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

Asaf’ev emphasized musicology as ’living’ and he wanted to relate the research to
contemporary life. 152
The main achievement of his work at the institute was De Musica, collections of essays
edited by him (1925, 1926 and 1927) and praised by Lunačarskij in his article of the
journal Vestnik Kommunističeskoj akademii (The Communistic Academy
Messenger). 153 However, many scholarly works written under the guidance of Asaf’ev
were later charged of formalism (mainly those concerning contemporary musical
techniques). Mikhail Druskin who fought for the “modernism” wrote a book New Piano
Music (1928). 154 It was charged in 1948. The former student of Asaf’ev, Aleksej
Olkohvskij writes that “up to the mid-thirties very few of the [Leningrad] Institute’s
collaborators deemed it necessary to base their conclusions exclusively on the doctrines
of ‘Marxism-Leninism’” and that most of them were “either pupils of Asaf’ev or
completely shared his views, the activity of the [musical] section had the clearly
expressed character of free idealistic investigation which was evident in the work of
Asaf’ev himself.” 155 Only by leafing through the articles of De Musica, one can observe
that Olkhovsky’s book contains a lot of truth despite its subjective and emotional tone.
According to Druskin there was a great deal of rivalry between the historical schools of
Leningrad and Moscow Conservatories in the 1920s and 1930s. Mihail V. Ivanov-
Borečkij (1874–1936) stressed more historic-cultural factors in Moscow, while Asaf’ev
wanted to combine musico-historical aspects with theoretical ones. The Moscow
Conservatory was the leading star in the field of theory. 156
At large, Asaf’ev’s position among musicological authors of the Soviet Union was
unbreakable. 157 However, there were many other talented musicologists at the time who
could have earned the same status that was given to Asaf’ev on 1940s. According to my
personal information, a group of Soviet scholars tried in the 1970’s to promote the name
152
Schwarz 1983, pp. 89–92.
153
Lunačargskij 1971, p. 201.
154
Preface was written by his teacher Asaf’ev (Schwarz 1983, p. 128).
155
Olkhovsky 1955, p. 60. Olkhovsky emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1949.
156
Schwarz 1983, p. 380.
157
See for example the preface by Orlova of the book Muzykal’naja forma kak process (Musical Form as
a Process) 1971, p. 6.
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