Nietzsche's Orphans

“Modernity fragments, but music unites: such is the thesis of this haunting, provocative book.  Highlighting Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and the Medtner brothers, Mitchell examines those intense pre-Bolshevik decades when Russian musicians and music-lovers drew on Schopenhauer, Soloviev, and the youthful Nietzsche to elevate and harmonize their homeland. Their ‘musical metaphysics' promised apocalyptic synthesis. Like Orpheus, all was soon dismembered.”—Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

~Caryl Emerson

"In this fascinating and poignant analysis of a nation’s search for its musical and cultural destiny, Rebecca Mitchell is a shrewd but sympathetic guide through the dizzying optimism, haunting self-doubt and finally, the despair of Russia’s cultured elite as the spectre of revolution first stalked, then overwhelmed, their country."—Pauline Fairclough, University of Bristol

~Pauline Fairclough

"A fascinating and deeply informed study of how cultural elites in late imperial Russia invested music with salvific power -- of how 'musical metaphysics' formed their worldview and shaped their search for meaning in the midst of crisis, war, and revolution."—Randall A. Poole, The College of St. Scholastica

~Randall Poole

Won the 2016 W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize given by the Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian Studies.

~W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize, ASEEES