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

As Orlova has noted Lipps has a clear influence on Asaf’ev’s book Symphonic
Etudes 221 . Lipps’s theory was discussed at the time in N. V. Samsonov’s book Istorija
estetičeskih yčenij (The History of Aesthetic Study) which included a special chapter on
Lipps’ theory of včyvstvovanie. Orlova writes that the substance of Lipps’ theory
consists of the denial of an objective existence of beauty in things and in the events of
reality. “It sets out a statement that the beauty is brought to them only by human
thoughts and emotions. However, Asaf’ev doesn’t interpret his [Lipps’s] theory very
straightforwardly, but makes his own free interpretation of it. An example of that can be
found in the article about Kaškin which is written on the same year with Symphonic
Etudes. There Asaf’ev clarifies the term včyvstvovanie [empathy] with the following
words: “It is ‘a construction of alien life’ on the basis of empathy”. According to
Orlova, one of the interpretations of Lipps’ theory in Symphonic Etudes lies in an
interpretation of the concepts of the opera Tales about the Invisible Town Called Kiteže
by Rimskij-Korsakov (besides his name is mentioned in the process of analyze) 222 .
Orlova writes:
Stating a question about possibilities of different approaches to the suite of Kiteže [--]
Asaf’ev comes to a following conclusion: ‘all of these are given ad libitum to a listener.’
Further, through engaging the understanding of včyvstvovanie [empathy], it [the chapter]
draws a question about differences in the different stylistic trends in operatic work of
Rimskij-Korsakov. 223
However, Lipps’ theories were propagandized in the West by Vernon Li 224 and by a
German art scholar Wilhelm Worringer (1881–1965) 225 . Asaf’ev’s interpretation of
Lipps’ theory follows the latter. Worringer’s doctoral thesis Abstraktion und Einfühlung
(Abstraction and Empathy) was published in Munich in 1908. It gave theoretical
221
“It has to be remembered that his theory had positive valuations among Russia symbolists, an impact
which is distinguished aloud also in Asaf’ev’s book. Andrej Belyj writes in one of his commentaries of
his article in a book Symbolism: Lipps has advanced his theory of včyvstvovanie [empathy]. At this point
of the Lipps’ aesthetics – it is one of the most interesting aesthetics of the present.” (Orlova in Asaf’ev:
Simf.E 1970, p. 7.)
222
See Asaf’ev: Simf.E 1970, p. 103.
223
Orlova in Asaf’ev: Simf.E 1970, p. 8.
224
Violetta Peiget, an English writer and an art theoretic.
225
Orlova in Asaf’ev: Simf.E 1970, p. 8.
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