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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

INTRODUCTION Boris Vladimirovič Asaf’ev 1 (1884─1949) was one of the most famous musicologists, a prolific composer in the Soviet Union 2 and the most well known Soviet musicologist in the West. 3 His writings on music theory and on music history have been influential in Russian musical life up to this day 4 . Some of the early Russian musical scholars, composers, musicians and cultural critics got a permanent voice in Russian cultural history and in current Russian musicology within his works. Within exploring his early writings and aesthetical preferences one cannot wholly understand why he was chosen to be an official author of musical life in the Soviet Russia, the first and only musicologist elected as a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. While a propagandist of the modernist works and a founder of Kružok novoj muzyki (The Circle of New Music) he was silent when his friends, composers Sergej Prokof’ev (1891–1953) and Nikolaj Mjaskovski (1881–1950) were prosecuted of formalism during Stalin period. Despite Asaf’ev’s contradictory views he gained an officially approved status as the “father of Soviet musicology”. In general, this research attempts to view Asaf’ev’s disputed reputation and status in Soviet musicology. The purpose is to examine the aesthetic-philosophical roots of Asaf’ev’s fundamental ideas and concepts, and to specify the authors who have influenced him in the early 20 th century. His youthful writings and biographical facts are under evaluation, and to certain extent, mirrored against the ideological and philosophical tendencies of the time, but the main focus of the study is in the analysis of 1 See the “Note on Tranliteration” on p. 113. 2 See for example a biography by Orlova & Krjukov: Akademik Boris Vladimirovič Asaf’ev 1984, pp. 264–265: Orlova and Krjukov speculate Asaf’ev’s heritage in the Soviet musicology. The book is from now on marked as Biography 1984. (See the list “Note on Abbreviations of Quoted Material”.) 3 Some of his works are translated in English Russian music from the beginning of the nineteenth century, transl. Alfred J. Swan. Ann Arbor: J. W. Edwards, 1953; A Book About Stravinsky, trans. Richard F. French. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982; and James R. Tull, “B. V. Asaf’ev’s Musical Form as a Process: Translation and Commentary”. Ph.D. diss., The Ohio State University, 1977. “The Great Russian Composer” in Russian Symphony: Thoughts about Tchaikovsky. New York: Philosophical Library, 1947. 4 A book Klassičeskaja muzykal’naja forma (Ruč’evskaja, E. A, 1998.), used by the St. Petersburg Conservatory, is partly based on the writings by Asaf’ev. He has also been cited in concert programs. See for example a concert brochure of Sankt-Peterburgskaja akademičeskaja filarmonija imeni D. D. Šostakoviča, Bol’šoj zal. (14.4.2004). 1
the aesthetical and musico-theoretical terminology used by Asaf’ev which found its final formulation in his main book Intonation (1947). One of the main goals of this research is to find out the influence of Russian modernists on Asaf’ev’s concepts, later contradicted by his Marxist formulations, by the aesthetic vision which became formulated into socialist realism. Briefly, I see the relationship between different texts fragmentary and twisted. By comparing modernists’ texts to those of Asaf’ev I wish to bring some new insights in understanding of Asaf’ev’s character, his texts and Soviet musicology. I am initiating here also some of the ideas that I am interested to study in the future: to examine what features in his life or writings led to his becoming the official voice in the Soviet musical field. The basic hypothesis of my study in the large perspective is that his concepts as well as his main theory of “Intonation” were easy to adapt to almost any ideological system. Although from some point of his carreer the prevailing Marxist- Leninist-Stalinist context started to shape the nature of his theories, his ambiguous language makes it possible to interpret his ultimate goals and meanings in several ways. I also want to find out how Boris Asaf’ev is viewed in the Western and in the Soviet musical literature, and how his position has changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Therefore, one of the goals of the present study is to view critically both the Soviet and the Western sources, and to try to determine the basics of the problems related to their objectivity. 1.1 About the Method of the Work I was told once in Russia that the general problem of the Western scholars is, that they want to find exhaustive answers and causes to the phenomenon of Russian culture and that they just don’t understand that in many cases it is simply impossible. Hilary Fink writes in her book Bergson and Russian Modernism 1900-1930 (1999) how in the case of modernist texts and Bergsonian philosophy 5 she is not so interested in influence as an agency of causality (which is in her case the task of proving that Bergson caused 5 Henry Bergson (1859–1941), a French philosopher. 2
Page 1 and 2: ORIS aSAF’EV AND THE sOVIET mUSIC
Page 3: 5.2 The Second Literary Period: Int
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 and 22: authorities and formulators of soci
Page 23 and 24: control the society according to th
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
Page 75 and 76:
According to Asaf’ev, to perceive
Page 77 and 78:
continuity. 267 In order to underst
Page 79 and 80:
consciousness inherent in the ordin
Page 81 and 82:
orthodox that one may even question
Page 83 and 84:
Russian operas. He concentrates on
Page 85 and 86:
from the sphere of elements; elemen
Page 87 and 88:
somekind of “liturgical” interp
Page 89 and 90:
They contain views that were typica
Page 91 and 92:
forties towards the Soviet cultural
Page 93 and 94:
also to Realist tradition 332 . He
Page 95 and 96:
5. MUSICAL FORM AS A PROCESS AND TH
Page 97 and 98:
verbal intonation because of the ab
Page 99 and 100:
The discussion of a content of musi
Page 101 and 102:
Works) (1952-1957). However, it was
Page 103 and 104:
100 phenomena into the area of arti
Page 105 and 106:
102 distinction is largely semantic
Page 107 and 108:
104 verbal speech had no need for i
Page 109 and 110:
106 be Asaf’ev’s topmost idea.
Page 111 and 112:
108 of 1940s. Was that his way of h
Page 113 and 114:
6. CONCLUSIONS 110 My Chapter of co
Page 115 and 116:
112 Chapter Five concludes that alt
Page 117 and 118:
List of some of the Notable Works o
Page 119 and 120:
116 ASM (Associcija Sovremennoj Muz
Page 121 and 122:
Berg, Alban (1885-1935) Austrian co
Page 123 and 124:
Javorskij, Boleslav (1877-1942) gra
Page 125 and 126:
Ostwald, Wilhelm (1853-1932) German
Page 127 and 128:
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
Page 133 and 134:
Harrison, Charles & Wood, Paul. Art
Page 135 and 136:
Reader, Melvin, ed. A Modern Book o
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?