Season 3, Episode 3

The story of music  in the Soviet Union isn’t just about Shostakovich and Stalin — sometimes, it’s not about composers at all. Gabrielle Cornish writes about a different kind of socialist sound: noise abatement policy, pop music, and even an aborted plan  to put a synthesizer in every Soviet home. A conversation about socialist noise, studying abroad in Siberia, what the war in Ukraine has meant for research, and more.

Gabrielle Cornish is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, and soon to be Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Wisconsin.

If you’re interested in learning more about Professor Cornish’s scholarship, follow her on Twitter and check out:

• An article in the Journal of the American Musicological Society about Soviet electronic music
• An article in the Journal of Musicology about music and the Soviet space race
• An article on Ukrainian music in the New York Times
• An article on Galina Ustvolskaya in the New York Times

Sound Expertise is hosted by Will Robin (@seatedovation), and produced by D. Edward Davis (@warmsilence). Please subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and/or Spotify. Questions or comments? Email soundexpertise00 @ gmail

A written transcript of this episode is available here; many thanks to Andrew Dell’Antonio for volunteering to prepare transcripts for the show!