Vyacheslav Artyomov
Foundation of the Philosophy of Music
At the beginning was the Word, i.e. God, Who has created the
World. And at the beginning was the Sound, which accompanied the
Creation. And the first sound which was attered by man, was a
cry - and it became the beginning of knowledge of the created
World and of calling to God.
Music is a special substance. It has no prototype in Nature. Its
origins are moan and cry. Its means of expression had an
especially radical development during the last century.
Music can be considered a myth, a rite, a dream, a game, a
historic document or a mark of the evolution of the world and of
consciousness. However, its most important task is to gain
knowledge of the world, expressed in a unique form.
Man incorporates the Universe in himself. Through him the
knowledge of God and of the world is realised. Through music the
soul of man and the Divine Spirit inherent in this soul are
revealed.
In interiore homine habitat veritas - Truth dwells
in the depths of man (St.Augustin).
Music is the true expression of the life of the soul. What is
important in music is not the final result, but each moment
which gives birth to emotional experience. Each moment is
important not as a psychological fact, but because it is
directed to that grand and mysterious goal which should be
considered the main final purpose of each soul - the recognition
of God in oneself.
Music is a mediator between God and the world. Music is a lump
of spiritual energy, which should awaken man's ethical
understanding and purify his soul. Creation of music is man's
answer to God, the act of love and repentance. Truth is in
beauty. Beauty justifies man, it is the revelation of his divine
nature.
Music presents the entire spectrum and all nuances of
experience. Extension of this spectrum, penetration into deeper
strata of the inner world leads one to discover in oneself the
Other World beyond all boundaries. I call this way the
"penetrata": it is neither a form nor a style, - but a purpose
and a result. All possible means of expression could be used to
reach this goal.
The psychological stream in music is the central one. Boleslav
Yavorsky considered musical Romanticism as the beginning of the
psychological epoch in music. In this sense I can call myself a
Romantic. Or,to be more precise, - a Romantic Expressionist: it
is an ecstatic absorption in the mysteries of the spiritual
world which thrills me. Self-discovery brought to its extreme
limits is redemptive. Revelation is wonder in front of the
mystery of creation.
Music is a science sui generis - a cosmology of spirit. It does
not need speculations or logical descriptions. It brings
insights, and this experience is expressed directly by sounds.
The composer's soul, being a manifestation of World Soul,
reveals itself in sounds, and thus, World Spirit prophesies to
us through it.
(1996; translated by S.Horuzhy, revised by V.Konecni)
Reflection of the Universe in Self
outer side of soul
(is there a definite border?)
(to find) | God
God |
in Self |
|
|
Self | Cosmos
spiritual | center
center, | (macrocosm)
concentration of the Universe |
in Self (microcosm) |
|
individual soul | World's Soul
|
<------------------------------------------------------------------>
more deep levels of soul | more deep levels of Cosmos
every soul reflects the World's Soul - like many small pieces of broken
mirror reflect the same blue Sky
**********************************************************************
Artyomov about (Artyomov's) music
===================================
Music is a mediator between God and the World. (1989)
The important thing for me is not structure, but meaning.
While I do write different kinds of music, all my works are
facets of a single composition, of one hidden image. For me,
music is an expression of the life of the human soul - of the
composer's soul as a manifestation of World Soul. Thus I find
that my actual interest is in the expression of the profundity
of existence, of the deepest and innermost events - in other
words, the w a y i n w a r d.
There may be different kinds of interior music. It all
depends upon the task and the means. I call it p e n e t r a t a.
This word does not refer to style, but rather to the intended
result: a penetration into the heart of an emotional world that
is charged with lofty aspirations. This Other World can be found
in the depths of the heart. After all, nothing passes away or
disappears from this world except for "gloria mundi". For an
artist, there is nothing for it but to remember. (1989)
Sound is something one cannot be deceitful with. A composer's
whole personality is evident in it. One need but know how to
perceive it. An artist is an exposed nerve, a light, a
conscience.
He must not obscure himself, but rather must change the world
along with himself. As the Apostle says, "But we are all with an
open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord and are
changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord".
I believe in the transfiguration of the created world through
music. (1989)
Music is more close to religion than every art. Music is more
close to God. (1990)
My "Requiem" is a musical monument to the tragic history of
Russia. I tried to write music lofty as the spirit of our people
and tragic as its life. (1989)
The "Symphony of the Way" is part of my biography, it is an
ongoing process. But its part - a symphony "On the Threshold of
a Bright World" - has also become a reflection of life in
Russia, the dramatic events that continue to take place there.
This is completely unexpected, it was not one of my goals.
