Between aesthetics and ideology: some aspects of evaluating the musical processes of the «capitalist world» in the T. Cherednichenko’s works

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to consider sociopolitical and aesthetical approaches of Soviet musicology to the antinomy «E-Musik / U-Musik», analyzing T. Cherednichenko‘s works that has published before and during Perestroika, as well as after the collapse of the USSR. Methodology. To achieve the corresponding scientific result, the following methods have been used in the article, such as the method of induction (on the basis of T. Cherednichenko's works of different periods the paradigm of her musicology assessment of new music of the «capitalist» world is determined), comparative (for the comparison of T. Cherednichenko's works of different periods), and the complex (for the synthesis of factors and aspects of the phenomenon under the research, in particular, the definition of the role of ideology in shaping the scientific position of musicology in different periods). The scientific novelty. In the article the first attempt to investigate Soviet musicology`s reception of the post-war musical culture for the Iron Curtain in general (avangard, mass culture, as well as their interaction and coexistence). By comparing the methods of analysis used by the Soviet musicologist T. Cherednichenko in her works before and during Perestroika, as well as after the collapse of the USSR, factors that affected on her position regarding new musical trends in the West were identified. Conclusions. Changing of the direction of T. Cherednichenko`s thinking in the late 1980s from ideologically dependent to the positivist, which confirmed in her later post-Soviet works, left their mark on the perception of the tandem «E-Musik / U-Musik». Paradoxes related to the coexistence of «elite» and «mass» musical culture, remain relevant for researchers of musical aesthetics. In the context of T. Cherednichenko,`s works there is an observable link between the ideological thinking and the logical mistakes made by the musicologist in assessing the perspectives for a «capitalist» society. It means just the identification of the «crisis of society» and «crisis of art». This is a thesis which was so widespread in Soviet art history and which has reached the main aim level for researchers. The purpose of the typical Soviet critic was to «reveal» as many as possible logical, at first sight, connections indicating the ephemerality and the crisis of cultural and social processes behind the Iron Curtain.