Course: Music under the Communist Regime

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Course title Music under the Communist Regime
Course code KMU/HKR
Organizational form of instruction Lecture + Seminary
Level of course Bachelor
Year of study not specified
Semester Winter and summer
Number of ECTS credits 4
Language of instruction Czech
Status of course Compulsory-optional
Form of instruction Face-to-face
Work placements This is not an internship
Recommended optional programme components None
Lecturer(s)
  • Křupková Lenka, doc. PhDr. Ph.D.
  • Blüml Jan, Mgr. Ph.D.
  • Cígler Pavel, Mgr.
Course content
1. The Zhdanov Doctrine and Its Consequences 2. Politics and Music: 1956 3. Socialist Realism versus the Western Avant-Garde 4. The Stalin Prize for Music 5. Song in the 1950s: Genres, Mass Songs, and the Study of Song as a Basis for the Theoretical Reflection on Popular Music 6. Song in the Context of the Liberalisation of the 1960s: Small-Form Theatres, Key Figures, and Related Developments 7. Song during the Normalisation Period: Genres and Key Figures (Karel Gott and Others) 8. "Normalisation Pop": Post-1989 Reflections on Popular Music of the Normalisation Period 9. The Union of Czechoslovak Composers: Basic Facts 10. The Union of Czechoslovak Composers from Its Foundation to 1953 11. The Union of Czechoslovak Composers, 1953-1968 12. The Dissolution of the Union of Czechoslovak Composers and Its Transformation into the Union of Czech Composers and Concert Artists

Learning activities and teaching methods
Monologic Lecture(Interpretation, Training), Dialogic Lecture (Discussion, Dialog, Brainstorming)
  • Attendace - 26 hours per semester
  • Preparation for the Exam - 34 hours per semester
  • Homework for Teaching - 25 hours per semester
  • Semestral Work - 15 hours per semester
Learning outcomes
The aim of the course is to familiarise students with the position of music in communist Czechoslovakia and with the changing relationship between musical culture, cultural policy, and ideology from the late 1940s through the period of Normalisation. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of political and institutional control of musical life, the enforcement of the doctrine of Socialist Realism, attitudes towards the Western musical avant-garde, and changes in cultural-political discourse in relation to political developments.
Upon completion of the course, the student is able to: - independently interpret the development of musical culture in communist Czechoslovakia within its broader political, social, and cultural contexts; - analyse the relationships between musical production, cultural policy, ideology, and the institutional regulation of musical life.
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites.

Assessment methods and criteria
Written exam, Student performance

Seminar paper and its presentation on an assigned topic.
Recommended literature
  • BÍLEK, P. A. (ed.). Tesilová kavalérie: popkulturní obrazy normalizace. Příbram.
  • BLÜML, J. (ed.). Popular Music in Communist and Post-Communist Europe. Berlin.
  • Blüml, Opekar. Popular Music Research behind the Iron Curtain. Berlin. 2025.
  • HONS, M. Hudba jako horký tep života. Praha.
  • CHEW, Geoffrey, Mikuláš BEK a Petr MACEK. (ed.). Socialist realism and music. Sborník příspěvků z 36. ročníku Mezinárodního hudebně vědného kolokvia. Praha.
  • Křupková, Lenka; Ritter, Rüdiger (eds.). Composers? Unions and Cultural Policy in State Socialist Countries in the 1950s and 1960s. Berlin. 2025.
  • KUDRNA, L. Kapela: pozadí akce, která stvořila Chartu 77.. Praha.
  • Mazierska, H. Popular Music in Eastern Europe. London.
  • MERVART, Jan. Kultura v karanténě: umělecké svazy a jejich konsolidace za rané normalizace. Praha: NLN, s.r.o., Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2015. Knižnice Dějin a současnosti..
  • PANTŮČEK, Viktor. : Socialist realism in Czechoslovakia? part 1. Czech Music Quarterly, 2016, č. 2, s. 16-23..
  • PANTŮČEK, Viktor. Music in Czechoslovakia in the Stalinist era part 3. Czech Music Quarterly, Praha: Hudební informační středisko, 2016 č. 4, s. 28-35..
  • PANTŮČEK, Viktor. ?Nové, opravdu realistické opery.? Činnost operního kolektivu brněnské odbočky Svazu československých skladatelů 1949-1954, Musicologica Brunensia 2013, roč. 48, č. 1, s. 87-97.
  • PANTŮČEK, Viktor. Socialist realism in Czechoslovakia? part 2. Czech Music Quarterly, 2016, č. 3, s. 33-39..
  • PANTŮČEK, Viktor. Vznik brněnské odbočky Svazu československých skladatelů 1949-1951, Opus musicum, 2012, roč. 44, č. 2, s. 37-48..
  • TOMOFF, Kiril. Creative union: the professional organization of Soviet composers, 1939-1953. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006..
  • VANĚK, M.:. Byl to jenom rock and roll? Hudební alternativa v komunistickém Československu 1956-1989. Praha: Academia, 2010..
  • Walker-Frolova, Marina. Stalin´s Music Prize. Sovier Culture And Politics. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016..
  • ŽDANOV, A. A. O problémech sovětské hudby, In: O umění (Praha: Orbis, 1949), 53-85..


Study plans that include the course
Faculty Study plan (Version) Category of Branch/Specialization Recommended year of study Recommended semester
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): Musicology (2026) Category: Theory and history of arts - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): Musicology (2024) Category: Theory and history of arts - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): Musicology (2019) Category: Theory and history of arts - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): Musicology (2019) Category: Theory and history of arts - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): Musicology (2026) Category: Theory and history of arts - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -
Faculty: Faculty of Arts Study plan (Version): Musicology (2022) Category: Theory and history of arts - Recommended year of study:-, Recommended semester: -