The Russian Musical Art of the Early XX Century: Paganism
Demchenko Aleksandr Ivanovich
International Center of Complex Artistic Research, Saratov State Conservatory
Submitted: 05.11.2022
Abstract. The essay presents the origins and features of the development of such a direction in the musical art of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century as “paganism”. The article consistently reveals the issues of the origin of “pagan” imagery, starting with the opera work of M. Glinka (“Ruslan and Lyudmila” (1842)) and A. Borodin (“Prince Igor” (1887)) to its culmination in the works of I. Stravinsky (“The Rite of Spring” (1913)) and S. Prokofiev (Second Symphony (1924)). Particular attention is paid to the consideration of the “pagan” style in general and its fundamental features - manifestations of the primitiveness spirit, “barbarian” beginning (including Fauvist tendencies), “Scythianism”. The influence of the key events of the beginning of the 20th century on the development of the “pagan” direction - the First World War, the Revolution of 1917 is traced. Finally, the final stage that “paganism” passed in the 1920s is described. As a result, the author comes to the following conclusions: despite its short duration, the presence of costs and extremes (aggressiveness, destructive elements, orgiastic pressure up to vandalistic frenzy), the “pagan” direction has become a unique acquisition of Russian music, a genuine discovery in sphere of folk-national themes, reflecting an exceptionally powerful surge of human will and energy, an extremely temperamental expression of hidden forces and aspirations rising to the surface of life.
Key words and phrases: язычество, языческая образность, варварство, скифство, И. Стравинский, С. Прокофьев, paganism, pagan imagery, barbarism, Scythianism, I. Stravinsky, S. Prokofiev
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