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

can one compare these works with the Soviet operas that have appeared in the last
years? Not in any circumstances. Does it not follow that Soviet musicians ought to
learn, ought to acquire the necessary techniques, not from the era of the ‘Mighty Five’,
but from the era of contemporary music?” 132 Schwarz writes that this kind of opinion
would have been an insult in the 1930s during Stalin’s tightening art policy, but in 1927,
it was still possible to believe that the Soviet composers could go through Western
methods without getting permanently infected and destroyed by Western ideologies. 133
In 1925, Asaf’ev was appointed by Lunačarskij to organize the new musicological
section of Leningrad Conservatory, but continued to work still at the Institute of Arts
History.
Towards the 1930s a more proletarian stance began to dominate the musical arena and
Asaf’ev, along with many other modernist oriented figures, was defeated by the attacks
of RAPM’s musicians. He was mostly accused of formalism and “westernism”.
Asaf’ev’s letters to Lunačarskij 134 and Mjaskovskij date from this period: “I cannot
work. Nothing succeeds. My job was to infect myself with music and to write in such a
way to infect others…I have no other concept of musicology or criticism. Now, alas,
one cannot write this way. So I’ve turned sour.” 135 The moderately liberal art policy was
ended when Lunačargskij was replaced with Andrej Bubnov and later with Andrej
Ždanov. ASM was ceased in 1931 for a short benefit of RAPM. Asaf’ev stopped serious
writing for a while, resigned from the Conservatory, from the administration of the
Russian Institute of Arts History and of the Philharmonia, dedicating himself in
composition. 136
132
Gozenbud. Russkii Sovetskii Opernyi Teatr, Leningrad (1963), p. 104; quoted in Schwarz 1983, pp.
65–66.
133
Ibid, pp. 65–66. See also Haas (1998, p. 15–16), who has quoted Asaf’ev’s article “Kirzis Muzyki:
nabroski nabljudatelja leningradskoj muzykal’noj deijstvitel’nosti” (Music in Crisis: Notes from an
Observer of Leningrad’s Musical State of Affairs) published in a journal Muzykal’naja kul’tura (Musical
Culture) (1924) No 2. He defended Western new music against Malko’s sharp criticism in Žizn’ Iskusstvo
(Art Life) (1924) No. 30, p.13.
134
In his letters to Lunačarskij in the summer of 1929 Asaf’ev was scared for his career because RAPM’s
journal Proletarskij Muzykant (No. 2, pp. 28, 31) kept attacking him and his works. In his letters he asked
Lunačarskij to have a faith in the ideological integrity of his thoughts or to ask him to resign from his
post. Asaf’ev mentioned also that he was holding back his book about Stravinsky because he was scared
that he would be accused of “Westerness” and of being interested in “emigrant” music. (Materialy 1981,
pp. 144, 145, 164.)
135
Letter to Mjaskovskij (15.4.1930) quoted in Schwarz 1983, pp. 125–126.
136
Tull 1976, p. 48; Biography 1984, p. 183.
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