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Alexander Alyabyev and the Decembrist East

Russians Russian Orientalism: From Ethnography to Romance by Adalyat Isieva explores the formation and development of Russian musical discourse about the East in the context of the rapidly growing Russian Empire of the nineteenth century. The book offers a new approach to understanding how various aspects of (musical) ethnography, collections of folk songs, articles and books on musical theory, as well as visual representations of "non-native" musicians, shaped Russian composers' understanding of the music of peoples inhabiting a multinational empire.

Russian Russian composers' literary analysis, as well as a detailed examination of Oriental romances and arrangements of folk songs of conquered peoples, reveal the trajectory of the Russian intelligentsia's attitude towards Oriental culture and music, from the perception of the heritage of Oriental "foreigners" as "alien" and the emphasis on otherness (in Alyabyev's romances) to the acceptance, inclusion and complete assimilation of the music of the peoples. eastern suburbs (e.g. arrangements of songs and melodies published by the Musical and Ethnographic Commission).