Marxist-Leninist Theory | "On Literature, Music and Philosophy" by Zhdanov (Audiobook) @marxist-leninisttheory8023 | Uploaded August 2021 | Updated October 2024, 7 hours ago.
"On Literature, Music and Philosophy" by Zhdanov (Audiobook)

marxists.org/subject/art/lit_crit/zhdanov/lit-music-philosophy.htm

THE TOPICS WHICH ZHDANOV COVERS ARE QUITE COMPLICATED AND DEEP, BUT I WILL TRY TO EXPLAIN CERTAIN THINGS:

ON ZVEZDA AND LENINGRAD
After WWII some officials in the USSR thought that it was time to relax and that the people needed mindless entertainment. They were even willing to accept entertainment with a reactionary message. Zhdanov strongly criticized this attitude in his speech about the magazines "Zvezda" and "Leningrad". He called it political blindness and focusing only on material needs but not culture.

Zhdanov defends the political, educational and sociological role of literature. Great literature has always said something about society. Zhdanov quotes Lenin's famous work "Party organization and party literature" where Lenin explains the need for a militant socialist literature.

ON MUSIC
Zhdanov criticized the Formalist Trend which had taken root among some Soviet composers. These composers were elitist and anti-democratic because they made music which the people didn't understand, and considered their art "too brilliant" for the people to understand it. These composers were out of touch with the people. They were anti-patriotic because they neglected the Russian classical music tradition and Folk Music tradition, instead they were fascinated with western fashions. They masked their activity behind "internationalism" but internationalism means friendship between nations. It doesn't mean ruining your own culture on behalf of western imperialist culture.

The Formalist composers wrote music without any social message. Special reviewers and critics had to try to "interpret" and "analyze" the "meaning" behind their songs. They wanted to neglect the content of the music and focus purely on its form, hence the term "Formalism". Under the slogan of Innovation they wanted to abandon the principles of classical music and follow the fashions of imperialist western music, such as atonality. These imperialist fashions really represent the destruction of musical principles and the decay of music.

The term "Socialist Realism" was originally developed in reference to literature, so the terminology might be confusing when referring to music. One might ask 'How can music be realistic?'. Realistic music is melodic, understandable and rooted in the people. Great composers have always taken ideas from folk music and enriched them. The opposite is Formalistic music which is not melodic but ugly, not understandable but instead a confusing mess of random notes. Such 'music' obviously is not rooted in the people either, but is concocted by out-of-touch elites.

Zhdanov also discusses "Naturalist" mistakes. Naturalism in painting is a fake realist trend. It paints photo realistic pictures, but is actually not realistic because it focuses on meaningless details and reduces painting to mere copying. A realistic picture would emphasize the significant features of a situation, and thus reveal what is REALLY happening. A realistic picture even reveals what is happening under the surface. It shows how the world really is. Naturalism is all about the surface level, all about the form, and not about the content.

Naturalism in music, means ignoring the difference between music and simply noise or sound. Random noises and sound effects are not music. They can enhance music, but only if used correctly and not too often. Formalists have always liked trendy gimmicks and effects and as a result have neglected the actually important parts of music: the melody, the harmony etc.