Menu Simon Morrison 0
  • Home
  • Books
    • New releases
  • Writings
  • About
  • Contact
  • Your Cart is Empty
Simon Morrison
  • Home
  • Books
    • New releases
  • Writings
  • About
  • Contact
  • 0 0

Galine Ustvolskaya Outside, Inside, and Beyond Music Theory

Journal of Musicology 
Volume 36; Issue 1
Simon Morrison

Even among devotees of her music, Galina Ustvolskaya is often reduced to an intersectional victim of gendered and political repression, a fearful casualty of the Soviet system. Her percussive scores, including the Sixth Piano Sonata, have earned Ustvolskaya the nickname “lady with the hammers.” This article reviews the literature about this composer alongside scores from the beginning, middle, and end of her career, asking: Should her life and work be considered from a less empathetic perspective in order to take greater account of her craft, and to avoid the gendered, cultural, and political furrows that would narrow our conception of her music? Instead of defining Ustvolskaya’s life and work against our own expectations, this essay questions our assumptions.

Continue reading. 

  • Share:


Also in Writings

The Fact and Fiction Behind Shostakovich’s ‘Lady Macbeth’
The Fact and Fiction Behind Shostakovich’s ‘Lady Macbeth’

Read More

A rehearsal at the Bolshoi.
Curtains for the Bolshoi?

Read More

Canceling Russian Artists Plays into Putin’s Hands
Canceling Russian Artists Plays into Putin’s Hands

Read More

  • Home
  • Books
  • New releases
  • Writings
  • About
  • Contact

Designed by More Canvas Creative

Privacy Policy

© 2025 Simon Morrison