1.2 Music silver age

Following the brilliant flowering of the work of composers in the 1870s, “ Mighty bunch"and Tchaikovsky's Russian music late XIX V. enters into new period of its development. In it, along with the continuation of the established traditions of the national school of composition, features caused by new conditions begin to appear noticeably public life Russia at the turn of the century. Musical art includes new themes and images. It becomes characteristic that the main interest is moving from broad social issues to the area of reflecting the inner world human personality. Even images folk life, epic, history, native nature take on a lyrical tone. Much here comes into contact with the general processes of development of domestic artistic culture of that time. Affirmation of the beautiful, hostility to everything crude and philistine permeate the work of many Russian writers and artists, for example Chekhov, Levitan. The beauty of nature, the human heart, the human right to happiness are the leading themes in Russian music of this period. In it, as in related arts, there is an increasing interest in the embodiment philosophical problems, philosophical reflections about life, the role of the intellectual principle increases, and tendencies towards synthesis with other arts appear.

The atmosphere of revolutionary upsurge with its sharp contrasts, tense anticipation of change brings to life images of spring awakening and heroic aspiration to the future, violent protest and affirmation of human will. They sound especially strong in the music of Scriabin and Rachmaninov. A direct response to the revolution of 1905 is the creation of orchestral plays on the themes of Russian revolutionary songs - “Dubinushka” (Rimsky-Korsakov) and “Hey, let's go!” (Glazunov).

However, the most direct reflection of the revolutionary upsurge, the revolutionary movement was in folk art, in the Russian revolutionary song, which became a powerful means of rallying the masses. The importance of individual musical genres in the work of composers is also changing. Many of them prefer instrumental music, often extra-programmatic (the lack of connection between music and a specific text gave them more freedom in expressing your thoughts and feelings). Serious attention is paid to improving professional equipment, skills, and developing tools musical expressiveness. Musical art enriched with striking achievements in the field of melody, harmony, polyphony, piano and orchestral color.

The struggle that intensified in the literature and art of that time various directions also affected the development of Russian music. In the works of some composers, the assimilation classical traditions combined with the influence of modernist trends that were clearly visible abroad and penetrated into artistic life Russia at the beginning of the century. In music this was expressed in an appeal to the world of narrow, individualistic experiences, and in accordance with this in excessive complexity musical language, in the one-sided development of any one of the means of musical expression. True, in the work of the leading composers of the era, these trends never became dominant and did not create significant barriers general development Russian musical classics.

The Silver Age in literature and music was in one direction. The main theme was man. Life, inner world, thoughts and actions of a person. Various movements appear in literature and music, which have their own characteristics of expressing feelings and passions. New poets, writers and composers are appearing. All of them bring a lot of new and interesting things to the Silver Age, for the future and the present.

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Features of the work of A.Ya. Golovin at the play "Masquerade"

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Features of the work of A.Ya. Golovin at the play "Masquerade"

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Silver Age silhouette

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The phenomenon of the “Silver Age” in Russian art at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries

"Silver Age" is Russia's most significant contribution to world culture. The intellectual life of Russia at that time was characterized by unprecedented intensity, the desire to continue many valuable artistic traditions...

THE MUSIC OF THE SILVER AGE IS REPRESENTED BY DIFFERENT GENERATIONS OF COMPOSERS. THIS IS THE LATE PERIOD OF THE CREATIVITY OF N. RIMSKY-KORSAKOV, THE FLOWERING OF THE CREATIVITY OF A. GLAZUNOV, S. TANEEV, A. LYADOV, THE PERIOD OF ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CREATIVITY OF A. SCRYABIN, S. RACHMANINOV, AND LATER N. METNER. A WIDE RANGE OF TOPICS AND IMAGES IS EXPRESSED IN THE IDEAS OF COSMICITY, RELIGIOUS AND MYSTICAL MOTIVES, IMAGES OF GOOD AND EVIL, LIFE AND DEATH, CLOSE INTERACTION OF RITUAL-ARCHAIC AND MODERN-EVERYDAY THEMES.

The atmosphere of revolutionary upsurge with its sharp contrasts, tense anticipation of change brings to life images of spring awakening and heroic aspiration to the future, violent protest and affirmation of human will. They sound especially strong in the music of Scriabin and Rachmaninov. A direct response to the revolution of 1905 was the creation of orchestral plays on the themes of Russian revolutionary songs - “Dubinushka” (Rimsky-Korsakov) and “Hey, Let's Whoop!” (Glazunov).

However, the revolutionary upsurge and revolutionary movement were most directly reflected in folk art, in Russian revolutionary song, which became a powerful means of uniting the masses. The importance of individual musical genres in the work of composers is also changing. Many of them prefer instrumental music, often extracurricular (the lack of connection between music and a specific text gave them greater freedom in expressing their thoughts and feelings). Serious attention is paid to improving professional equipment, craftsmanship, and developing means of musical expression. Musical art is enriched with brilliant achievements in the field of melody, harmony, polyphony, piano and orchestral coloring.

Association "Evenings" modern music", founded in the fall of 1901, were, as it were, a subsidiary of the World of Art. This small circle, which existed for ten years, was created on the initiative of V. Nouvel and A. Nurok, who, with their musical interests, were close to the “World of Art”, whose main attention was directed to the plastic arts. Composers of the Silver Age Vertinsky Alexander Lurie Arthur Matyushin Mikhail Medtner Nikolai Prokofiev Sergei Rachmaninov Sergei Roslavets Nikolai Scriabin Alexander Stravinsky Igor Cherepnin Nikolai Shalyapin Fyodor Shcherbachev Vladimir

The Silver Age in literature and music was in one direction. The main theme was man. Life, inner world, thoughts and deeds of a person. Various movements appear in literature and music, which have their own characteristics of expressing feelings and passions. New poets, writers and composers are appearing. All of them bring a lot of new and interesting things to the Silver Age, for the future and the present.

