The formation of a concept of “Sounding substance” in Boris Asafiev’s critical heritage of the early 1920s: Symphonic etudes
Abstract
The monograph by Boris Asafiev “Symphonic Etudes” (1922) is almost unanimously recognized nowadays as a classic work, which in many respects created a paradigm of Russian opera research. Meanwhile, for the contemporaries of its author, the significance of this work lay in another aspect. One of its first reviewers, later on a remarkable musicologist, Roman Gruber argued in his critical review that Asafiev's book laid the foundation for a consistent contemplation of music through a prism of organic worldview. The organic concept of the world promoted by Henri Bergson and Nikolay Lossky was, indeed, an important platform of Asafiev’s thought throughout the post-revolutionary period. One of the results of his address to these ideas became the development of his authorized concept “sounding substance” which was often mentioned in the musicologist’s works of those years. The paper concludes that an essential stage in comprehension of this concept was achieved by Asafiev in his “Symphonic Etudes” where, in the course of analysis of musical material, a number of valuable remarks on the nature of this phenomenon and its manifestations in music was suggested (sometimes for the first time in the author’s work).
About the Author
T. V. Bukina
The Russian Institute for Art History; Vaganova Ballet Academy
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Bukina T. V. ‒ Dr. Habil. (Arts), Ass. Prof., Leading researcher of the Department of Music at the Russian Institute for Art History; Prof. of the Chair of Music at Vaganova Ballet Academy
St. Isaac's Square, 5, St. Petersburg, 190000
Vaganova Ballet Academy, 2, Zodchego Rossi St., St. Petersburg, 191023
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Review
For citations:
Bukina T.V. The formation of a concept of “Sounding substance” in Boris Asafiev’s critical heritage of the early 1920s: Symphonic etudes. Bulletin of Vaganova Ballet Academy. 2025;(6):136-151. (In Russ.)
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