Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

9-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts

Program

Music

Advisor

Jeff Nichols

Committee Members

Patrick McCreless

Jason Eckardt

Doug Geers

Subject Categories

Composition | Ethnomusicology | Music Theory

Keywords

Georgy Sviridov, Kursk Songs, Anna Rudneva, Russian folk music, Soviet choral music, Modality

Abstract

Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998), one of the most prominent Soviet composers of his generation, remains largely underrepresented in Western performance and scholarship. This dissertation examines the compositional language of Sviridov’s Kursk Songs (1964) through direct comparison with the seven folk songs published in Anna Rudneva’s 1957 collection Kurskie pesni that served as the work’s source material. The study addresses a central paradox of Sviridov’s musical language: how remarkably economical, predominantly diatonic materials can produce powerful and highly individual expressive results.

The analysis considers how Sviridov preserves essential characteristics of the folk sources while transforming their harmony, rhythm, form, texture, orchestration, and dramatic function. Particular attention is given to restricted pitch collections, recurring intervallic relationships—especially perfect and augmented fourths—modal organization, and the economical use of harmonic and textural resources. Rather than relying primarily on conventional functional development, Sviridov generates musical momentum through repetition, subtle variation, changing orchestral and choral textures, and the continual transformation of limited musical material.

Comparison with Rudneva’s transcriptions reveals a consistent balance between preservation and invention. Sviridov retains the modal identity, characteristic intervals, melodic contours, and expressive profile of the folk songs while reshaping them into a unified large-scale composition. His restricted pitch collections and carefully controlled harmonic and textural resources allow him to achieve extraordinary expressive and architectural breadth while remaining deeply rooted in the original folk material. The study ultimately suggests that Sviridov’s originality emerges not through the rejection of tradition, but through a profound creative dialogue with it, in which preservation and transformation become inseparable.

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