AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Are the concepts of “permanent revolution” and “socialism in one country” described by their works, inventions and work places of the avant-garde composers of this period?

AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S.Alexandra Martin AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Are the concepts of “permanent revolution” and “socialism in one country” described by their works, inventions and work places of the avant-garde composers of this period? Throughout the 1920's the concurrent threads of Stalin's theory of ‘Socialism in one Country’ teamed with the momentum injected by his NEP, [New Economic Policy] Trotsky's theory of ‘Permanent Revolution’ and the biases of the newly formed music associations such as the ASM [Association of Contemporary Musicians] and the ARPM [the Association of Proletarian Musicians] coalesced to fuel the required level of ideological tension, in both the new audiences being generated from the mass (workers and Proletariat) education of the illiterate and the poor (as promoted musically by the ARPM) the composers of this era creating opportunities for both ‘art’ and nationalist composers to express themselves both at home and internationally (as promoted by the ASM & IASM) Associations such as the ASM and the ARPM allowed for direct communication and confrontation between musical communities and prepared the ground for an expansive and progressive musical community of and wholly representative of this dramatic era. Although short lived these forces were mirrored in the lives, compositions and inventions of these composers of the USSR. I have chosen to examine just four composers representative of avantgarde Soviet music during this this era and to describe the surrounding forces that influenced and impacted upon where, how and on what they created. These composers are generally regarded as avant-garde although they worked in a variety of genres. According to Richard Taruskin avant-garde (music) is a ‘military’ term for implied ‘belligerence’ and ‘countercultural hostility’. He also refers to ‘antagonism to existing institutions and traditions’.1 Contrastingly, Jonathon D Kramer in his foreword to Larry Sitskys' Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Bio-critical Sourcebook’ describes the avant-garde (music) aesthetic a little more neutrally, ‘avant-garde music is necessarily political, social, and cultural, since avant-gardism challenges social and artistic values’.2 Both writers appear to be in agreement that the function of avant-garde music is to challenge the status quo and offer 1 2 Richard Taruskin, Defining Russia Musically (1997 Princeton University Press) 86 Jonathon D Kramer, Larry Sitsky, Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Bio-critical Sourcebook (Greenwood Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002) xi 1 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin alternative fodder on which all may artistically and idealistically graze. This statement can be viewed as consonant with regard to the avant-garde composers of the newly formed USSR during the 1920’s, in view of the revolutionary and political climate enforced by the Soviet Union agenda of this period. After Lenin’s death in 1924 the USSR’s bid to free itself of imperialism and the bourgeoisie was to be executed by means of two theoretical methodologies. These were firstly Trotsky’s Marxist ‘pre- 1917 theory of ‘Permanent Revolution’. 3 (As outlined by the right wing worker’s party the Mensheviks. Trotsky was later expelled from the party and departed in 1930 leaving Stalin in power) ‘Permanent Revolution’ was conceived as a two level strategy to be executed initially at the national level and then implemented by general revolution internationally. This theory was to later work along-side the Stalinist theory of ‘Socialism in One Country’ ‘Socialism in One Country’ focused solely on industrialisation within the Soviet Union. ‘Socialism in one country’ was a means to the development of patriotism within the USSR and was also ‘heretical to traditional Marxism’ as its’ premise put forward that a Socialist revolution could be brought about in feudalist society directly without the necessity of a ‘bourgeois revolution’.4 Olga Velikanova suggests the 1920’s concept of ‘Soviet Internationalism’ was based on the international ‘uprisings, strikes and revolutions’ such as the British general strike of (1926) The Chinese Revolution (1911), European disturbances and the on-going troubles of Bulgaria, Germany and Hungary. According to Velikanova, ‘the Bolsheviks gambled on world revolution’5. She asserts that ‘clearly a world picture was at work in the minds of the peoples of the USSR’.6 Lenin wanted to create a Russian-influenced, unified socialist federal state, with a single, unified nation with a national and cultural identity. To realize Lenin’s mission it was necessary to have a state funded, unilateral, socialist education policy across the entire USSR. This new ideology ran concurrently with the NEP (The New Economic Policy) as masterminded by Lenin in 19217. The introduction of Lenin’s ‘NEP’ and the concepts of ‘Permanent Revolution’ and ‘Socialism in One Country,’ the USSR entered an internal and external journey of cultural and educational growth. According to Anna Ferenc ‘music thrived under (Lenin’s) NEP’ due to a reduction of 3Doug Lorimer, Trotsky’s Theory of Permanent Revolution: A Leninist Critique: (Resistance Books, 1998) 6 4 Mevius, Martin. Agents of Moscow: The Hungarian Communist Party and The Origins of Socialist Patriotism 1941-1953 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005.) 