1.2 Music of the Silver Age

Following the brilliant flowering of the work of the composers “The Mighty Handful” and Tchaikovsky in the 1870s, Russian music at the end of the 19th century. is entering a new period of its development. In it, along with the continuation of the established traditions of the national school of composition, features caused by the new conditions of social life in Russia at the turn of the century begin to noticeably appear. Musical art includes new themes and images. It is becoming typical to shift the main interest from broad social issues to the area of reflection of the inner world of the human personality. Even images of folk life, epics, history, and native nature take on a lyrical coloring. Much here comes into contact with the general processes of development of domestic artistic culture of that time. Affirmation of the beautiful, hostility to everything crude and philistine permeate the work of many Russian writers and artists, for example Chekhov, Levitan. The beauty of nature, the human heart, the human right to happiness are the leading themes in Russian music of this period. In it, as in related arts, there is increasing interest in the embodiment of philosophical problems, philosophical reflections on life, the role of the intellectual principle is increasing, and tendencies towards synthesis with other arts are emerging.

The atmosphere of revolutionary upsurge with its sharp contrasts, tense anticipation of change brings to life images of spring awakening and heroic aspiration to the future, violent protest and affirmation of human will. They sound especially strong in the music of Scriabin and Rachmaninov. A direct response to the revolution of 1905 was the creation of orchestral plays on the themes of Russian revolutionary songs - “Dubinushka” (Rimsky-Korsakov) and “Hey, Let's Whoop!” (Glazunov).

The struggle between different trends, which intensified in the literature and art of that time, also affected the development of Russian music. In the work of some composers, the assimilation of classical traditions was combined with the influence of modernist trends that were clearly visible abroad and penetrated the artistic life of Russia at the beginning of the century. In music, this was expressed in an appeal to the world of narrow, individualistic experiences, and in accordance with this, in the excessive complexity of musical language, in the one-sided development of any one of the means of musical expression. True, in the work of the leading composers of the era, these trends never became dominant and did not create significant obstacles to the general development of Russian musical classics.

2. A.A. Blok and A.N. Scriabin - great creators of the Silver Age

2.1 A.A. Blok is a symbolist

Symbolism is one of the artistic movements of the Silver Age, which many poets adhered to. Speaking about symbolism, it should be noted that he turned to eternal ideas that are important to man. Of all the symbolist poets, the work of Alexander Blok is closest to me. I consider him one of the brightest representatives of the Silver Age.

Blok is an outstanding phenomenon in Russian poetry. This is one of the most remarkable symbolist poets. He never retreated from symbolism: neither in his youthful poems, full of fog and dreams, nor in more mature works. Literary heritage Alexander Blok is extensive and diverse. It has become a part of our culture and life, helping to understand the origins of spiritual quests and understand the past.

Alexander Blok (Alexander Aleksandrovich Blok, November 28, 1880 – August 7, 1921), was perhaps the most gifted lyric poet born in Russia since Alexander Pushkin. Blok was born in St. Petersburg, into an intellectual family. Some of his relatives were writers, his father was a professor of law in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather, the rector of St. Petersburg state university. After his parents' divorce, Blok lived with aristocratic relatives on the Shakhmatovo estate near Moscow, where he learned the philosophy of his uncle Vladimir Solovyov, and the poems of the then unknown 19th century poets, Fyodor Tyutchev and Afanasy Fet. These influences were reflected in his early work, later collected in the book Ante Lucem.

He fell in love with Lyubov (Lyuba) Mendeleeva (daughter of the great chemist) and married her in 1903. Later, she involved him in a complex love-hate relationship with his Symbolist friend Andrei Bely. He dedicated to Lyuba the cycle that brought him fame, “Poems about a Beautiful Lady,” 1904. In this cycle, he transformed his modest wife into an endless vision female soul and eternal femininity.

The idealized mystical images presented in his first book helped Blok become the leader of the Russian Symbolist movement. Blok's early poems are impeccably musical and rich in sound, but he later sought to introduce bold rhythmic imagery and uneven beats into his poetry. Poetic inspiration came to him naturally, often producing unforgettable, otherworldly images from the most banal environments and trivial events (Factory, 1903). Consequently, his mature poetry is often based on the conflict between the Platonic vision of ideal beauty and the disappointing reality of dirty industrial suburbs (Stranger, 1906).

The image of St. Petersburg he reworked for his next collection of poems, The City (1904–08), was both impressionistic and eerie. Subsequent collections, Faina and Snow Mask, helped increase Blok's interest in incredible dimensions. He was often compared to Alexander Pushkin, and the entire Silver Age of Russian poetry is sometimes called the “Era of Blok.” In the 1910s, Blok was admired by almost all of his literary colleagues, and his influence on younger poets was virtually unsurpassed. Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, and Vladimir Nabokov wrote important poetry tributes to Blok.

During the later period of his life, Blok concentrated primarily on political themes, pondering the messianic destiny of his country (Retribution, 1910–21; Rodina, 1907–16; Scythians, 1918). Under the influence of Solovyov's doctrines, he was full of vague apocalyptic forebodings and often fluctuated between hope and despair. "I feel that important event happened, but what it was was not exactly shown to me,” he wrote in his diary during the summer of 1917. Quite unexpectedly for most of his fans, he accepted October Revolution as the final solution to this apocalyptic melancholy.

Blok expressed his views regarding the revolution in a mysterious verse - Twelve (1918). The long poem, with its "mood-creating sounds, polyphonic rhythms, and harsh, vulgar language" (as Encyclopedia Britannica described the verse), is one of the most controversial in the entire corpus of Russian poetry. It describes the march of twelve Bolshevik soldiers (likened to the Twelve Apostles who followed Christ) through the streets of revolutionary Petrograd, as a severe winter snowstorm raged around them.

