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

of Boleslav Javorskij (1877–1942), but the study was forbidden by the Soviet
officials. 158 In the beginning of the 1920s Javorskij was an experienced pedagogue and
possessed a high state status as a remarkable educational theoretician 159 as well as a
many-sided character. His name was well known also beyond the borders. In 1926 he
and his school was praised in the book Contemporary Russian Composers by L. L.
Sabaneev. Javorskij was one of the leading theoreticians in music already a decade
before Asaf’ev and he was using the term intonation in his theories of ladovyj ritm 160 .
Asaf’ev had no close personal connections with Javorskij nor did he ever admit to have
leaned towards him in his writings, but he wrote in a personal letter in 1915 about
Javorskij: “In his method I have found something that I have long searched for – a
firmly scientific basis for music theory” 161 .
Was the detailed study on Javorskij forbidden, because it formed a threat to the
theoretical work and domination of Boris Asaf’ev? Orlova & Krjukov’s biography
states that it is unjustified to say that Asaf’ev built his theory of intonation on the basis
of Javorski’s works, because there is a fundamental difference between the
interpretations of the term intonation. Javorskij uses the term as a designation of
constructive element of musical speech on the grounds of the famous study of “Modal
Rhythm” whereas for Asaf’ev, it is inseparably linked with the conception of melos as a
158 Kac, Boris. Personal communication, spring of 2004.
159 All State Conference was held in 1930 and headed by A. V. Lunačarskij. One of the major tasks of the
conference was to explain the usefulness of Javorski’s main work The Theory of Harmonic Rhythm as
well as to talk about his other theoretical studies (understanding of intonation, expanded harmonies and so
on) which have been in use till the present day in modern musicology. Dmitrij Šostakovič v pismah i
dokumentah. (Dmitri Shostakovich through his letters and documents.) 2000, p. 6. See also Lunačarskij
1971 p. 431.
160 Ladovyj Ritm (Modal Rhythm) is a musical-theoretical concept formulated by Javorski. Originally (in
1908) it was named “Construction/Building of Musical Speech” and in 1918 it was called ”A Theory of
Acoustical/Auditory Gravitation”. The most famous concept Ladovyj Ritm was introduced in 1912. The
base of the theory was formulated in the first 20 years of the 20th century. The term Ladovyj Ritm means
expanding the harmony in time. The main premise of the theory is the existence of two contrary types of
relation: stable and unstable. The fundamental meaning of musical dynamics and in particular, of the
construction of harmony, lies in the gravitation of instability to resolution - to the stability. Muzykal’naja
Enciklopedija 3, 1976, p. 144–145.
161 Letter to V. V. Derzhanovsky, (May, 1915) in B. Javorskij. Stat’i, vospominanija, perepiska. [Articles,
recollections, correspondences], (ed.) I. S. Rabinovič, 2d ed. Moscow: Sovetskij kompozitor, (1972);
quoted in McQuere 1983, pp. 222–223. Yet there exists a book about Javorskij and Asaf’ev by Jaroslav
Jinarek: K otázce tzv. dynamických muzikologických koncepsí poriemannovských (Javorskij, Kurth a
Asaf'ev) (Concerning the so-called dynamic post-Riemann musicological concepts [Javorskij, Kurth,
Asaf’ev]), Hudební věda (1967) pp. 71–105, English summary on pp. 176–78. I have not been able to
acquaint with the book.
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