21 5 Velikanova,Olga. Popular Perceptions of soviet Politics in the 1920’s: Disenchantment of the Dreamers (Palgrave McMillan 2013) 56 6Marina Frolova-Walker, Russian Music and Nationalism from Glinka to Stalin ( Yale University Press 2007) 302 7 Boris Schwarz, Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 (University of Chicago Press 1972) 43 2 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin ‘revolutionary militancy’, ‘relaxation of ideological tensions’, and ‘greater permissive in matters of musical taste and style’.8 In the 1920’s ‘music too received its’ Soviet stamp under the NEP’. Soviet musicology was also established at this time by Boris Asafyev in 1921. Asafyev also in charge of the music division of the Moscow academy for Arts Sciences. There was no change concerning the management of conservatiores. According to Maes they ‘remained in the hands of the traditionalists’. (Glazunov in St Petersburg until 1928, Maximillian Stienberg in Leningrad, Nikolai Myaskovsky in Mosow.) 9 According to Boris Swartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 The Leninist Revolution nurtured musical development and ‘experimentation’ through associations such as the ASM [Association for Contemporary Music]. (Especially in ‘Petrograd and Moscow during the 1920’s’ 10 ) Associations such as the ASM and the IASM [International Association for Contemporary Music] were essential to the international development some Russian composers sought and in accord with the aims and views of ‘Permanent Revolution’. Swartz describes the rivalry and hostility between the ACM and the RAPM [Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians] who embodied the nationalist elements of the ‘Socialism in One Country’ ideology. He writes that the constant hostility between these two opposing parties caused detriment to ‘young composers’.11 The RAPM, derived from the ‘Proletkult’ (Proletarian Cultural and Eductional Organisation) to ‘destroy bourgeois culture and to create a new culture aimed at the working classes’.12 (Lenin dissolved the PCEO in 1920. The association re-emerged in 1923 affiliated to the RAPM.) The RAPM were enthusiastic about the music of Musorsky as a composer of ‘dramas of the people’.13 The ASM tended towards the ‘modernist and internationalist’ perspective such as Hindemith, Krenek, Les Six. Although there were apparent extremes of view between the ASM and the RAPM they mutually agreed, in the view of Marina Frolova-Walker who writes that the ‘Kuchka’ were to be rejected due to their bourgeois tendencies and their inherent ‘provincialism’. 14 The formation of the ASM (by Miaskovsky, Belayev, Sabaneyev and Paul Lamm and was 8Anna Ferenc, Soviet Music and Society Under Lenin and Stalin: The Baton and the Sickle: (Music in the Socialist State : Modernism and Proletkult, 1921-1932) 1(Neil Edmunds) Francis Maes, A History of Russian Music From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (University of California Press 2006) 244 9 Swartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 : 7 chapter 1 Boris Swartz, 49 chapter 1 12Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929 6 13 Marina Frolova-Walker Russian Music and Nationalism form Glinka to Stalin. 307 14 Swartz p49 10 11 3 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin formed) in 1923 and (The International Society for Contemporary Music was formed in London 1922 the ACM was not affiliated to ISCM) helped to facilitate the spirit of ‘Permanent Revolution,’ the cross pollination of the East and the West by offering the opportunity for performance of Western scores to be performed in Moscow and the Soviet scores to be heard at the ISCM Festivals.15 (1923 Provokiev (Salzberg), 1925 Samuel Fienberg (Venice), 1926 Miasovsky (Zurich) 1927 Mosolov (Frankfurt).)16 The ASM who whetted the appetite of the audience by way of a monthly publication called ‘Souvremennaya Muzyka’ (Contemporary Music) between 1924 and 1929. The magazine discussed both national and international topics often focused on ACM sponsored performances. 17 During this time efforts were made to address the ongoing émigré status of many of the USSR’ composers and performers. As Francis Maes asserts ‘the protagonists of Soviet music culture emerged during the NEP. The international music competitions of the IASM acted as a magnet for the virtuoso’. Maes adds that ‘Modernists Roslavets, Mosolov, Polovinkin and Knipper were active in the administration of the ASM’.18 But, Proletariat groups were opposed to the ASM (Proletariat groups strongly affiliated to the Communist Party) Taruskin concurs, not only were the RAPM was opposed to the ASM, he declares the RAPM ‘was anti-modern, anti-Western, antijazz.’ It was also ‘anti-folklore, anti-inationalist’ and anything remotely politically incorrect.19 Foshko, Katherine (thesis) attributes the popularity of the Russian émigré in France to the ‘legacy’ of the ‘Franco- Russian Alliance’ (a friendly alliance that developed into a secret military and political treaty signed in 1894)20 and allusions to anti Bolshevik propaganda and ‘fin-de-siecle’ romantic imagery of exoticism of the Russian people.21 15 16 Marina Frolova-Walker Russian Music and Nationalism form Glinka to Stalin. 307 Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929 6 Swartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 51 Maes, A History of Russian Music From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar 244 17Boris 18Francis 19 20 Richard Taruskin Defining Russia Musically 1997 92 (chapter 5) http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/172569/Dual-Alliance https://www.zotero.org/groups/modern_art/items/itemKey/96UTQXTG France's Russian moment: Russian emigres in interwar Paris and French society 21 4 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin One of these was the encouragement of ‘Persifams’22 by the GUS to include more ‘contemporary’ pieces ‘by Russian composers’.23 Due to the huge divisions between the ASM and the RAPM and their respective followers, composers and musicians continued to experience varying degrees of pressure with the possibility of being labeled as bourgeois or offensive to the state, potentially facing exile due to such an accusation. This left the option of the émigré status still an open for these composers if such accusations were upheld. In 1925 a proletarian group called the PROKOLL was also formed who (Production Collective of Student Composers worked on operas, oratories, and attached to the Moscow Conservatory) wanted a ‘middle road between the extremes of the ASM and of the RAPM. Boris Swartz decried both the ASM and the RAPM as ‘warring factions’ declaring the RAPM a ‘leftist’ movement whist the ASM were ‘modern orientated’.24 Neil Edmonds remarks that the Bolsheviks were particularly focused on the use of musical propaganda within their political agenda as a means of helping to re-educate the peasant and proletariat with a registered list of over fifty such “zeal-fired” and “utopian” minded individuals by 1927 (RAPM)25 Prior to the establishment of the NEP the Bolshevik Revolution (1903-1905) forced the departure of many so called ‘émigré’ contemporary composers and their inventive capabilities such as Nicholai Obukhov. 26 Obukhov’s (along with many other) émigré ’departures, added to the imperative stem the hemorrhage of talent and provide an artistic and cultural climate for intellectual and inventive Soviets to be able to stay within the USSR thus adding to the cultural heritage. Nicholai Obukhov (22nd April 1892-13 June 1954) emigrated to Paris (France) in 1918 ‘due to the extreme instability sweeping through Russia’. Obukhov, a Russian born composer was raised by his parents in Moscow. He attended both the Moscow and Saint Petersburg conservatoires.27 In International Futurism in Arts and Literature Günter Elizabeth Janik Recomposing German Music: Politics And Musical Tradition in Cold War Berlin (Brill Academic Publishers 2005) 93 22 23 Amy Nelson, Music for the Revolution: Musicians and Power in Early Soviet Russia (The Pennsylvania State University2004) 136 Boris Swartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 chapter 1 49 24 Neil Edmonds Soviet Music & Society under Lenin & Stalin (RoutledgeCurzon)105 (chapter 6) Amy Nelson, Music for the Revolution: Musicians and Power in Early Soviet Russia 54 27 Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929 254 25 26 5 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin Berghaus describes Obuchov as ‘a pioneer of new notation’ who also ‘experimented with chromaticism’, and 12-tone structures. He named these ‘total harmony’. Berghaus describes Obuchov’s experiments with what appears to be advanced vocal techniques such as the incorporation of widely leaping melodies with the addition of ‘whistle, groan and shriek, cry with ecstasy, scream with dread, and indulge in heavy breathing,’ (set of songs composed in 1918).28 Taruskin describes Obukov work as a continuation of both the Scriabin ‘maximalism’ (along with Ivan Wychnegradsky (1893- 1997) and Messiaen. Obukov also used ‘aggregates’ otherwise known as ‘total harmonies’ as seen in ‘Berceuse d’un beinheureux’ ‘Beatific lullaby’.29 His early music, was first performed through the periodical ‘Muzykal'niy Sovremennik’ in 1915 and in 1916 his works were performed in St Petersburg using his new scoring techniques.30 Obukhov was in effect mentored by Maurice Ravel and enabled to development his inventions such as the croix sonore, according to Sitsky the instrument was ‘consistently used in Obukhov’s works’. The croix sonore, a theremin like musical instrument was built in the shape of a crucifix with inbuilt with electronics. The prototype was first demonstrated in 1926 in the same year Serge Koussevitzky conducted a performance of the prologue of Obukhov's liturgical cantata ‘Kniga Zhizni’ (a magnum opus, The Book of Life), in Paris. Obhukov's published ‘Traité d'harmonie tonale, atonale et totale.’ 