AVANT-GARDE COMPOSERS OF THE USSR DURING THE 1920’S.

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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 avant-

garde 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 Richard Taruskin, Defining Russia Musically (1997 Princeton University Press) 86

2 Jonathon D Kramer, Larry Sitsky, Music of the Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Bio-critical Sourcebook (Greenwood Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002) xi

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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

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‘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)

9 Francis Maes, A History of Russian Music From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (University of California Press 2006) 244

10 Swartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 : 7 chapter 1 11 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

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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, anti-

jazz.’ 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 Marina Frolova-Walker Russian Music and Nationalism form Glinka to Stalin. 307 16 Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929 6 17Boris Swartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 51 18Francis Maes, A History of Russian Music From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar 244

19 Richard Taruskin Defining Russia Musically 1997 92 (chapter 5) 20 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/172569/Dual-Alliance 21 https://www.zotero.org/groups/modern_art/items/itemKey/96UTQXTG France's Russian moment: Russian emigres in interwar Paris and French society

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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

22 Elizabeth Janik Recomposing German Music: Politics And Musical Tradition in Cold War Berlin (Brill Academic Publishers 2005) 93

23 Amy Nelson, Music for the Revolution: Musicians and Power in Early Soviet Russia (The Pennsylvania State University2004) 136 24 Boris Swartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 chapter 1 49 25 Neil Edmonds Soviet Music & Society under Lenin & Stalin (RoutledgeCurzon)105 (chapter 6) 26 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

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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

28 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

30 Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde 1900-1929) chapter 21 p254

31 Larry Sitsky, Music of the repressed Russian avant-garde, 1900–1929

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‘Because of a Blessed’ illustrates the annotated vocal techniques as described by Gunter

Berghaus. 32

32Larry Sitsky, P255 figure 21.1

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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+

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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 35 ‘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

38 Larry Sitsky

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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 Francis Maes’ A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskay to Bbi Yar Roslavets 248 40Boris Schwartz Music and Musical Life in Soviet Russia 1917-1970 54

41 Francis Maes 251 42 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)

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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

48 Larry Sitsky Music of the Repressed Avant-Garde 1900-1929 72

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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.

49 Larry Sitsky p73 50 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

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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.

54 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

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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/

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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 http://labouscarle.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/arseny-avraamov/ 59 Nils Meise, Electrified Voices Electrified Voices: Medial, Socio-Historical and Cultural Aspects of Voice Transfer ( edited by Dmitri Zakharine, ) V&R unipress GmbH 2013 60 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

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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

63 ALEX F. DOWLAH, JOHN E. ELLIOTT, STALIN AND THE NEP The Life and Times of Soviet Socialism,

(Greenwood Publishing Group 1997) 75

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