Литературный факт (Mar 2020)
Valery Bryusov and the musical world of Russia in the late XIX — early XX centuries (Introduction)
Abstract
While there are many studies on biography, literary work, and the epistolary heritage of V.Ya. Bryusov, his connections with the musical world of Russia in the late 19th — early 20th centuries remain on the periphery of research interest. Significantly less attention was paid to the historical and literary study of the poet’s personal and creative contacts with composers, music critics, and musicologists. In the late 19th — early 20th centuries V.Ya. Bryusov’s poetry as a source of musical compositions attracted composers of various creative and aesthetic principles, from realistic to modernist, each of whom found in Bryusov's works related images, themes and motifs. Today, the names of more than thirty composers, who addressed both original works and translations of the head of Russian Symbolism, are known. Among them are composers who by the beginning of the 20th century had become original figures of Russian musical culture — A.T. Grechaninov, S.V. Rachmaninov, N.K. Metner, R.M. Glier, S.I. Vasilenko — and less known today V.I. Rebikov, A. Kankarovich, A.G. Shaposhnikov et al. One of the first works devoted to this topic was an article by the poet’s sister, Nadezhda Bryusova, “Music in Valery Bryusov’s works” (Iskusstvo, 1929, no. 3 – 4), outlining two main areas of research: historical and literary and theoretical, philosophical and historical. O. Tompakova, V. Dronov, E. Etkind et al. also researched Bryusov’s connections with the musical culture of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Interest in Bryusov’s work did not fade even after the poet’s death, many Soviet composers turned to his poetry in the new socio-political environment. The Appendix contains materials for the annotated bibliography of music editions related to Bryusov.
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