Mykola Roslavets

Mykola Andriyovitch Roslavets (Ukrainian: Mикола Андрiйoвич Рославець) (Russian: Николай Андреевич Рославец OldStyleDateDY|4 January|1881|23 December|1880, Dushatyn, Ukraine - 1944, Moscow) was a significant Ukrainian and also Soviet modernist composer of the period just before and just after the October Revolution. His music was ideologically suppressed at the end of the 1920s in the Soviet Union and he was treated till his death virtually as a ‘non-person’.

Roslavets developed an original theoretical system, a "new system of sound organisation" and compositional technique which were associated by some musicologists with Arnold Schoenberg's serialism and his school; however, Roslavets' system was elaborated earlier than those of Schoenberg. Roslavets created a completely independent style, although he was originally inspired by that of the late Alexander Scriabin and his mystic chord. In the 1920s Roslavets criticized Scriabin because of his "over-simplification". In his studies and sketches Roslavets used vertical and horizontal pitch sets which he described as "synthetic chords". In Roslavets' earlier romances and chamber instrumental compositions those sets were already elaborated side by side with expanded tonality and free atonality. The mature forms of this "new system of sound organization" are typical for Roslavets pieces composed between 1913 and 1917, such as "Sad Landscapes" (1913), "Three Compositions for Voice and Piano" (1913), String Quartet No.1 (1913), "Four Compositions for Voice and Piano" (1913-14), Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 (1914) and 2 (1916, reconstructed by Eduard Babasian), etc.

The music of Roslavets was first "rediscovered" in West Europe in the seventies and has since enjoyed an steady increasing life in the concert hall and on recording, as many of his scores once thought lost or destroyed have been unearthed. The musicologist Marina Lobanova (Hamburg) reconstructed several compositions by Roslavets (such as the symphonic poem "In the Hours of the New Moon", Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, Piano Trio No. 2; etc.), whose music she had been investigating since 1970s. As a result, Roslavets' life and creativity was reconstructed in her book, articles and other publications). She edited Roslavets' compositions which were published by Schott Music International bringing them to the public.

Among his works are five symphonic poems (four of them are lost), two violin concertos, five string quartets, two viola sonatas, two cello sonatas, six violin sonatas, four piano trios.

Life

There are three autobiographies by Roslavets that differ considerably from each other: In one of them published 1924 the composer deliberately stylized his life in order not to be attacked by the "proletarian musicians". According to the archive materials Roslavets neither was born in Dushatyn nor came from a peasant poor family (s.: Lobanova 1997, S. 25ff.). In 1880s he was a clerk in the railway office in Konotop and Kursk where he began to study violin, piano, theory of music and harmony in [Arkady Maksimovich Abaza] 's Musical classes in Kursk. In 1902 Roslavets was accepted as a student at the Moscow Conservatory where he studied violin under Ivan Voytsekhovich Grzhimali (Jan Hřímalý), free composition under Sergey Vassilenko, counterpoint, fugue and musical form under Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and Aleksandr Il'insky. He graduated in 1912, gaining a great silver medal for his cantata "Heaven and Earth" after Byron's poetic drama.In 1910s Roslavet's compositions were published in Russian Futurist journals, and Futurist Artists designed some covers for Roslavets. Since 1917 the composer became one of the most prominent public figures oft the "left art" in Russia, side by side with Arthur Lourié, Kazimir Malevych, Vsevolod Meyerhold and others. Roslavets taught violin and composition in Elets, Kharkiv and Moscow; he had a position in the State Publishing House, edited the journal "Muzykalnaya Kultura" and was one of the leaders of the Association for Contemporary Music. As a musicologist, Roslavets fought for professionalism and the best in Russian and Western classical and New Music critisizing vulgar identifications of music with ideology (for example, in the article ‘On pseudo-proletarian music’). In the 1920s he was harshly attacked by the "proletarian musicians", especially by the representatives of the RAPM – the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians, and "Prokoll" (Production Collective of the Students at the Moscow Conservatory". Roslavets was accused to be a "counter-revolutionary" and "bourgeois" artist, "alien to proletariat", as well as "formalist", "class enemy" and, in late 20s and early 30s, as a "trotskist", "saboteur"; etc. (s.: Lobanova 1997, S. 60-86). In 1930 he was accused of being a "protector" of the AMA (The Association of the Moscow Authors) which accordingly to the "proletarian musician" was propagating "light music" and "wide-spreading of the counter-revolutionary literature"). The "Roslavets-case" constructed by V. Bely, A. Davidenko, V. Klemens, Yu. Keldish, S. Korev, M. Koval', Z. Levina, G. Polyanovsky, A. Sergeyev, B. Shekhter, etc., was crowned by a purge which resulted in a professional prohibition. In order to save his life, Roslavets publicly repented his former "political mistakes". In 1931-33 he worked at the Musical Theatre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; in 1933 the composer returned to Moscow, where earned a meagre living teaching and taking occasional jobs. As a victim of the political purges Roslavets could not get any official position for a long time. Roslavets was not admitted to the Composers’ Union, however he became to be a member of the Musical Fund. Punitive measure against him had been planned in 1938, and the former "proletarian musicians" had already spread the disinformation about him, however Roslavets suffered a severe stroke in 1939 and was semi-invalid until his death following a second stroke in 1944.

