Summary of Reading - Essay Example

Ethnomusicology Russia’s New Anthem and the Negotiation of National Identity An anthem is a nation’s representation of continuity, and Russian’s new national anthem offers the people, who regards the Soviet past with respect, ties to their history. In “Russia’s New Anthem and the Negotiation of National Identity,” Martin J. Daughtry compares the current anthem to Soviet’s past to explore the connections between the two. Daughtry states that there is a great synthesis of textual and musical gestures in the anthem that renders it indelible to those who listen to, or perform, it --- ideaological inclinations notwithstanding.

It can be said that this is a case of “virtual smoothness” that any Russian speaker feels upon hearing the new Russian anthem. It is considered an affirmation of the new anthem’s link to the original anthem. Overall, Daughtry’s article is a rationalization of a Russian national’s positive sentiments through the anthem’s emotional association with Soviet’s grand history. Signs of Imagination, Identity, and Experience: A Peircian Semiotic Theory for Music Charles Peirce’s concept of signs to discuss identity, emotion, and music is utilized in Turino’s analysis for the need of music.

According to Peirce, the interpretant, object, and sign are elements in all semiotic processes. In the article, recognition of societal and individual identities and formation of emotional corollaries are music’s ability rooted in the reality that social signs are generally of the less mediated or direct type. Generally speaking, music works without any mental intervention and directly at the physical and emotional levels. Turino’s main focus in his article is on the relationship of the sign and the object --- symbol, index, and icon, and its overall interpretation --- argument, dicent, and rheme.

Works Cited Daughtry, J M. "Russia's New Anthem and the Negotiation of National Identity." Ethnomusicology. 47.1 (2003): 42-67. Print. Turino, Thomas. "Signs of Imagination, Identity, and Experience: a Peircian Semiotic Theory for Music." Ethnomusicology. 43.2 (1999): 221-255. Print.