As a result of the October Revolution, the ideas and activities that had been confined to an artistic, intellectual, or aristocratic minority, became overnight the property of the masses. In September 1918, the musicologist and educationalist Nadezhda Bryusova spelt out the role of music in the new society – ‘Music should give a capacity to live and a capacity to build life’. Led by the musical departments of Narkompros (the Ministry of Education and Culture) and Proletkul't (the proletarian cultural-education organizations), concerted efforts were made to break down the barriers between professional musicians, composers, and the general public. Attempts were also made to raise the standards of musical knowledge amongst the new audience. However, it soon became apparent that there was a need for a new breed of composer who was in tune with the desires and aspirations of the new society. A group of politically-minded composers which soon fell into this category was formed at the Moscow Conservatory in January 1925 as a result of a competition to compose a work commemorating the first anniversary of Lenin's death. That group was known as Prokoll, an abbreviation of Proizvodstvennii kollektiv(Production Collective).

It is evident by now that swift political changes have had an impact on music scholarship in Russia. A radical shift from rejection to appreciation of the music of Russian early 20th-century modernists was announced on the pages of Sovetskaia Muzyka in January, 1991, where the following admission appeared: ‘By silencing the activities of the musicians of the Russian avantgarde for a prolonged period of time, we have in essence artificially narrowed the complex panorama of our music history.’ In the case of Nikolai Andreevich Roslavets, the process of historical revision has included recent publication and re-publication by Muzyka of some of his piano and chamber music. At a time when paper shortage is critical in Russia, such an effort demonstrates a sincere commitment to acknowledging his work. Certainly, another welcome result of this new attitude has been access, though apparently still limited, to the Roslavets archives in Moscow. The valuable information contained therein provides biographical details which finally allow for a substantiated and more definitive statement on the life of this composer who figured so prominently among the Russian modernists.

In the atlas of Soviet music, many roads lead to and from Shostakovich. A New York Continuum conceit last year drew attention to an intriguing and little known thematic connexion between Shostakovich and his fellow composer Galina Ustvolskaya (born 1919). The works of this composer shared the program with those of Ruth Crawford Seeger and Grazyna Bacewicz under the banner ‘Three Women Pioneers.’ Each was among the first women in their country to have forged an original and distinguished body of work from the resources of 20th-century music.

Generally, I find Alfred Schnittke's music rewarding and refreshing; however, I cannot help treating certain aspects of it with some suspicion. The elements which form the basis of my doubts are cogently summed up by Hugh Collins Rice:

Structures are often the most basic of designs, thematic techniques appear unsophisticated (transformations, canons, simple heterophonic devices). Climaxes are achieved by extravagant instrumental gestures, long pedal points are used to unify paragraphs…and serial devices amount to the simplest chromatic formations.