Style characteristics

While still a student, Roslavets had been engaged in vigorous artistic debates occasioned by Russian Futurism, polemics with Russian Symbolism, etc., and was close to artists such as Kazymyr Malevych, Aristarkh Lentulov, Vasily Kamensky, David Burlyuk and others. Deeply influenced by the later works of Scriabin, Roslavets's quest for a personal language began in 1907 and led in 1913 to his propounding a "new system of sound organisation" based on "synthetic chords" that contain both the horizontal and vertical sound-material for a work (a concept close to that of Schoenberg's twelve-tone serialism). Since Vyacheslav Karatygin's article had been published in February 1915, Roslavets was sometimes referred to as "the Russian Schoenberg," but already in 1914 Nikolay Myaskovsky stressed the original nature of Roslavets's style; in an article published in 1925 the critic Yevgeny Braudo pointed out that this was no more helpful than to call Schoenberg "the German Debussy." Though the "new system of sound organisation" regulates the whole twelve-tone chromatic scale, most of Roslavets’ "synthetic chords" consist of six to nine tones. In the 1920s Roslavets developed his system, expanding it to encompass counterpoint, rhythm, and musical form while elaborating new principles of teaching. At the same time, Roslavets made an important contribution to the "revolutionary propaganda in music" in such compositions as the cantata "October" (1927) and numerous songs. However, the symphonic poem "Komsomoliya" (1928), demonstrates an extraordinary mastership, a very complex and highly modern compositional technique, far from the simplification typical for "propaganda works". After his fall from grace, while in Tashkent, he turned for a while to working with folk material, producing among other works the first Uzbek ballet, "Pakhta" (Cotton). The works of his last years in Moscow show a simplification of his characteristic language to admit an expanded conception of tonality (for instance in the 24 Preludes for violin and piano), but are still highly professional. Among Roslavets's later compositions, the "Chamber symphony" (1934-35) demonstrates one of the peaks of his "new system of sound organisation" in its later phase.

Posthumous reputation

Upon Roslavets death his apartment was ransacked by a group of former 'proletarian musicians' who confiscated many manuscripts, though some were saved by his widow. For thirty years Roslavets’s name, expunged from the music dictionaries, was hardly mentioned in Soviet musical literature; even after Perestroika began, scholars could only hear such comments as ‘Roslavets’ works are not worth the paper they are written on’ (s.: Lobanova 1997, S. 11ff.). His name reappeared in a Soviet music dictionary in 1978 with negative contexts. 1967 Roslavets' niece, Efrosin'ya Roslavets, who made an important contribution "Roslavets-rehabilitation" became a witness of such an official accusation, Roslavets had been connected to the "world Zionism"; with the same accusation the musicologist M. Lobanova was confronted, who was also attacked because of her relationship to "Israelitish intellectual élite". Roslavets' grave located in the Vagankovo Cemetery, had remained unmarked, and was identified and reconstructed according to plans by M. Lobanova, authorized by E. Roslavets, in 1990.

Works (selected list)

Stage:
*"Pakhta" (Cotton), ballet-pantomime (1931-32)

Vocal:
*Heaven and Earth, Cantata after Byron (1912); *On the Earth’s Death, symphonic poem after Jules Laforgue (before 1919) - Voice and Piano

Orchestral:
*In the Hours of the New Moon, symphonic poem (approx. 1912-13; reconstructed by Marina Lobanova);
*The Man and the Sea, symphonic poem after Baudelaire (1921), lost;
*Symphony (1922); lost;
*Violin Concerto No.1 (1925);
*October (1927);
*Komsomoliya (1928);
*Violin Concerto No.2 (1936)