Alexander Blok, one of the most important poets of the century, envisioned his poetic output in three volumes. The first volume contains his early poems on the Fair Lady; its dominant color is white. Volume two, in power blue, comments on the impossibility of achieving the ideal he craved. The third volume, showing his poems from the pre-revolutionary years, is immersed in fiery or bloody red.

Blok considered himself an anti-humanist. He was ready to welcome the death of civilization if it would help liberate the living human soul or living natural elements. Based on the teachings of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, Blok identifies the free element with music, which permeates all worlds. He considered music the center of culture, its soul. The poet was convinced that many achievements of civilization only limit the freedom of the elements, lock it into tight boundaries, and reduce it to nothing. The element of music disappears from civilized countries, and reality there is deprived of its miracle, turning into an accumulation of objects created for the convenience of people.

Silver Age silhouette. Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin

...I dreamed of the highest: to glorify the Divine
And illuminate the abysses of the spirit in sounds.
He dared to melt the metal of melodies
And I wanted to pour new ones into forms...

(V. Bryusov)

Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin is a great Russian composer and pianist. In his music, Russia heard its present, saw its future... It seemed to his contemporaries that he left too early, leaving them on the path that he himself had outlined, without completing his plan, without reaching the goal. His life is indeed short, but it is the life of a genius, and here ordinary measures are not suitable. Scriabin's music is original and deeply poetic. It contains dazzling jubilation and crystal lyricism, refined artistry and an impulse towards light, joy, and happiness.

Among the greatest creators of Russian music, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin is a phenomenon of a very special kind. Perhaps no one else had such a fascinating impact on his contemporaries and immediate descendants as Scriabin. And even outside Russia, he can probably be compared in this regard with Wagner alone, whose work at one time “poisoned” almost the whole of Europe.

The peak of this “poisoning” of Scriabin’s music and Scriabin’s ideas occurred between 1910 and 1930. Scriabin's influence in these years was comprehensive, manifesting itself in the work of composers (even in such obvious antagonists of Scriabin as Prokofiev and Stravinsky), and in piano performance, and in general in the entire atmosphere of Russian spiritual life - both before and after the revolution.

This is how his biographer Leonid Sabaneev described Scriabin’s performing style: “As I remember, he entered the stage nervous and small, but always with a victorious look... Sitting at the instrument, he looked up and forward, often closing his eyes, and his face expressed languor and pleasure at these moments. He sat very straight at the piano, never leaning towards the keyboard... but, on the contrary, often leaning back. At moments he... seemed to be choking from inner emotion... Scriabin's intimate, gentle and seductive sound was indescribable. He mastered this huge secret of sound to perfection... He touched the keys as if with kisses, and his virtuoso pedal enveloped these sounds in layers of some strange echoes that no other pianist could reproduce. In strong places he was amazingly nervous, and this nervousness acted like an electric current...”

Scriabin's entire short life (he died at the age of 43) is filled with paradoxes and mysterious coincidences. This was a man who lived not in the earthly, but in some other, cosmic dimension, from the breed of those about whom they say: a man is not of this world. Although his origin and upbringing were more than prosaic for Russia of that era.

He was born in Moscow on January 6, 1872 in the family of a diplomat. His mother, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, died when the boy was just over a year old. He was taken in by his own aunt Lyubov Aleksandrovna Scryabina, who gave him his first music lessons. She recalled that already from infancy he was drawn to the sounds of the piano. And at the age of three he was already sitting for hours at the instrument. The boy treated the piano as a living creature. He made them himself as a child - small toy pianos...

When the boy was ten years old, he family tradition sent to the Moscow cadet corps in Lefortovo. A special atmosphere always developed around Alexander Nikolaevich, a cult of veneration arose, especially among people close to him. In the cadet corps, Scriabin was released from special military disciplines, noticing his extraordinary musical talent. And even his rude and pugnacious comrades, the cadets, took a liking to him after the corps celebration, in which he played the piano.

Then, in parallel, his regular music lessons in the class of the famous teacher of the Moscow Conservatory N.S. Zverev, with whom Seryozha Rachmaninov was already studying at that time. These two boys will become the glory of Russian music, although fans of their work will separate the composers on opposite sides of the barricade, calling Rachmaninov an archaic and traditionalist, and Scriabin an innovator, a discoverer of new paths.

He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in piano in 1892 with a gold medal, it would seem that he inherited the best traditions Moscow composer school. But how daring he was in his creative impulses, how unpredictable, how brave! For the first time, he managed to embody in his creations the scale of cosmism, tragedy and sublime impulses of human hearts.

Scriabin began composing music early - at the age of seven he wrote his first opera, calling it after the girl with whom he was then in love. In his early youth, his favorite composer was Chopin, and later Beethoven. He studied the art of composition with S.I. Taneyev, and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 in piano, receiving a small gold medal.

At the age of 19 he experienced a great feeling of love. His chosen one was fifteen-year-old Natasha Sekerina. He was refused his proposal, but the feeling he felt for her remained with him for the rest of his life and never happened again.

Scriabin begins to tour early and successfully. First trip abroad - Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, Genoa. Then Paris.

Reviewers, as well as the public, are favorable to him. Columnist for the French newspaper Free Criticism E. Georges wrote: “The Russian composer Scriabin... for two hours kept... a select audience under the spell of his playing.”. And the German critic A. Aber, having heard the “Poem of Ecstasy,” argued: “This work puts Scriabin among the greatest symphonists known in the history of music”.

General recognition did not come immediately. The expression of his thoughts, his worldview turned out to be so daring, so innovative and unconventional that it caused a wave of protests among many listeners and colleagues.