1947, Honegger wrote the foreword to the book. Obukhov’s manuscripts remain in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.31 Günter Berghaus International Futurism in Arts and Literature (Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co)348 29 Richard Taruskin Music in the Early Twentieth Century: The Oxford History of Western Music 228 28 30 Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929) chapter 21 p254 Larry Sitsky, Music of the repressed Russian avant-garde, 1900–1929 6 31 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin ‘Because of a Blessed’ illustrates the annotated vocal techniques as described by Gunter Berghaus. 32 32 Larry Sitsky, P255 figure 21.1 7 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin A copy of Obukhov’s notation system as translated by Larry Sitsky. 33 Although a fellow émigré, (Ukrainian born) Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944) unlike Obukhov was initially a self-taught musician from a very poor ‘peasant’ background. Despite this he obtained a formal music education through ‘The Russian Musical Society’ (around 1890’s) and graduated with a silver medal from the Moscow Conservatoire around 1902. Roslavets, according 33 Larry Sitsky, Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929 38+ 8 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin to Sitsky ‘actively pursued new modes of expression’.34 Anna Ferenc describes Roslavets as ‘dedicated, outspoken and prominent’. She adds that much of his early career was spent developing his system for ‘post-tonal composition’ which he named the ‘new system of tonal organization’.35 This tonal system as constructed through ‘synthetic chords’ composed of ‘specific and constant’ intervals. Maes compares these chords to Schoenberg’s twelve tone structures36. Segment from the ‘Quasi Prelude’. An example of Roslavets’ use of seven note (12-tone complexes) ‘sintetakkord’ transpostions37 Roslavets produced the first Russian atonal piece in 1913 and was also extremely productive during the 1920’s. Roslavets considered himself to be a ‘new academism’. He greatly benefited from the 1917 revolution and worked with the ASM where he held the post of editor at ‘Muzikalnaya Kultura’ (magazine), the ‘Eletsk Music School’ as director and teacher and followed this with his Proletariat appointment (1918) as the ‘president of the local union of workers, peasants, and soldiers.’38 Roslavets was forced to defend ‘his modernism against the proletarian groups’. He also perhaps unwisely aired his Marxist views and beliefs concerning the development of a classless society and an evolution in both music and consciousness. Maes adds that Roslavets described a need for the appropriation and surpassing of the achievements of the bourgeois culture, describing the creation of music a force of intellectual concentration that ‘aims 34 Larry Sitsky ‘Anna Ferenc, Investigating Russian Musical Modernism’ : Nikolai Roslavets and his new system of tone organization (University of Michigan.1993) 1 36Francis Maes, A History of Russian Music: from Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar 248 37 Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Avant-Garde 1900-1929 44 35 38 Larry Sitsky 9 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin to give conscious form to the ‘unconscious”’39 Roslavets further aggravated his proletarian critics the by assuring them that he was not a ‘proletarian composer‘, nor was he a composer ‘for the masses.’ 40 Maes concludes that Roslavets was incomprehensible to the proletariat. L. Kaltat described Roslavets as a ‘’theorist’ of bourgeois decadence in music’. And believed he was obligated to not only ‘isolate’ Roslavets but also ‘to unmask the bourgeois essence of Roslavets and his supporters’. Roslavets’ rejection by the proletariat was due to their opposition to ‘individualism’ and also the perceived elitism of his work.41 Roslavets further jepardised his position by publicly announcing in his article ‘On Myself and my Work’ of (1924) in the ACM journal ‘Sovremennaya Muzika’ his desire to abandon previous ‘academic traditions and techniques’ and replace these traditions with his own formulas. His ‘system’ would equal ‘to the political system he served’ creating a point of salvation and modernization. 