Mass song

Mass song (Russian: массовая песня Massovaya pesnya) was a genre of Soviet music that was widespread in the Soviet Union. A mass song was written by a professional or amateur composer for individual or chorus singing and intended for "broad masses" of Soviet people. [1]

For liturgical songs, see Mass (music).

The Soviet mass song is representative of the school of Socialist realism in art and an important part of Soviet propaganda.[2] The Soviet Music Encyclopedia says that they were "a powerful means of organization and education of the masses".[1]

According to the Soviet Music Encyclopedia, during 1920–1950s the term was applied to most of the songs written by Soviet composers. However, with the establishment of the term "Soviet song," the term "mass song" was restricted to the genre of chorus songs without accompaniment and with lyrics based on social-political themes, typically performed during various Soviet gatherings such as rallies, demonstrations, and meetings. Some songs of other Soviet song genres, "stage song" (estradnaya pesnya) and "everyday song" (bytovaya pesnya), could also be considered mass songs depending on their social importance.[1]

Characteristics

Musical characteristics of a mass song ensured easy comprehension and performance by non-professional "masses". A mass song is typically an alternating sequence of four-line stanzas and refrains in a non-sophisticated musical form which employed most common vocal register. Typically these songs are of optimistic or heroic character, written in the form of a march.[1]

A significant number of mass songs were film soundtracks and later on TV movie soundtracks, sports songs and patriotic marches written for important anniversaries.

History

The concept of "mass song" was put forth by members of the union of young composers Prokoll (Production Collective of the Students at the Moscow Conservatory). [1][3]

gollark: You also can't really reverse transactions in a cryptocurrency, but that could be seen as a good thing.
gollark: Governments probably wouldn't unless they're being really experimental for some reason, yes, since unless they make themselves the only issuers they can't muck with the money supply all the time.
gollark: Proof of work is wildly wasteful, proof of stake is just built-in inequality, and I don't know of any saner ways.
gollark: My main problem with cryptocurrencies is the fact that they end up needing to replicate unreasonably large amounts of data everywhere, and allocation of coins is a hard problem without any reasonably good solutions.
gollark: You obviously run into the issue of "what if the key is leaked", though.

See also

References
  1. "Mass Song", Music Encyclopedia (Музыкальная энциклопедия. — М.: Советская энциклопедия, Советский композитор. Под ред. Ю. В. Келдыша. 1973—1982.) (in Russian)
  2. Schwarz, Boris. Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia. 1972. New York: W. W. Norton, 1972.
  3. Olkhovsky, Andrey. Music under the Soviets. 1955. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1975.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.