Thus, the famous composer Sergei Taneyev, according to the recollections of L. Tolstoy’s son Sergei, who once sat next to him at a concert, after the chords of “Prometheus” died down, anticipating the upcoming joy, exclaimed: “Now the music begins!” And another time, after listening to Scriabin’s piano miniatures, he said: “It feels like I was beaten all over with sticks”. Alas, such statements were not alone. The famous Russian composer A. Arensky, after listening to the 2nd symphony of A. Scriabin, sarcastically wrote in a letter to Taneyev that, in his opinion, instead of the word “symphony” in the poster it would be necessary to write “cacophony”.

Scriabin writes a lot, and his works immediately enter the repertoire of other pianists. In 1897, his famous Second Sonata (there will be 10 in total) and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra were completed. In the same year, he married V.I. Isakovich, a brilliant pianist, also a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. They have known each other for a long time, they have common interests, but the marriage will be unsuccessful and will end in divorce after seven years.

In the memories of Scriabin, there is an episode when he lived with his second wife (they were not officially married), Tatyana Fedorovna Shletser, in 1905-1906 in the Italian town of Bogliasco. More than once, on walks around the area, he was accompanied by the Russian philosopher G. V. Plekhanov, who found himself in exile, and a propagandist of Marxism. At that time Scriabin wrote his “Poem of Ecstasy” and his faith in limitless possibilities the human creator has reached extreme forms. On one of his walks, passing over a high bridge over a dry stone riverbed, Scriabin suddenly announced to his companion: “I can throw myself off this bridge and not fall headfirst on the stones, but hang in the air thanks to the power of will...”. The philosopher listened carefully to Scriabin and calmly said: “Try it, Alexander Nikolaevich...” Scriabin did not dare to try.

Scriabin composes a lot, it is published and performed, but still he lives on the verge of poverty, and the desire to improve his material affairs again and again drives him around cities and towns. Tours in the USA, Paris, Brussels. “The Poem of Ecstasy” triumphantly marches through European capitals, and Scriabin is already in a fever new job- he writes his “Prometheus” (“Poem of Fire”, 1910).

"Prometheus" is considered centrally of all Scriabin's music - after all, this titan, who, for reasons that are not entirely clear, stole fire from the gods from Olympus and gave it to people, was so similar to Scriabin's creator. To perform his musical extravaganza, the composer needed to expand the orchestra, include a choir, a piano, and also introduce a line of notes into the score that indicated the color accompaniment, for which he invented a special keyboard... This was the first time in the history of music, although there was some, albeit conditional, connection musical sound and the colors were established by the ancient Greeks.

Premiere of the new symphonic work became the main event of Russian musical life. This happened on March 9, 1911 in St. Petersburg in the hall of the Noble Assembly, the same one that now belongs to the St. Petersburg State Philharmonic. The famous Koussevitzky conducted. The author himself was at the piano.

It was a huge success. A week later, “Prometheus” was repeated in Moscow, and then sounded in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and New York.

Light music - that was the name of Scriabin's invention - fascinated many at that time; new light-projection devices were designed here and there, promising new horizons for synthetic sound-color art. However, these days, the color accompaniment of music is such a common phenomenon that no one pays attention to it anymore. Moreover, as it turned out, pop songs and dances in the “disco” style are best combined with color, and even with smoke.

But even at that time, many were skeptical about Scriabin’s innovations - the same Rachmaninov, who once, while examining “Prometheus” at the piano in Scriabin’s presence, asked, not without irony, what color it was. Scriabin was offended...

This fragile, short man, who harbored titanic plans and was distinguished by his extraordinary capacity for work, possessed, despite a certain arrogance, a rare charm that attracted people to him. His simplicity, childlike spontaneity, and the open trustfulness of his soul were captivating. He also had his own little eccentricities - for many years he stroked the tip of his nose with his fingers, believing that in this way he would get rid of his snub nose, he was suspicious, he was afraid of all sorts of infections and did not go out into the street without gloves, did not take money in his hands, during tea drinking he warned not to pick up a drying rack from the tablecloth that had fallen from the plate - on there could be germs on the tablecloth...

It seems that none of the contemporary composers interested him. Of those who came before him, he named only two or three names. He unobtrusively imagined himself as a messiah, believing that his main work was ahead. Under the impression of the still undeciphered philosophy of H. P. Blavatsky, which then captured the imagination of many, he wrote a certain “Mystery” in which all humanity was supposed to take part. In seven days, the period during which God created the earthly world, as a result of this action, people were supposed to be reincarnated into some new joyful essence, attached to eternal beauty. Scriabin dreamed of a new synthetic genre, where not only sounds and colors would merge, but also smells and the plasticity of dance. “But how terribly great the work is, how terribly great it is!”- he exclaimed with concern. Perhaps he was standing on a threshold that no one had ever been able to cross...

It is also strange that the seemingly composed “Mystery” was never written down. Only musical excerpts from the so-called “Preliminary Act” to the “Mystery” have survived.

A trifle, an abscess on the upper lip, an infection that Scriabin was so afraid of. Strange death, as a punishment for pride, for trying to surpass the Creator. Didn't he remember how the gods of Olympus treated Prometheus?

He was forty-three years old. The entire Russian and world musical community responded to the death of the great composer. Vyacheslav Ivanov wrote:

Music was orphaned. And with her
Poetry, sister, is orphaned.
The magical flower is extinguished, at the limit
Their adjacent kingdoms, and the night fell darker...

Today our hearing is oriented completely differently than in the era of Scriabin. We are no longer “poisoned” by his music as before. All the more naive and distant for us is Scriabin’s musical philosophy, which received a strong resonance after his death. But wonderful creativity Scriabin has not disappeared from our horizon at all; his music continues to be heard all over the world.