42 Roslavets was pronounced as an ‘exponent of petit-bourgois reaction hiding behind leftist phraseology’. Taruskin believes this statement lead to Roslavets and his body of work being ostracized over the course of the following decade leading to a ‘virtual exile in Tashkent (Soviet Uzbekistan)’.43 After graduating for the Moscow Conservatoire in 1925 Alexandr Mosolov (1900-1973) become an elected member of the ASM. This was shortly followed by his appointment as secretary of the Russian ISCM. He went on to gain a publishing contract in Vienna from Universal Edition44. Sitsky notes that Mosolov’s style showed European Modernist influences and parody. Sitsky describes his symphonic poem Sumerki,(a parody) “fiercely non-tonal”45 and ‘dramatic, eerie and intense’46. Mosolovs is noted for his ‘mechanistic’ or constructivist piece Iron Foundry, composed between 1926 and 1927 (originally written as the first movement of his ballet suite Stal ("Steel")). Peter Dean Roberts comments that the ostinato style of the piece was common enough at that time in USSR, although Zavod (Iron Foundry) brought him a acclaim in the West. Mosolov used a metal sheet percussively to imitate the sounds of the founding of iron and 39 40Boris 41 Francis Maes’ A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskay to Bbi Yar Roslavets 248 Schwartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 54 Francis Maes 251 Richard Taruskin On Russian Music ‘Restoring Comrade Roslavets’. (University of California Press 2009) 294 43 Richard Taruskin On Russian Music ‘Restoring Comrade Roslavets’ 44 Peter dean Roberts Music of the Twentieth Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical source Book (Greenwood Publishing Group 2002) P314 45 Larry Sitsy, Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929. 60 46 (Grove oxfordmusiconline.com) 42 10 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin steel47. Although exceptionally successful during the 1920’s, Mosolov was treated in a similar manner as Roslavets, and suffered derogatory comments from the RAPM concerning his work especially his vocal chamber work (Opus 21) Three Children’s Scenes . The songs relied on superimposed, polytonal layering of the lyrics and also included a variety of extended vocal techniques such as sprechstimme, sobbing, humming like a bee, meowing like a cat and tongue clicking sounds. Sitsky comments that the songs lacked the acceptable aspects of romance and sentimentalism generally afforded to the accepted concept of children. Example of Montage in Mosolov’s Three Children’s Scenes48 47 http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/search_results?q=Alexander+Mossolov&button_ search.x=0&button_search.y=0&search=quick Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Avant-Garde 1900-1929 72 48 11 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin The Four Newspaper Advertisments.49 The Four Newspaper Advertisments, a satirical, constructivist piece encompassed the themes and techniques used in Three Children’s Scenes using as the subject matter four advertisements current at the time. These adverts were delivered after being re orchestrated using high art techniques leaving them open to public and political debate. Mosolov was also highly regarded for his use of harmonic language and incorporated major and minor thirds, fourths, fifths and tritons to construct seventh and ninth chords from the intervals50 ,Mosolov’s accusers (the RAPM) labeled his as both ‘individualistic’ and lacking in ‘social responsibility’. He was also accused of being ‘utterly alien to our Soviet reality’.51 Contrastingly, Amy Nelson (quoting Iulia Vainkop) describes Mosolov as highly regarded by ‘workers and trade union members’ alike who enjoyed his music along with other contemporary compositions. Nelson states that the workers believed that Soviet contemporary compositions were filled with ‘contagious emotion’ and that they were ‘entitled to ‘demand music consonant with our epoch’.’52 Nelson also notes that consonant with the popularity of Zavod (Iron Foundry) ‘‘workers had a natural empathy for new music, especially compositions that evoked the aural environment of the industrial city’ ‘ Nelson adds that the workers expressed ‘enthusiasm’ for ‘music that imitated factory noises and the sounds of urbanized areas’.53 Mosolov went on to study folk music in Asiatic USSR before eventually returning to Moscow to live out the rest of his life. Larry Sitsky p73 sitsky 51 Amy Nelson Music for the Revolution: Musicians and Power in Early Soviet Russia (Pennsylvania State Press)56 52 Amy Nelson Music for the Revolution: Musicians and Power in Early Soviet Russia 56 53Amy Nelson 56 49 50 12 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin Arseny Avraamov (1886 to 1944, studied at the Moscow Philharmonic Society) & Leon Theramin both contributed to the development of music technology during the NEP and the GIMN. In the early 1920’s Avraamov developed the findings of Alexander Listopadov who had made initial studies of peasant folk songs. He specifically studied wedding songs noting their intervals and intonations. Avraamov believed that folk music could offer an intrinsic flow towards the development of a home grown contemporary music furthermore this potential was being overlooked due to the strength of the hold of (the Western systems of) ’12- tone temperament’. He believed that (Russian) folk music itself contained the elements require to build the next developments in contemporary music via investigating and formalizing the modal structures therein and avoiding the pitfall of ‘oversimplification’. He viewed the scales prevalent in the West as limiting to the (Russo/Oriental continent) potential development available by the development of ‘melodic/intonational’ natural scales of Russo folk music. Avraamov did in fact go on to perform a concert of this