9 April 2024, at 16:08
Musicians from military orchestras perform in Moscow, Russia.
Photo: Getty
The southern Russian republic of Chechnya announced that music that does not “conform to the Chechen mentality” will be banned from June 1.
Government officials in Chechnya, a conservative republic in southern Russia, have announced a ban on music they consider to have the “wrong” tempo.
In a statement issued last week, the region's Ministry of Culture said: “From now on, all musical, vocal and dance works must comply with a tempo between 80 and 116 beats per minute.”
The ban comes after the President of the Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, assigned Minister of Culture Musa Dadaev the task of ensuring that the musical institution in the region “complies with…[s] To the Chechen mentality and sense of rhythm,” according to the Russian news agency TASS.
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Children from a traditional Chechen dance group perform before a football match in the region's capital Grozny.
Image: Alamy
The restrictive new legislation is part of a proposal to preserve the traditional folk music of the Muslim-majority region and remove perceived Western influences.
“Borrowing musical culture from other peoples is unacceptable,” Dadaev was quoted as saying. “We have to transmit to the people and to the future of our children the cultural heritage of the Chechen people. This includes the entire range of moral and ethical standards of Chechen life.
Moscow Times She stated that the decision was reached after a meeting between the Minister of Culture and local artists, who apparently have until June 1 to rewrite the music to fit the new legal standards. “Otherwise, they will not be allowed to perform in public,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.
Read more: The Taliban burn musical instruments in a fire, declaring that “music causes moral corruption.”
Storming of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Royal Albert Hall | Classic FM
While the ban may target contemporary electronic music such as techno or house, many beloved classical pieces by some of Russia's most famous composers are also subject to the new law.
In Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, most of the first movement and the entire second movement are considered too slow for public performance, in the eyes of the Chechen government.
This leaves only the final movement, which was set at 116 beats per minute by the composer for the main theme, with plenty of tempo changes that would take it to both ends of the canon.
So far, it is not clear how the law will be adjusted, or whether allowances will be made for specific acts or differences in live performance.
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