Any great creativity always has one distinguishing feature: it is possible in each subsequent era to interpret it completely differently than before. For example, we hear Bach now absolutely differently than in the time of Bach himself, and even Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, who were closer to us in time, are interpreted in a new way, characteristic of our era. Such is Scriabin, whose future performers will certainly open up completely new horizons in his great works, which the composer himself did not know about when he composed them.

Scriabin's music became an expression of the aspirations of the “Silver Age” of Russian culture for renewal and freedom.

On the poster: bust of Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin by Alexey Leonov, 2008.

Coursework on the topic:

“The Silver Age and the creativity of A.N. Scriabin"

Introduction

1. Silver age of Russian culture

1.1 Silver Age

1.2 Music of the Silver Age

2. A.A. Blok and A.N. Scriabin - great creators of the Silver Age

2.1 A.A. Blok is a symbolist

2.2 Creativity of A.N. Scriabin

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

The Silver Age in Russian culture is not only modern painting and architecture, not only symbolist theater, which embodied the idea of a synthesis of arts, when artists and composers worked together with directors and actors to stage the play. This is the literature of symbolism, and especially poetry, which entered the history of world literature under the name “poetry of the Silver Age.” Making a poem out of your life was a super task that the heroes of the Silver Age set for themselves. Thus, the symbolists, first of all, did not want to separate the writer from the person, literary biography from personal biography. Symbolism did not want to be only a literary movement, but strived to become a vitally creative method. It was a series of attempts to find an impeccably true fusion of life and creativity, a kind of philosopher's stone of art.

Degree of scientific development: Considered by others.

Object: creativity of A.N. Scriabin.

Item: connection between music and literature of the Silver Age.

Target: studying the relationship between music and poetry of the Silver Age.

Tasks: study and analysis of music and literature on the subject.

Structure: introduction, 2 chapters, conclusion, list of references, appendix.

1. Silver age of Russian culture

1.1 Silver Age

The Silver Age is a period of flourishing of spiritual culture: literature, philosophy, music, theater and fine arts. It has been going on since the 90s. XIX century until the end of the 20s. XX century At this stage of history, spiritual development in Russia took place on the basis of the relationship between the individual and collective principles. Initially, the individual principle was predominant; next to it, the collective principle existed, relegated to the background. After the October Revolution the situation changed. The collective principle became the main one, and the individual principle began to exist in parallel with it.

The beginning of the Silver Age was laid by the Symbolists, a small group of writers who carried out at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. "aesthetic revolution" Symbolists in the 90s of the XIX century. came up with the idea to reassess all values. It was based on the problem of the relationship between individual and collective principles in public life and in art. This problem was not new. It arose immediately after the abolition of serfdom and the Great Reforms, when civil society began to actively form. The populists were among the first to try to solve it. Considering the collective principle as the determining one, they subordinated the individual principle to it, the personality to society. A person had value only if he brought benefit to the team. The populists considered social and political activity to be the most effective. In it, a person had to reveal himself. The strengthening in society of the populist approach to man and his activities, which occurred in the 60s - 80s of the 19th century, led to the fact that literature, philosophy and art began to be looked at as a secondary phenomenon, less necessary compared to political activities. The Symbolists directed their “aesthetic revolution” against the populists and their ideology.

Symbolists: both senior (V.Ya. Bryusov, F.K. Sologub, Z.N. Gippius, etc.) and younger (A. Bely, A.A. Blok, V.V. Gippius, etc.) asserted the individual principle as the main one. They redefined the relationship between the individual and the collective. The symbolists took man beyond the boundaries of society and began to consider him as an independent entity, equal in importance to society and God. They determined the value of an individual by the wealth and beauty of his inner world. Human thoughts and feelings were turned into objects of study. They became the basis of creativity. The inner world of a person was considered as the result of his spiritual development.

Along with the affirmation of the individual principle, the symbolists and writers close to them (A.L. Volynsky, V.V. Rozanov, A.N. Benois, etc.) were engaged in the formation of the aesthetic taste of the public. In their works they opened up the world of Russian and Western European literature to the reader and introduced them to the masterpieces of world art. The artistic works of the Symbolists, which touched on previously forbidden themes: individualism, immoralism, eroticism, demonism, provoked the public, forced them to pay attention not only to politics, but also to art, to a person with his feelings, passions, the light and dark sides of his soul . Under the influence of the Symbolists, society's attitude towards spiritual activity changed.

Following the Symbolists, the Acmeists continued to affirm the individual principle in art and public life.

Supporters of Acmeism (M. Kuzmin, N. Gumilyov, G. Ivanov, etc.), a literary movement that arose in the 10s of the twentieth century, treated personality as a given, which requires not formation and approval, but disclosure. Religious quests and the desire to transform society were alien to them. They felt the world was beautiful and wanted to portray it that way in their works.

In the 10s of the twentieth century. Together with Acmeism, another literary movement arose - futurism. Associated with its development is the re-affirmation of the collective principle in art and public life. Futurists (V.V. Mayakovsky, D. Burlyuk, A. Kruchenykh, etc.) abandoned man as an object of study and an independent value. They saw him only as a completely faceless piece of society. Cars, machine tools, and airplanes were turned into objects. Having declared themselves the creators of true works of art, the futurists carried out their reassessment of values. They completely rejected the achievements of the old culture and proposed throwing them off the “steamboat of modernity.” Religion was rejected as a basic element of the old culture. The futurists intended to build a new culture “without morality and devilry.”

