Musical world of Mikhail Bakhtin as objectivation of the idea of cultural synthesis

Abstract

Researchers repeatedly noted that M.M. Bakhtin’s works are characterized by integration of musical culture into theoretical discourse, which is expressed in his appeal to the conceptual sphere of musical art and use of musical terminology as an instrument of literary, aesthetic, and cultural analysis. However, when examining Bakhtin’s connection with music, researchers, as a rule, discuss “music in general”, without specifying which music Bakhtin used to listen. The paper discusses the phenomenon of “the musical world of Bakhtin”, including his music experience, personal and creative contacts with musicians. The authors find out musical sources of Bakhtin’s creative intuitions. Based on the study of Bakhtin’s collection of gramophone records (now located in the M. M. Bakhtin Center of the Mordovia State University), published and oral memories of people personally communicating with Bakhtin, and other sources, his individual musical preferences are identified, and the circle of his favorite composers and performers is determined. It is emphasized that the phenomenon of the “Bakhtin’s musical world” is a “marker” of his commitment to the tendency of interaction and synthesis of arts, intermediality, and the objectification of the idea of cultural synthesis, which was one of the prevailing philosophical and cultural intuitions of Russian symbolism.