Chamber music:
*Chamber Symphony for 18 players (1934-35), ed. by M. Lobanova; (NB a sketched, unfinished Chamber Symphony of 1926, completed and orchestrated, also for 18 players, by A. Raskatov, is unrelated)
*Nocturne for harp, oboe, 2 violas and cello (1913);
*5 String Quartets (1913, 191?, 1920, 1939 (not complete score), 1941);
*4 Piano Trios (19-? (lost), 1920 (reconstructed by M. Lobanova), 1921, 1927, ed. by M. Lobanova);
*Violin and piano: 6 Sonatas (1913, 1917 (reconstructed by M. Lobanova), 19? (lost), 1920, 1922-23 (lost), 1930s, ed. by M. Lobanova);
*Trois poèmes: Poéme doleureuex, Poème lyrique, Poème (1909-10);
*Poème lyrique (1910s), Three Dances (1923), Nocturne (1935),
*24 Preludes (1941-42); Viola and piano:
*2 Sonatas (1926, ed. by M. Lobanova; 1930s, ed. by M. Lobanova); Cello and piano
*Dance of the White Girls (1912), ed. by M. Lobanova;
*Meditation (1921),
*2 Sonatas (1921; 1922, ed. by M. Lobanova)Piano music:
*Three Etudes (1914);
*Three Compositions (1914);
*Two Compositions (1915);
*Prelude (1915);
*6 Piano Sonatas (1914; 1916, reconstructed by Eduard Babasyn; 19- ? (lost); 1923 (lost); 1923; 1928 (not complete);
*Five Preludes (1919-22);
*Two Poems (1920)

Literature (selected list)

*Gojowy D. N. A. Roslavec, ein früher Zwölftonkomponist. "Die Musikforschung" 22 (1969), S. 22-38
*Gojowy D. Sowjetische Avantgardisten. Musik und Bildung 1969, S. 537-542 Slonimsky. Music since 1900. 4th edition. N.Y., 1971
*Gojowy D. Neue sowjetische Musik der 20er Jahre. Laaber 1980 Lobanova M. L’eredità die N. A. R. ne campo della teoria musicale. "Musica/Realtà" 12 (1983), p. 41-64 Wehrmeyer A. Studien zum russischen Musikdenken um 1920. Frankfurt/Main usw.: Peter Lang, 1991, S. 139ff.
*Gojowy D. Sinowi Borissowitsch im Keller entdeckt. Sowjetische Musikwissenschaft in der Perestrojka. "Das Orchester" 39 (1991), H. 11, S. 1224
*Lobanova M. Die Tragödie der russischen Avantgarde -- Nikolaj Roslawez (Übersetzung von D. Gojowy). "Internationale Musik-Festivals Heidelberg 1991 und 1992. Russische Avantgarde. Musikavantgarde im Osten Europas. Dokumentation – Kongressbericht". Heidelberg 1992, S. 183-193 McKnight Ch. Nikolaj Roslavets. Diss. Cornell Univ., Ithaca/N.Y., 1994 Lobanova M. Nikolaj Roslawez. Biographie eines Künstlers -- Legende, Lüge, Wahrheit. "Visionen und Aufbrüche. Zur Krise der modernen Musik 1908-1933". Hrsg. von W. Gruhn u.a. Kassel 1994, S. 45-62
*Lobanova M. Der Fall Nikolaj Roslawez. "Die Neue Zeitschrift für Musik" 1995, Nr. 1; S. 40-43 Lobanova M. Nikolaj Roslavetz -- Ein Schicksal unter der Diktatur. "Verfemte Musik. Komponisten in den Diktaturen unseres Jahrhunderts. Dokumentation des Kolloquiums vom 9.-12. Januar 1993 in Dresden". Hrsg. von J. Braun, H. T. Hoffmann und V. Karbusicky. Frankfurt/Main usw.: Peter Lang, 1995, S. 159-176; 2. Auflage: 1998
*Lobanova M. Nikolaj Andreevič Roslavec und die Kultur seiner Zeit. Mit einem Vorwort von György Ligeti. Frankfurt/Main usw.: Peter Lang, 1997 Hust Chr. Tonalitätskonstruktion in den Klaviersonaten von N. A. Roslavec. "Die Musikforschung" 54 (2001), S. 429-437
*Lobanova M. „Das neue System der Tonorganisation" von Nikolaj Andreevič Roslavec. "Die Musikforschung" 54 (2001), S. 400-428
*Лобанова М. Страсти по Николаю Рославцу. "Российская музыкальная газета", 2002, №10, с.7
*Lobanova M. Nicolaj Roslavec und sein tragisches Erbe. "Musikgeschichte in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Mitteilungen der internationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft an der Universität Leipzig", H. 10. Leipzig 2005, S. 241-272
*Муха А. Композитори України та української діаспори - Довідник. К., Музична Україна 2004;
*Коменда О. Риси стилю творчості Н. Рославця// Збірник матеріалів до українського мистецтвознавства ІМФЕ ім М. Рильського, вип. 3 К., 2003.
*Коменда О. Микола Рославець в контексті української культури// Українська культура - минуле, сучасне, шляху розвитку. Наук. записки РДГУ, т.9, К., 2004.

External links

* [http://www.schott-musik.de Schott Musik International Site]
* [http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/roslavetz.htm Onno van Rijen's Roslavetz page]