The emergence of a trend in culture that actively affirms the collective principle coincided with the breakdown of the socio-political system in Russia. The First World War and its consequences: famine, anarchy, political unrest led to two revolutions. During the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks came to power and proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat in the country. In the minds of many people, political change has been combined with cultural innovation. It was especially difficult for those who had been fighting the collective principle for many years. They encountered him again in art and politics. It seemed to them that everything they had created through hard work was destroyed in an instant, that the end had come not only to the old political regime, but also to culture. The old cultural leaders, convinced that art “grows from the spiritual depths of man,” had a negative attitude towards the avant-garde. They didn't consider it art. A negative attitude towards the avant-garde was strengthened in the minds of old cultural figures after many futurists declared their support for the new government, and the Bolsheviks, in turn, recognized futurism as an art. The attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the avant-garde was twofold. The new government gave credit to the avant-garde artists for the fight against “decadent” bourgeois culture, but could not accept the retreat to pointlessness and abstruseness. She relied on art, “which is clear and understandable to everyone.” Orientation towards the masses was one of the main cultural guidelines of the Bolsheviks. But the installation was vague and had no specific content.

The cultural policy of the Bolsheviks in the 20s was just beginning to take shape. There were still no cultural management bodies, there were no myths about Lenin, the revolution and the party - the structuring element of Soviet culture, covering all aspects of public and private life. All this appeared later. In the 1920s, party ideologists made general guidelines for eliminating illiteracy and raising the cultural level of the masses. Ideologists argued for the need to combine art with production and anti-religious propaganda. But they did not have a common view on what kind of culture the class in power needed to build. He appeared later, in the thirties. All this contributed to the emergence of disputes about the ways of cultural development. Representatives of the new government (L.D. Trotsky, A.V. Lunacharsky, etc.) and writers, artists, and theater figures who sympathized with them took part in them. They declared the need to build a culture that would meet the tastes and needs of the entire society and each individual person in it. Representatives of the old traditional culture also took part in the debate, wishing to proceed from an individual basis in the construction of art and social life. Disputes about the ways of cultural development ceased in the thirties, when there was a powerful strengthening of Soviet power and the degree of its influence on society increased.

The aesthetics of the Silver Age of Russian culture, in the totality of its very different, often diametrically opposed directions, movements, and bright author’s discoveries, summed up many of the quests of classical aesthetic thought, especially in identifying the metaphysical essence of the aesthetic and artistry of art. Along with this, many thinkers, writers, artists, art theorists of that time, in the atmosphere of the crisis of culture and art that they well felt, more or less unanimously came to the conclusion about the need to significantly expand the sphere of aesthetic experience beyond the framework that limited it in classical aesthetics. They realized that art in its new European understanding of autonomous “fine art” is completing its existence, and the artist must go beyond its limits into real life and there actively work according to aesthetic laws to transform it. Today it is obvious that the aesthetics of the Silver Age is the aesthetics of great utopias, mannerist aestheticism, bold and radical experiments and serious discoveries. Aesthetic experience and aesthetic theories of that time stand at the origins of many modern radical processes in the field of artistic practice and mark the stage of formation of non-classical and post-non-classical aesthetics, which actively reach an explicit level at the beginning of the new millennium.

1.2 Music of the Silver Age

The atmosphere of revolutionary upsurge with its sharp contrasts, tense anticipation of change brings to life images of spring awakening and heroic aspiration to the future, violent protest and affirmation of human will. They sound especially strong in the music of Scriabin and Rachmaninov. A direct response to the revolution of 1905 was the creation of orchestral plays on the themes of Russian revolutionary songs - “Dubinushka” (Rimsky-Korsakov) and “Hey, Let's Whoop!” (Glazunov).

2. A.A. Blok and A.N. Scriabin - great creators of the Silver Age

2.1 A.A. Blok is a symbolist

Blok is an outstanding phenomenon in Russian poetry. This is one of the most remarkable symbolist poets. He never retreated from symbolism: neither in his youthful poems, full of fog and dreams, nor in more mature works. The literary heritage of Alexander Blok is extensive and diverse. It has become a part of our culture and life, helping to understand the origins of spiritual quests and understand the past.

Alexander Blok (Alexander Aleksandrovich Blok, November 28, 1880 – August 7, 1921), was perhaps the most gifted lyric poet born in Russia since Alexander Pushkin. Blok was born in St. Petersburg, into an intellectual family. Several of his relatives were writers; his father was a professor of law in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather was the rector of St. Petersburg State University. After his parents' divorce, Blok lived with aristocratic relatives on the Shakhmatovo estate near Moscow, where he learned the philosophy of his uncle Vladimir Solovyov, and the poems of the then unknown 19th century poets, Fyodor Tyutchev and Afanasy Fet. These influences were reflected in his early work, later collected in the book Ante Lucem.

During the later period of his life, Blok concentrated primarily on political themes, pondering the messianic destiny of his country (Retribution, 1910–21; Rodina, 1907–16; Scythians, 1918). Under the influence of Solovyov's doctrines, he was full of vague apocalyptic forebodings and often fluctuated between hope and despair. "I feel that an important event has happened, but what it was has not exactly been shown to me," he wrote in his diary during the summer of 1917. Quite unexpectedly for most of his fans, he accepted the October Revolution as the final solution to this apocalyptic melancholy.

Alexander Blok, one of the most important poets of the century, envisioned his poetic output in three volumes. The first volume contains his early poems on the Fair Lady; its dominant color is white. The second volume, dominated by the color blue, comments on the impossibility of achieving the ideal he craved. The third volume, showing his poems from the pre-revolutionary years, is immersed in fiery or bloody red.

Blok considered himself an anti-humanist. He was ready to welcome the death of civilization if it would help liberate a living human soul or a living natural element. Based on the teachings of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, Blok identifies the free element with music, which permeates all worlds. He considered music the center of culture, its soul. The poet was convinced that many achievements of civilization only limit the freedom of the elements, lock it into tight boundaries, and reduce it to nothing. The element of music disappears from civilized countries, and reality there is deprived of its miracle, turning into an accumulation of objects created for the convenience of people.

