Boris Asaf'ev and the Soviet Musicology - E-thesis

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artist who tried to follow the correct path but failed 55 . Those kinds of examples were many 56 . Nevertheless, it needs to be remembered that even the most notable and officially approved works of socialist realism contained often double meanings and hidden purposes. That was the case of the many works of Šostakovič. People still like to speculate the real motives and message of his works. This means that the system wasn’t total in that sense. However, socialist realism was a unanimous codification or an aesthetic theory of the rulers who attempted to create a totalitarian system and to rule over the whole culture. The system didn’t function conclusively as we can note when considering the art products but the laws of its existence followed the totalitarian ideology. The socialist realist cultural system was enhanced by the society that participated in that sense in the totalitarian project. 2.2.1.2 Socialist Realism as an Ideology The second statement is ‘socialist realism as an ideology’ as Gutkin 57 has stated. This approach is problematic since it doesn’t take into account the totalitarian aspect of the concept or see it as a monolithic system which was certainly one of its qualities. I see that socialist realism functioned as an ideology only at a theoretical level and only as one of the goals of the high Stalinist culture. However if one looks at the practice, i.e. socialist realist artworks, the statement becomes complex. Should they be viewed as products of some ideological thinking? Gutkin 58 writes rightfully that behind the socialist realism there was a set of concepts and views, such as ‘utopia about a new society or a new man’ which different avantgarde branches shared together. However, I see that the shared views were related to the formation of socialist realist aesthetics but not necessary to the ready made theory in itself because in a ready made concept it reached a totalitarian form, i.e. ‘a means to 55 See Herrala 2002. 56 See for example the article by Nicholas Reyland ”Engineering the Soul” (2001), which is concentrated in Lutoslawskij’s difficulties in Poland, where the musicological sphere was dominated by one of the most famous Polish communist musicologists Sofia Lissa. “[T]hey could never be sure if the music would be condemned or rewarded – however hard they were trying.” (Reyland 2001, p. 2.) 57 Gutkin 1999, p. 2. 58 See Ibid. 19
control the society according to the roles of the authority’ 59 . It is doubtful that the artists from different fields of art really had any real “systematic body of concepts about culture” 60 or shared ideological values after the year 1932 when socialist realism was declared by the authors as the only truly socialist method for creating art. After unifying all the former artistic associations into one, it was unclear for the artists and mainly for musicians, what the future art would be like, i.e. who would be the artist of tomorrow. During the Stalinist era the reality was constantly changing. A celebrated artist could be thrown into jail on the following day for breaking the rules of the society with his art. The problem was the arbitrariness and inexplicability of the term or method which was many times impossible to follow. Especially during Andrej Ždanov’s (1896–1948) attacks towards the cultural elite the reality and practice became so confused and arbitrary that it is impossible to suppose that the Soviet artist, even the officially awarded artists as Dmitrij Šostakovič (1906–1975) or Prokof’ev were really sharing the socialist realist “ideology” of Stalin and creating their art within its spirit. Moreover it was fear that put people to create according to the method, and not the ideological reasons. Thus socialist realism wasn’t an ideology for the reason that not all the people who created socialist realist art believed in the theory/mythology (there was hardly a stable theory, rather there was a stable mythology) or constantly changing Party policy behind it. They were rather forced to follow the “code”. I have now hopefully explained some of the problems that are related to the socialist realism as a concept. The next sub-Chapter is concerned of a more specific area and discusses what socialist realism meant in music. 2.2.2 The Socialist Realism in Music Socialist realism in music is good to be viewed also trough the presented formula. But the main distinction needs to be made between the theory and practice. The 19 th century 59 Here the totalitarian system is seen complex possessing many authors. 60 Gutkin has defined socialist realism according the definition of ‘ideology’ given in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 9 th ed. (Ibid.) 20
Page 1 and 2: ORIS aSAF’EV AND THE sOVIET mUSIC
Page 3 and 4: 5.2 The Second Literary Period: Int
Page 5 and 6: the aesthetical and musico-theoreti
Page 7 and 8: Haas has noted: he used “shaky an
Page 9 and 10: “leftist” 11 mark on his works
Page 11 and 12: The Chapter Four and Chapter Five f
Page 13 and 14: The younger generation, Aleksander
Page 15 and 16: them to some degree in 1918-1919, h
Page 17 and 18: produced’, or as ‘the socialist
Page 19 and 20: conservative writers. 43 This aspec
Page 21: authorities and formulators of soci
Page 25 and 26: and “neo-nationalist” Igor Stra
Page 27 and 28: “mass songs” with ideological t
Page 29 and 30: possible. As a composer you could n
Page 31 and 32: thoughts is to be given, living tra
Page 33 and 34: confusingly obscure and dependent o
Page 35 and 36: Table 3. HISTORICAL FORMATION Histo
Page 37 and 38: 3. BORIS VLADIMIROVIČ ASAF’EV’
Page 39 and 40: Iskusstvo (The World of Art) 108 an
Page 41 and 42: ”Soblazny i preodolenija” (Temp
Page 43 and 44: can one compare these works with th
Page 45 and 46: Soviet Composers. The new directora
Page 47 and 48: Asaf’ev emphasized musicology as
Page 49 and 50: content of musical art. 162 McQuere
Page 51 and 52: A cause of many negative traits was
Page 53 and 54: 4. THE FIRST LITERARY PERIOD OF BOR
Page 55 and 56: aesthetically and not according to
Page 57 and 58: ecause of his personal gifts. 191 L
Page 59 and 60: when exploring the “Symbolists’
Page 61 and 62: Asaf’ev’s writing contains same
Page 63 and 64: As Orlova has noted Lipps has a cle
Page 65 and 66: manifested, for instance, in Byzant
Page 67 and 68: constructed in the circumstances of
Page 69 and 70: distorted the phenomena of continui
Page 71 and 72: motion 248 . Losskij wrote that acc
Page 73 and 74:
In his critic Losskij writes that o
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According to Asaf’ev, to perceive
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continuity. 267 In order to underst
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consciousness inherent in the ordin
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orthodox that one may even question
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Russian operas. He concentrates on
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from the sphere of elements; elemen
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somekind of “liturgical” interp
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They contain views that were typica
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forties towards the Soviet cultural
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also to Realist tradition 332 . He
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5. MUSICAL FORM AS A PROCESS AND TH
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verbal intonation because of the ab
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The discussion of a content of musi
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Works) (1952-1957). However, it was
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100 phenomena into the area of arti
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102 distinction is largely semantic
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104 verbal speech had no need for i
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106 be Asaf’ev’s topmost idea.
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108 of 1940s. Was that his way of h
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6. CONCLUSIONS 110 My Chapter of co
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112 Chapter Five concludes that alt
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List of some of the Notable Works o
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116 ASM (Associcija Sovremennoj Muz
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Berg, Alban (1885-1935) Austrian co
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Javorskij, Boleslav (1877-1942) gra
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Ostwald, Wilhelm (1853-1932) German
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Trotskij, Lev Davydovič (born Bron
Page 129 and 130:
Asaf’ev, Boris V. Russkaja živop
Page 131 and 132:
Tull, James R. B. V. Asaf’ev’s
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Harrison, Charles & Wood, Paul. Art
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Reader, Melvin, ed. A Modern Book o
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