Performing tsarist Russia in New York : music, emigres, and the American imagination

253 Pages·2019·5.775 MB·English

by  Natalie K Zelensky

ETHNOMUSICOLOGY | US HISTORY | RUSSIA AND EASTERN EUROPE
Z
} } } e
l
e
n
Offering a rare look at the musical life of Russia Abroad as it unfolded in s
k
New York City, Natalie K. Zelensky examines the popular music culture y
of the post-Bolshevik Russian emigration and the impact made by this group on
American culture and politics. Performing Tsarist Russia in New York begins with a Ƥ
rich account of the musical evenings that took place in the Russian émigré enclave E
of Harlem in the 1920s and weaves through the world of Manhattan’s Russian R
F
restaurants, Tin Pan Alley industry, Broadway productions, 1939 World’s Fair,
O
Soviet music distributors, postwar Russian parish musical life, and Cold War radio
R
programming to close with today’s Russian ball scene, exploring how the idea of
M
Russia Abroad has taken shape through various spheres of music production in
I
New York over the course of a century. Engaging in an analysis of musical styles, Ɲ
performance practice, sheet music cover art, the discourses surrounding this G
music, and the sonic, somatic, and social realms of dance, Zelensky demonstrates
Ƭ
the central role played by music in shaping and maintaining the Russian émigré S
diaspora over multiple generations as well as the fundamental paradox underlying A
R
this process: that music’s sustaining power in this case rests on its proclivity to foster
I
collective narratives of an idealized prerevolutionary Russia while often evolving S
Ƭ
stylistically to remain relevant to its makers, listeners, and dancers. By combining

archival research with fieldwork and interviews with Russian émigrés of various Ɽ
generations and emigration waves, Performing Tsarist Russia in New York presents U
a close historical and ethnographic examination of music’s potential as an aesthetic, S
S
discursive, and social space through which diasporans can engage with an idea Natalie K. Zelensky
I
A
of a mythologized homeland, and, in turn, the vital role played by music in the
}} }} }}
organization, development, and reception of Russia Abroad. I
N

NATALIE K. ZELENSKY is Assistant Professor of Music at Colby College. Her work Ɲ
ƤERFORMIƝG
on music of the Russian diaspora has been published in The Oxford Handbook of E
Music and World Christianities, Ethnomusicology Forum, and Russia Abroad: Music W
and Orthodoxy.
Ƴ
RUSSIAN MUSIC STUDIES O ƬSARISƬ ⱤUSSIA
Simon A. Morrison and Peter Schmelz, editors R
K
Cover Illustration: Sheet music cover of “Katinka,”
published by Leo Feist Inc. (1926). Sam DeVincent IN ƝEW ƳORK
Collection of Illustrated American Sheet Music, iupress.indiana.edu
Archives Center, National Museum of American
History, Smithsonian Institution.
Music, Émigrés, and the American Imagination
PRESS
PERFORMING TSARIST RUSSIA
IN NEW YORK
PER FOR M ING
T SA R IS T RUSSI A
IN NE W YOR K
Music, Émigrés, and the
American Imagination
Natalie K. Zelensky
IndIana UnIversIty Press
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
© 2019 by Natalie Zelensky
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-04118-0 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-253-04119-7 (paperback)
ISBN 978-0-253-04120-3 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 24 23 22 21 20 19
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Note on Transliteration xiii
Introduction 1
1 Performing à la Russe: Music, Migration, and
the White Russians in 1920s Harlem 25
2 New York’s Russian Vogue: The Fox-Trotsky and
Other Musical Delights 69
3 Emigration at the Boundary: Russian DPs,
Second Generation Émigrés, and Soviet Song in
the World War II Era 104
4 Radio Liberty, Vernon Duke, and the “Internal”
Émigré Voice in Cold War Broadcasting 141
5 Old Russia at the Pierre: Music, Enchantment, and the
Dancing Body in Twenty-First Century New York 178
Epilogue 209
Bibliography 213
Index 227

