Whatever other differences Stalin and Khrushchev might have had, they were of like mind on one issue: they liked hummable music. In 1948, Russia's leading composers were summoned to a meeting and warned of the evils of the unmelodious music of Western modernists. Stick to "socialist realism," they were told. Under Nikita, the malady lingered on. Said he: "We flatly reject this cacophony music. Our people cannot use this rubbish as a tool of their ideology."
Now, apparently, the Kremlin has permitted a trade of the tools. In the past few years an impressive group of young avant-garde composers...
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