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

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a writer and critic. His literary works contained way more modern ideas than his rather conventional music. Belyj declared in “The Meaning of Art” that “the study of verbal orchestration must be based on the application of the theory of music to the theory of poetry.” 208 Asaf’ev must have read Belyj’s words when he wrote: “The substance of modern poetry is in its ‘musicalization’, in its aspiration in using words not like in the manner of understanding or thinking, but in the manner, that they are sounding instrumental accords of an idea.” 209 Parallel with Belyj’s musical desires, one can see Asaf’ev’s will to put the processes of music in words. He wrote in 1916 that his dream was “to learn to understand music so that he can translate all elements of a composition into words – into ideas and concepts not by fantasizing, i.e. not in the sense of programmatic commentary and explanations and not as technical analysis.” 210 In 1946 he wrote in the journal Sovetskaja Muzyka, that he wrote about intonation almost aphoristically. 211 Asaf’ev, who was trained also as a philologist, wanted to describe the developmental nature of music by words without using mere musical-theoretical terminology. The theory of music was present in him as the logic of the text, but the terminology was adopted from literature. This passage invites also to a comparison with the ideas of Henry Bergson, who thought that the role of the philosopher was to find the right combination of metaphors drawn from the physical world that could induce an individual to reflect on the continuity of his consciousness 212 . By times Asaf’ev even formed new neologisms, such as “apostolyj-pioner” (which is rather controversial in meaning). In Symphonic Etudes Asaf’ev identified music with “a reflection of the truth of life, soul” and determined intoned musical sound as experienced, emotionally comprehended, ‘vosčyvstvovannoe’ word 213 . Vosčyvstvovat’ is an old Russian verb that means “to feel”. A free translation of Asaf’ev’s word would be thus something like ‘sentient word’. Several examples of the same kind can be found from Asaf’ev’s texts. 208 This article was published in his book Simvolizm p. 221 in 1910; quoted in ibid., p. 47. 209 Asaf’ev: Simf.E 1970, p. 201. 210 This is quoted by David Haas in his book Leningrad’s modernists: studies in composition and musical thought, 1917–1932. The same sentence is quoted in Biography 1984, p. 85. It is stated by Asaf’ev’s in his letter to Raiskij in 15 th of May in 1916 and published in the journal Muzykal’naja žizn’. 211 Asaf’ev 1946, p. 92. 212 See Haas 1998, p. 57. 213 See Asaf’ev: Simf.E 1970, p. 195. 57
Asaf’ev’s writing contains same kind of ‘dynamic character’ and ‘organic development’ as he found from musical works. He even tried to arrange his book Symphonic Etydes dynamically as if it were a musical piece (see for more details in Chapter 4.3). This invites to a comparison with Belyij’s poem-symphonies. Although their means were quite different from each other, they stand as good landmarks of an idea to unite the different fields of art. 4.1.2 Theodor Lipps and Včuvstvovanie The word včuvstvovanie (orig. Einfühlung, [empathy]) appears in Asaf’ev’s writings frequently. It is adopted from the works of a German philosopher and psychologist Theodor Lipps. 214 Lipps’ theory 215 was popular in Russia at the beginning of 20 th century 216 . In his “theory of empathy” Theodor Lipps talks about empathic projection into definite sorts of objects. According to him the cause of an aesthetic object is “oneself” or “the ego”, who feels pleased or other vice stimulated “in view” of the object. Lipps states that This specific characteristic of estetic pleasure has now been defined. It consists in this: that it is the enjoyment of an object, which however, so far as it is the object of enjoyment, is not an object, but my self. Or is it the enjoyment of the ego, which however, so far as it is [a]esthetically enjoyed, is not myself but objective. Now, all this is included in the concept of empathy. [..] Empathy is the fact here established, that the object is myself and by the very same token this self of mine is the object. Empathy is the 214 Lipps’ book Grundlegung der Ästhetik was published in 1903 in Germany (Hamburg and Leipzig: Verlag von Leopold Voss. His books were translated in Russian in by M. A. Liharev. Rukovodstvo k’’ Psihologii (Guide to Psychology) was published in Russian in 1907. It contains a special Chapter on empathy (včuvstvovanie) pp. 213–229. 215 Theory of empathy can be traced back to J. G. Herder (1744–1803), J. G. Hamann (1730–1788), F. T. Vischer (1807–1887) and Robert Vischer (1847–1903) and Wöffling’s ‘interpretive seeing’. (Smith 1998, p. 49.) 216 Orlova in Asaf’ev: Simf.E 1970, p. 6. 58
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ORIS aSAF’EV AND THE sOVIET mUSIC
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5.2 The Second Literary Period: Int
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the aesthetical and musico-theoreti
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Haas has noted: he used “shaky an
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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
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Asaf’ev, Boris V. Russkaja živop
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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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Boris Asaf'ev and the Soviet Musicology - E-thesis

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