2.2 Creativity of A.N. Scriabin

Skryabin A.N. - Russian composer and pianist. The composer's father Nikolai Alexandrovich was a diplomat in Turkey; mother Lyubov Petrovna was an outstanding pianist. Pampered, impressionable, sickly Scriabin, from childhood, showed persistence in carrying out any business. Scriabin's musical talent was discovered very early: in his fifth year, he easily reproduced the music he heard on the piano and improvised; at the age of 8 he tried to compose his own opera (“Lisa”), imitating classical models. According to family tradition, at the age of 11 he entered the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps, where already in the first year of study, he performed in concert as a pianist. His piano teachers were initially T.E. Konyus, then N.S. Zverev, in whose musical boarding school S.V. was brought up at the same time. Rachmaninov, L.A. Maksimov, M.L. Presman and F.F. Keneman. Scriabin took private lessons in musical and theoretical subjects and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a gold medal in piano: from V.I. Sofonova, S.I. Taneyev and A.S. Arensky. Scriabin did not have a good relationship with Arensky, and he stopped studying, refusing a diploma in composition. In 1898–1903 he taught a piano class at the Moscow Conservatory. Among the students are M.S. Nemenova – Lunts, E.A. Beckman - Shcherbina.

Skryabin A.N. was an outstanding pianist, concentrated all his life, but already in his young years his artistic interests focused almost exclusively on the interpretation of his own compositions. Spirituality, romantic elation, subtle - a sense of expressiveness of details - all these and other features of Scriabin's performing art corresponded to the spirit of his music.

Having written a lot since the 2nd half of the 80s, Scriabin relatively quickly went through the stage of imitation and searching for his own path. Some of his first creative experiences testify to his early aspirations and tastes. By the beginning of the 90s. include the first editions and performances of his piano pieces. They bring success to the author. A number of prominent composers and musical figures, in particular V.V. Stasov, A.K. Lyadov, become his adherents. The support provided to him by the famous philanthropist M.P. played a big role in the life of young Scriabin. Belyaev.

Creativity of A.N. Scriabin first period (late 80s-90s)– a world of subtly inspired lyricism, sometimes restrained, concentrated, graceful (php. preludes, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes), sometimes impetuous, wildly dramatic (php. etude dis – moll, op. 8, no. 12; php. prelude es – moll, op. 11, no. 14, etc.). In these works, Scriabin is still very close to the atmosphere of romantic music of the 19th century, primarily to F. Chopin, who he loved from childhood, and later to F. Liszt. The influences of R. Wagner are obvious in the symphonic work. Scriabin’s work is also closely connected with the traditions of Russian music, especially with P.I. Tchaikovsky. The works of Scriabin of the first period are in many ways related to the works of Rachmaninoff. But already in Scriabin’s early works his individuality is felt to one degree or another. A special impulsiveness and capricious variability are noticeable in the intonations and rhythms, pleasantness in the harmonies, a constant “flickering” of dissonances, and throughout the fabric there is lightness, transparency with great internal saturation. Scriabin early showed a penchant for ideological generalizations and for translating impressions into concepts. This is what attracted him to large forms. Sonatas for piano, later symphonies and symphonic poems become the main milestones of his creative path.

In sonata No. 1 (1892) there is a comparison, characteristic of romantic art, of the world of free, unconstrained feelings (1st, 3rd movements) and the feeling of harsh inevitability (2nd movement, mournful finale). The two-movement sonata - fantasy (No. 2, 1892 - 97), inspired by pictures of the sea, is deeply lyrical: the feeling, initially restrained, but already disturbed (1st movement), becomes stormy romantic excitement, boundless like the sea element (2nd movement) . The author described Sonata No. 3 (1897–98) as a “state of mind.” In it, at one pole there is drama, developing into heroism, into the daring of a strong will, at the other - the refinement of the soul, its gentle languor, affectionate playfulness (2nd, 3rd parts). In the coda of the finale, the hymnically transformed theme of the 3rd part appears, according to the author’s commentary, “from the depths of existence rises the formidable voice of a man - the creator, whose victorious singing sounds triumphant.” New in its ideological scale and power of expression, the 3rd sonata marked the pinnacle of Scriabin’s quest in the early period of his creativity and, at the same time, the beginning of the next stage in his development.

In the works of the second period (late 90s of the 19th century - early 1900s) Scriabin gravitated toward concepts that were not only broad, but also universal, going beyond the scope of lyrical expression. The role of moral and philosophical ideas, the search for the highest meaning and pathos of existence is increasing. To create a work means to instill in people some important truths, ultimately leading to universal beneficial changes - this is Scriabin’s ideological and artistic position that was finally formed at this time. The six-movement Symphony No. 1 (1899–1900) embodies the idea of the transformative power of art. The changing moods of a romantically restless soul (2nd - 5th parts) are opposed by the image of sublime, all-reconciling beauty (1st, 6th parts). The finale is a solemn dithyramb to art - a “magical gift” that brings people “consolation”, giving birth, in the composer’s words, to “a boundless ocean of feelings.” About the final chorus, written in the spirit of the oratorio classics of the 18th century, the composer said: “I wrote it like that on purpose, because I wanted it to be something simple, popular.” The optimistic finale of the 1st symphony became the beginning of a bright utopian romanticism, which colored all of Scriabin’s subsequent work.

In the 2nd symphony (1901), heroic elements are strengthened. The thread of the “plot” is stretched from the harsh and mournful andante through a daring impulse (2nd part), intoxication with dream and passion (3rd part) through the menacingly raging elements (4th part) to the affirmation of unshakable human power (5th part) Part). The organic nature of the finale is emphasized by the stylistic connection with the entire cycle. But later, assessing this finale, the composer wrote: “I needed to give light here... Light and joy... Instead of light, there was some kind of compulsion..., pomp... I only found light later.” He wanted to embody the feeling associated with the triumph of man as light and playful as a fantastic dance; He thought of joy not as the bliss of peace, but as extreme excitement, ecstasy.

