Music and Memory I: War and Media

Session Submission Type: Panel

Affiliate Organization: Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Music Study Group

Brief Description

This panel illuminates the power of music and sound in constructing memory, forging identity, and enacting violence across different historical and geopolitical contexts. Each paper delves into the politics of war and musical media in relation to official and unofficial narratives of history. First, Olga Zaitseva-Herz explores how music has served as a battleground for historical memory during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Next, Jay Hadfield examines the work of exiled Russian indie rock musician Arseny Morozov, analyzing his music videos as sites of alternative identity formation, counter-hegemonic masculinity, and subcultural resistance in the digital age. Finally, Alexandra Birch focuses on the sonic landscape of Treblinka, revealing how violent soundscapes and musical sadism in Nazi concentration camps intensified terror and shaped the experience of genocide.

Sub Unit

• Arts II: Music, Theater, Performance Studies

Chair

• Kiril Tomoff, UC Riverside

Papers

• Mnemonic Soundscapes: Memory, Propaganda, and Resistance in Russo-Ukrainian Wartime Music Repertoires - Olga Zaitseva-Herz, U of Alberta (Canada)

• Crackling Bones, a Roaring Excavator, and Gold’s Parodic Band: Der Gesamtgewalttätigklang and Sonically Reconstructing the Treblinka Death Camp - Alexandra Birch, Columbia U

• Indie Rock in Exile: The Search for National Identity in the Music Videos of Arseny Morozov - Jay Hadfield, Ohio State U

Discussant

• Mackenzie Pierce, U of Michigan