Music in exile: Russian émigré composers in interwar Paris and the mission of Russia Abroad’s musical creativity after the 1917 revolution

One century after the massive migratory current following the Russian revolution, music composed in exile has not yet found particular interest in cultural studies. The aim of my essay is to provide historical and sociocultural coordinates to the reality of Russian émigré composers’ community based in Paris within the milieu of the so-called Russia Abroad. This cultural category has been the subject of many studies in the last decades. These latter have thoroughly underlined the literary expressions of the Parisian émigré ambient in the light of the links with the homeland, the pre-revolutionary culture and the expectation of the return to Russia. Features that may be summarized in the concept of the Missija russkoi emigratsii whose principal domain is to be found in the “free creative work” characterized by a twofold outlook: on the one hand it is aimed at providing continuity to pre-soviet Russia’s traditional culture and, on the other hand, it is intertwined with the development of new languages, forms and aesthetics, inextricably bound with the contemporary artistic achievements of the host metropolis, the Ville Lumière. Russian-Parisian composers’ production offers a privileged space to observe this cultural interweaving and the other aspects mentioned above.