traditionally tuned folk music accompanying the singer O D Tatarinova on a harmonium tuned to the ’original intonation’ of Don River Russian songs. Avraamov went on to further pursue his 36 and 48 tone non-equal temperament tunings until Stalin’s accession.54 Although predominantly a Proletkult activity Avraamov was also involved with choral, mass songs, and the singing of revolutionary songs55 His work Sinfoniia gudkov (Symphony of Hooters) was performed at Baku harbor on the anniversary of the Revolution in 1922. I have included a copy of the performance directions to give an idea of the instrumentation and time scale Avraamov used for this performance. Marina Frolova-Walker Russian Music and Nationalism From Glinka to Stalin. (Yale University Press 2007) 242-244 55 Anna Ferenc, soviet Music and Society Under Lenin and Stalin (Routledgecurzon 2005) 10 54 13 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin 14 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin 56 Avraamov also experimented with microtonal and ultrachromatic scales, early film technology and technical aspects of sound manipulation and the invention of graphic sonic art. These were all favourably received during the NEP years. 1930 He also produced the first hand-drawn motion picture soundtracks by of shooting still images of drawn sound waves on an animation stand. Images of Hand Drawn Motion Picture Soundtracks (A Avaraamov) 57 “By knowing the way to record the most complex sound textures by means of a phonograph, after analysis of the curve structure of the sound groove, directing the needle of the 56 Marina Frolova Walker and Johnathan Walker Music and Soviet Power, 1917-1932. ( The Boydell Press 2012) 80-84 57 http://labouscarle.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/arseny-avraamov/ 15 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin resonating membrane, one can create synthetically any, even most fantastic sound by making a groove with a proper structure of shape and depth”. From ‘Upcoming Science of Music and the New Era in the History of Music’ by Avraamov, published in 1916.58 Avraamov’s founded a research company called the Multzvuk Group to work in the research and development of graphical sound. This development was a by-product of the film industry. Avraamov devised methods to alter the sound track of a film by working directly with the graphic waveform. This made it possible to directly maniplulate and synthesise sounds as required.59 By the end of the 1920’s the flame of modernism was growing cold and was headed under a new label of ‘formalism’ with many of the modernist composers now occupying bureaucratic, teaching and administrative roles. Maes notes that many composers were actually officially ‘expunged’ from historical documents, this included composers such as Roslavet and Mosolov. 60 By 1928 the NEP was replaced by Stalin’s first Five-year Plan and although the RAPM had found itself struggling financially and lacking sufficient numbers of composer members this was radically altered by the support given by Stalin’s regime. Internationalism was also stifled as Stalin sought to make a strong nationalistic and proletariat force within the USSR. The RAPM was now in a position to influence all areas of the musical world and able to affect all education within the conservatoires and all areas of light music.61 Swartz notes that the former exchange of ‘foreign artists’was no longer encouraged, although by the early thirties many were being oppressed by the Nazi regime in Western Europe an sought exile in the USSR.62 Stalin officially announced the demise of the NEP in December 1929 at the Fifteenth Party Congress, the writing was already on the wall regarding Stalin’s intentions towards the NEP by as early as 1926. Stalin called for the ‘break-up’ of the NEP by offering his new political ideas regarding the mass industrialisation labelled ‘industrial revolution’, and investment in the Soviet Union. This encompassed policies for all strata of society including the peasant classes 58 Nils Meise, Electrified Voices Electrified Voices: Medial, Socio-Historical and Cultural Aspects of Voice Transfer ( edited by Dmitri Zakharine, ) V&R unipress GmbH 2013 59 60 http://labouscarle.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/arseny-avraamov/ Francis Maes,A History of Russian Music from Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (University of California Press 2006 copy) 298 61 Francis Maes,A History of Russian Music from Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar 253 62 Boris Swarz, Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 (University of Chicago Press 1965) 138 16 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin with regard to agriculture, called ‘rural revolution’, centralised control and state ownership was also a feature of Stalin’s policies covering areas such as the economy and social reforms entitled ‘proletarian cultural revolution’.63 ALEX F. DOWLAH, JOHN E. ELLIOTT, STALIN AND THE NEP The Life and Times of Soviet Socialism, (Greenwood Publishing Group 1997) 75 63 17 AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S. Alexandra Martin 18