this is not limited exclusively to musical parameters, but also includes historical and philosophical aspects. The results obtained indicate that, indeed, music is a carrier of ideology, and we come to the conclusion that the ideology present in the two works analyzed is that of Official Nationalism that had been established in Russia, in 1833, during the government of the Tsar Nicholas I. We can see in this way that music is not merely an accessory to the text, but has its own power to transmit an ideological message.