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book could not have been written without the help and
generosity of many people. From the individuals whom I encountered
within the academic sphere to those who opened to me their homes and
likewise their memories, I remain humbled and deeply grateful.
Since starting my graduate studies at Northwestern University, I con-
tinue to be greatly appreciative of the mentorship and guidance of Inna
Naroditskaya, whose generosity, rich perspective on life, and astute advice
in both academic and personal matters have helped me grow in ways in
which I could not have imagined when I first began graduate school. It is
hard to conceive of a better mentor and colleague, and, to Inna, I extend
a heartfelt thank you. The inspired teaching and subsequent intellectual
exchange with Linda Austern sparked my interest in music academics to
begin with and has opened to me doors for which I am forever indebted.
To the erudite guidance and sharp advice of Jesse Rosenberg and An-
drew Wachtel, whose lessons in teaching and scholarship I maintain to the
present. For the many long conversations and exchanges and for the in-
spired night of singing Russian folk music around the dinner table in the
suburbs of Seattle, I extend my deepest regard to Elena Dubinets. To the
many other colleagues whose work has inspired me and whose wisdom, in-
sight, and spirit have enriched the academic road, I extend a special thank
you to Paul Berliner, Patrick Burke, Leslie Chekin, Julie Christensen, Martin
Daughtry, Sam Dorf, Jon Dueck, Jeffers Engelhardt, Katya Ermolaev, Roseen
Giles, David Goldfrank, Gini Gorlinski, Katie Graber, Olga Haldey, Eduar-
do Herrera, Damascus Kafumbe, Masha Kisel, Maurice Jackson, Alejandro
Madrid, Margarita Mazo, Megan Guenther McFadden, Rebecca Bennett
Meador, Tanya Merchant, Tamara Roberts, Griff Rollefson, Fritz Schenker,
Richard Taruskin, Christina Taylor Gibson, Jeff van den Scott, Pat Warfield,
Sarah Williams, Sunmin Yoon, Elizabeth Zelensky, and Svetlana Zvereva.
I am likewise grateful to the many supportive and vibrant colleagues
I have met at Colby College, whose enriching conversations have shaped
my thinking in critical ways. I extend a special thank you to the members
of my writing group, Britt Halvorson and Brett White, and to the mem-
bers of the music department, Steven Nuss, Steve Saunders, Jon Hallstrom,
vii
viii | Acknowledgments
Lily Funahashi, Eric Thomas, Todd Borgerding, Eva Linfield, and the ever-
helpful Margaret Ericson.
When I first proposed this project to Indiana University Press, then-
editor Raina Polivka met my ideas with much support and enthusiasm and
helped the book through its initial stages. Her post was seamlessly picked
up by Janice Frisch, whose targeted comments and support have helped
shape this book into what it is. The swift responses of assistant editor Kate
Schramm have further helped this entire process go smoothly. I am indebt-
ed to the two outside reviewers, whose astute comments helped refine this
manuscript in vital ways. Their generosity of time and energy was made
evident in their comprehensive and well-thought-out comments, and to
them I remain deeply grateful.
Research for this work was supported in part by Colby College and by
the National Endowment for the Humanities. I am grateful to Colby for
supporting a yearlong sabbatical (2015–2016)—during which time I plunged
into the writing of this manuscript—as well as for funding numerous re-
search trips and trips to conferences, at which I presented various parts of
this work. The NEH fellowship I received in 2013 for a monthlong residency
at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute played a critical role in shaping
my research and thinking about this book. I thank Ed Kasinec and Robert
Davis Jr. for organizing this fruitful session (“America’s Russian-Speaking
Immigrants and Refugees: 20th Century Migration and Memory”), and
for the astute and diverse insights of my fellow participants, the interac-
tion with whom, in both official and unofficial capacities, has enriched my
thinking about the Russian diaspora in innumerable ways.
During my fellowship at Columbia, I had the opportunity to comb
through a number of collections at the Bakhmeteff Archive, one of the pre-
eminent repositories of Russian émigré material, and I am thankful to Tan-
ya Chebotarev for helping me to navigate this process. My regular visits to
the Music Division and Recorded Sound Research Center at the Library of
Congress were enriched by the incredibly helpful and knowledgeable librar-
ians, and I extend a special thank you to Cait Miller and Karen Fishman,
whose help often went above and beyond and whose friendly disposition
made my work light. I thank the staff at the Music Division of the New York
Public Library, and I extend a heartfelt thank you to Alexis Liberovsky, ar-
chivist and director of the Archives of the Orthodox Church of America,
who helped make my research stays both fruitful and comfortable. Thank
you also to Eleana Silk at the St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
Acknowledgments | ix
Library and to Claude Zachary at the University of Southern California
Special Collections for his help in tracking down rare images from New
York’s Russian nightclub scene.
