Renaissance Research "Conservatory Project" Assignment On Contemporary Composition: 100 Years Of Russian/Soviet Film And Film Music

The Russian Federation Ministry of Culture has declared 2008 the Centenary of Film in Russia and the Former Soviet Union, and there have been 'Envisioning Russia' Film Festivals of Russian and Soviet Film achievement this year in New York City, Washington, D.C., and certainly elsewhere in the United States and the world.

What is your experience with Russian and Soviet cinema? What is your experience with Russian and Soviet film music? Do you know much of the film music that many great 20th century Russian and Soviet composers wrote for their national cinemas?

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Here is a list of 13 twentieth century great Russian and Soviet films from the twenties to the nineties; followed by a list of the composers and/or the types of film musics employed in these films. Can you match some or all of the films and the film composers or film music styles?

Bed and Sofa / Tretya Meshchanskaya
Alexander Nevsky/ Александр Невский
Tractor Drivers / Traktoristy [Ukrainian Soviet]
The Cranes Are Flying / Letyat zhuravli
Walking the Streets of Moscow / Ya shagayu po Moskve
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors/ Tini zabutykh predkiv [Ukrainian]
Uncle Vanya / Dyadya Vanya
The Mirror/ Zerkalo
The Ascent / Voskhozhdeniye
Jazzmen / My iz dzhaza
Scarecrow/ Chuchelo
Repentance/ Monanieba [Georgian]
Burnt By The Sun/ Utomlyonnye solntsem

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Daniil Pokrass and Dmitry Pokrass
Sergei Prokofiev
Mieczyslaw Vainberg
Alfred Schnittke
Myroslav Skoryk and Gutsul folk music
Sofia Gubaidulina
Arvo Part
Edward Artemyev (ambient electronic film scores for two of the films above)
Ukrainian and Russian Jazz from Odesa [Odessa] and Moscow in the 1920s
Latin American tinged Russian popular song
extracts from J.S. Bach's Saint John and Saint Matthew Passions and Orgelbüchlein
Dmitri Shostakovich improvised piano music?

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If you have the interest (as I believe you should), make a list of the extraordinary film directors of these 13 Russian and Soviet [and Ukrainian and Georgian and Belarusian] films.

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Photo credits: (c) Mosfilm Cinema Concern, Moscow, Russian Federation, Future European Union. With thanks.