The composer first achieved his desired goal in symphony No. 3 (“Divine Poem”, 1903–04). The threads of the composer’s entire previous evolution are drawn to this work. Here Scriabin’s philosophical program is formulated much more fully and consistently, the musical and figurative content is clarified, and his individual style is vividly embodied. For contemporaries, Scriabin's 3rd symphony, more than any other previous work, was the “discovery of Scriabin.” The 3rd symphony, according to the composer, is a kind of “biography of the spirit”, which, through overcoming everything material and sensual, comes to a certain higher freedom (“divine game”). The 1st part (“Struggle”) opens with a slow introduction, where the stern and imperious motive of “self-affirmation” runs through. What follows is an allegro drama with contrasts of dark - strong-willed and dreamy - light moods. Characteristically, with purely Scriabin-like ease of movement, in a certain sense anticipating the finale. The 2nd, slow, part (“Pleasures”) is the world of “earthly”, sensual lyrics, where the sounds and aromas of nature respond to the yearning of the soul. The finale (“The Divine Game”) is a kind of “heroic scherzo”. In contrast to the rather heavy - solemn finales of the previous symphony, here is an image of an intoxicatingly joyful dance or free “game”, however, filled with strong-willed activity and rapid energy.

The php is close to the “Divine Poem”. Sonata No. 4 (1901–03). Its entire “plot” is the process of the gradual birth of the same feeling of joy that is embodied in the finale of symphony No. 3. In the beginning - the flickering light of a star; it is still “lost in a light and transparent fog,” but already reveals the radiance of “another world.” Then (2nd final part) – an act of release, a flight towards the light, an immensely growing jubilation. The very special atmosphere of this Prestissimo volando is created by its entirely excited rhythmic pulsation, flickering light “flight” movements, transparent and at the same time extremely dynamic harmony. The works created by Scriabin at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries are addressed to both the past and the future; Thus, in the 3rd symphony, the 1st and 2nd movements still remain in line with the “real” lyrical-dramatic images inherited from the 19th century, but in the finale there is a breakthrough to the new.

Third creative period (1904–1910) characterized by the final crystallization of Scriabin's novel-utopian concept. He subordinates all his activities to the creation of an imaginary “Mystery”, the purpose of which goes far beyond the boundaries of art. The peculiarity of the third period is also in the radical form of the style, completely determined by new artistic tasks. In these years, persistent concepts. Freed from all the responsibilities that burdened him, while abroad, Scriabin intensively studied philosophical literature - the works of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and the works of the Second Philosophical Congress. He was interested in the concept of “universum”, the meaning of the “absolute” in subjective consciousness, otherwise, together with some idealist philosophers, he was inclined to understand it as the “divine” in man and in the world. Scriabin's desire for an all-encompassing formula of existence made Schelling's doctrine of the “world soul” especially attractive to him. At the same time, in his philosophical quests, Scriabin remained, first of all, an artist. The holistic sense of existence, which strengthened his faith in man, in the victoriousness of efforts on the path to the ideal, was broader than those theoretical concepts with the help of which he tried to solve the problems that worried him and build his artistic “model of the world.” In essence, Scriabin was impressed by everything in which he felt the spirit of freedom, the awakening of new forces, where he saw movement towards the highest flowering of personality. Philosophical reading, conversations and debates were for Scriabin a process of arousal of thought; he was drawn to them by that once unsatisfied thirst for universal, radical truth about the world and man, with which the ethical nature of his art is inextricably linked. Philosophy, in addition, provided him with much-needed material for generalized poetic metaphors. Scriabin, being carried away by mystical philosophy, at the same time became acquainted with Marxist literature, which is why the meeting with G.V. became so interesting for him. Plekhanov (1906). “When I met him in Bogliasco,” recalls Plekhanov, “he was not at all familiar with the materialist view of K. Marx and F. Engels. I drew his attention to the important philosophical significance of this view. A few months later, having met him in Switzerland, I saw that he, far from becoming a supporter of historical materialism, managed to understand its essence so well that he could operate with this teaching better than many “die-hard” Marxists.” Plekhanov said about Scriabin: “His music is of a grandiose scope. This music is a reflection of our revolutionary era in the temperament and worldview of an idealistic mystic.” The mystic’s worldview determined some very vulnerable features of Scriabin’s work - the utopianism of his concept, extreme subjectivism, which left its mark on many of his works, especially his later ones.

One of the main works of the third period of Scriabin’s work is the unambiguous “Poem of Ecstasy” (1905–1907). Developed in detail and presented in verse, the program for this work was published by the composer in the form of a separate brochure. The content of the text is close to the program of the 3rd symphony. In music, the poetic concept is interpreted more concisely with a clear emphasis on bright, optimistic elements of the plot. The four large sections of the poem, which is written in a freely interpreted sonata form, represent a fourfold comparison of two thematic groups - images of dreams and active action. The creative obsession of the soul, dreaming and enchanted, more and more persistently breaks through to action and to the final triumph of “free will.” In the code of the poem, the development of the heroic themes of “will” and “self-affirmation” creates a mood of extraordinary power - the apotheosis of romantic festivity. Fp. sonata No. 5 (1907) combines some characteristic images of the 4th sonata and the “Poem of Ecstasy”. But the theme of the introduction has already touched upon the sphere of the symphonic poem “Prometheus”: the disturbing and mysterious power of the “dark depths” where the “embryos of life” lurk. To the "Poem of Ecstasy" and