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

5. MUSICAL FORM AS A PROCESS AND THE SECOND LITERARY PERIOD
Asaf’ev considered Musical Form as a Process (1930) and Intonation (1947) originally
as different volumes of one work titled “Muzykal’naja forma kak process” (Musical
Form as a Process). However, he ceased from serious writing for a while during the
RAPM’s brief domination on the musical field. Because of the political unpredictability
that reflected also to the artistic society, it was necessary for Asaf’ev to fix his views
and terminology for the second book. In order to succeed he needed to anchor his theory
deeper in the Marxist-Leninist ideology. For that reason I prefer to view the two books
of Musical Form as a Process separately. Because both books exist in English and they
are well condensed by McQuere (1983) in his article, I shall not repeat them here to
save space. Instead I attempt to put some of the main themes in context and explain the
principal differences of the two volumes.
5.1 Musical Form as a Process (Book I)
Book I, Musical Form as a Process was written during the years 1925–1929, but it fell
under an ideological cloud soon after its first publication in 1930. It was not republished
until 1965. Musical Form as a Process condensed Asaf’ev’s theoretic-aesthetical
thoughts that he had been working on already in his earlier articles such as “Stroenine
veščestvo i kristallizacija (formoobrazovanie) v muzyke” (Organizing Material and
Crystallization [shaping] in Music) (1920); “Process oformlenija zvučaščego veščestva”
(Formation Process of Sounding Material) (1923); “Cennost’ Muzyki” (Value of Music)
(1923); Simfonizm kak problema sovremennogo muzykoznanija” (Symphonizm as a
problem of Modern Musicology) (1923). 339
Musical Form as a Process is divided in three parts: 1. How Musical Formation Occurs,
2. Stimuli and Factors of Musical Formation and 3. Principles of Identity: Their
Exposure in Crystallized Forms. The main theme is to explain the principles of musical
formation/form, which Asaf’ev considered as a socially determined phenomenon,
339 Biography 1984, p. 165.
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