I am indebted to the many consultants I met throughout this project,
whose perspectives lent not only depth and nuance to my understanding of
the Russian emigration but also a human dimension to the research process.
I extend a special thank you to the Sarandinaki family, especially Masha and
Tanya, who opened to me their homes and met me with immense warmth.
Tanya’s navigation through the current world of Russian New York, as well
as the extended Sarandinaki-Tolstoy dinner organized by Masha, went be-
yond anything I was expecting and helped my thinking about the Russian
emigration in the early stages of this project. To the late David Pavlovich
Chavchavadze and Zhenya Chavchavadze I extend sincere gratitude for the
many times they had me to their home. I will never forget David Pavlovich’s
deep, resonant voice as he spoke about his interactions with dissident Soviet
poets, musical evenings (vecherinki), and his beloved nanny (nianiushka),
while Zhenya’s recollections of growing up in Russian Harlem with her
grandfather, Captain Vladimir de Smitt, at the helm of this émigré enclave,
brought to life accounts I had read about in archives. Thanks also to the late
Alesha Zacharin, from whom I learned so much about life in the displaced
persons camps and then in postwar New York, and who assured me that in
those years one required only three words to get around the city: “Broadway,
subway, OK.” I am likewise grateful to Natalia Lord and to her late mother,
Tatiana Nikolaevna Kamendrowsky, whose work as a member of New York’s
Russian theaters, announcer for Radio Liberty, unofficial guide to touring
musicians from the Soviet Union, and wife of a member of the Don Cossack
Choir offered valuable perspective to my project. To Natalia Montviloff, for
her generous sharing of stories of growing up in postwar New York as well
as of the physical concert programs and recordings of Soviet music tours of
the 1950s, both of which offered an important glimpse into the post-World
War II musical world of the Russian emigration. I am grateful also to Kir
Karouna, whose reminiscences growing up in Russian Harlem lent an im-
portant firsthand perspective and whose regular mailing of clippings from
the Martianoff Calendar—itself a cultural institution within the Russian
émigré world—were always a welcomed surprise.
I extend a sincere thank you to Xenia Woyevodsky, active advocate of
Russian émigré culture, whose vivid accounts of social gatherings in the
1960s and 1970s among young Russians in the United States, London, and
x | Acknowledgments
Paris offered important comparative insight to my work, and to the late
Marina Ledkovsky, who generously opened to me her husband’s papers and
shared with me stories of parish life in postwar New York.
The world of research sometimes graces us with moments of serendipi-
ty, and I continue to marvel at these turns of fate. When presenting my work
at the 2012 American Musicological Society annual conference, I received
an enthusiastic response from Margarita Mazo, who reported that she was
acquainted with the son of one of Russian Harlem’s musicians whom I fea-
tured in my presentation. I soon developed a close working relationship with
George Kalbouss, the musician’s son and now renowned professor emeritus
of Slavic Studies, whose generous sharing of stories and photographs proved
to be invaluable to my project. Interviewing George, I later learned that he
had been close friends with Zhenya de Smitt (Chavchavadze) in his youth,
the exuberant bond between whom is captured in a photograph that I in-
clude in this book. For these and the many other people whom I interviewed
for this project I extend my sincere thanks and zеmnоi poklon.
A life in academe often means a life that is less conventional and more
consuming than that demanded by other professions. I express my pro-
found gratitude to the many friends and family members who have helped
me navigate this course with their love, support, and humor. With fond
recollections and appreciation, I think of my enduring friendships with
Anna Nazaretz Radjou, Sharon Eldridge, Inna Cook, Sasha Lezhnev, Kse-
nia Selemon, and Anton Thacker and their wonderful partners. To Marina
Zacharin; my cousins, Gene, Liz, and Sasha; and to Aunt Barbara, who help
broaden life’s perspective and whose sense of humor never fails to uplift.
To Kathy and Dave Brewer (and the extended Brewer/Munson/Martinez
family), whose love and support have given the term “in-laws” a different
connotation—thank you for making me feel like part of the family from
the beginning. To my grandparents, Natalia and Eugene Kristofovich, Ta-
tiana and Paul Zelensky, and my great aunt, Svetlana Constine, whose ac-
counts of the past, love for Russian culture, and determination that their
grandchildren should too somehow appreciate this abstract realm helped
inspire my interest in the Russian emigration to begin with. I remain in
deep admiration of their fortitude, love of life, and ability to see life’s big-
ger picture. To Paul Zelensky, my brother and friend—I have yet to meet
someone with such heart and wit—and to Kate for her love, vivacity, and
sense of humor—and to sweet Zoe. To my parents, Elizabeth and Nikita
Zelensky, who inculcated from the beginning a sense of adventure, love of