Eternal Themes, Eternal Questions and Eternal Images in the Correspondence between the Composer Vladimir Rebikov and the Philosopher Aleksander Gorskii

Abstract

The article focuses on the correspondence between the composer Vladimir Rebikov and the philosopher, poet and critic Aleksandr Gorskii. The two met in person only once – during the First World War – and then for six years only had epistolary exchanges. The unpublished correspondence between these two protagonists of the Silver Age is an important biographical and creative source for researchers who are interested in the artistic heritage of the ‘father of Russian modernism’ in music as well as of one of the representatives of the Christian branch of Russian cosmism. The article shows how, in the summer of 1914, the face-to-face dialogue about eternal themes and eternal questions began. It focused on good and evil, on the fight between spirit and matter, on the meaning of love and the sense of creativity. This debate went onto the pages of the letters and continued in Gorskii’s articles, Rebikov’s notes and in his ‘musical- psychological dramas’, including his last, the mystery Antichrist.

Keywords

• rebikov
• gorskii
• unpublished correspondence
• eternal themes
• eternal questions