(1990)
In some ways my symphony "On the Threshold of a Bright World"
continues the romantic spirit of the first symphony,"The Way to
Olympus", but with a metamorphosis of the romantic into the
tragic. The lyric "hero" of the second symphony, like his native
country Russia, has lost his God and is trying to find Him
again. (1990)
In contradistinction to its two predecessors in the cycle
"Symphony of the Way", each of which was cast in a single
movement, the symphony "Gentle Emanation" consists of three
movements, each of which shows a very different character:
Lento, Allegro, Lento.
These three movements present the facets of one soul in its
aspiration to overcome challenges or obstacles in its inner
drama and find a way to the light.
The title,"Gentle Emanation", is taken from the Book of Job
in the Russian Bible. Neither the Hebrew nor the English Bible
has such an expression in the corresponding passage; in the
Russian Bible it refers to a moment preceding an appearance of
God.
This Symphony, then, represents what might be called a
"Waiting for God"; but this is different from Samuel Beckett's
play, for here we may sense that the Lord is coming in the next
- and concluding - symphony in the cycle. (1992)
"The Morning Star Arises" is the fourth symphony of my
tetralogy called "Symphony of the Way". While the first of these
"The Way to Olympus" is both active and Romantic, the second,
"On the Threshold of a Bright World" is tragic, the third -
"Gentle Emanation" - is full of hope for finding the lyric
hero's God again, while the last symphony "The Morning Star
Arises" leads us to a feeling of the Eternal Life, full of
peace, inexhaustibility and wholesomeness. (1993)
My "Symphony of Elegies" is singular, I feel sure. It is
unique not in form only but in substance. The score is headed by
an epigraph from D.T.Suzuki: "All this is but moments in our
innermost life, which revives and comes into touch with
Eternity".
The "Elegies" were written for the most part and finished in
the Armenian mountains, and may be closes to the Heavens because
of this. It is interesting that while I was there, I was trying
to compose an entirely different work, but something compelled
me to write these "Elegies" instead. Could this be a message?
(1988)
Culture is not a museum. Culture is that we are. We are not
museums. New music means new experience - it opens new feelings,
it opens your mind, your consciousness.
It's your life. You need to be alive, not mummy. (1990)
The sound (as music) shows the last revelation in this world.
Meanwhile the other means of expression (word, color) just
only hint. (1993)
At the beginning there was the sound and that sound was
incantation of spirits ("om").
The sound was magic. - And it became a pray - a purifying
power, serving for the enlightenment of soul. - Now it is a
message, a pray, an incantation, - and the deepest receptacle of
an experience. (1993)
In music - as in every separate life - "purpose" and
"movement" are the same, one cannot say that any of those things
is more important: every stair of "movement" is a purpose, so
that many stairs make a movement of purposes to one main purpose
which is the most important and final - catharsis. (1993)
You can express only yourself: your music is the evidence
of you. If you would say that you are writing about the external
world - this is not true, this can not be proved, because all
that can be found in your music is only your sight at this
world. Finally your music says only about you, your experience,
your intentions and aspirations.
Your self-expression without the spiritual aspirations is
nothing. (1993)
Life is mystical in its substance. Music in
its best creations half-opens this mystery.
To see the secret sense of Being - that is what religion is.
So that music is a mysterious and religious thing. This is the
act of religious cognition of the world. (1993)
Religion is the mysterious chain connecting (religamen) us
with Inconceivable, - that which is above us and to which we
constantly appeal. The same is Music. (1993)
Music expresses mystery of soul life and through it - mystery
of the universal Being. By means of individual creative soul
mystery of the Creation, mystery of Being, mystery of the World
Soul opens. (1993)
Music is the quintessence of Being. (1994)
The true life conceals in itself beyond extreme. Music
expresses mystery of beyond extreme, of true life - of Being.
(1994)
Music without faith is dead. (1994)
Penetrata - as a task - is not a genre, not a structure, but
a manner of expression (which, of course, creates a form at long
last) and the purpose (i.e. - penetration). (1985)
Prophecy is the highest, i.e. the absolute knowledge.
Experience is the way to knowledge.
Poet (as a type) is a prophet: a romantic from above, an
expressionist in the middle, and a symbolist in the depth. His
purpose is an ecstasy and revelation, trance and catharsis.
(1989)
Music must be piercing. All shrouds have to be eliminated and
the highest poignancy of experience achieved. Create by an
exposed nerve! (1994)
There is an attraction of sounds, accords, timbres, rhythms.
Although a nature of this attraction is unknown, one can assume
that it corresponds to a nature of physical and spiritual
attractions, and all of them combine a single field of
attractions.
In music attractions determine orientated development of
melody, change of harmony, necessary movement or state.
(1989)
Music must not devastate - but fill the soul. This is
approachable for only spiritually rich nature of its maker.
(1989)
Every composition has to be a discovery.
Every new composition - a new stair of selfopening,
selfmovement, selfperfection. Repetition is lack of an internal
development, i.e. selfplagiarism. (1989)
Literature is multistratum, polysemantic. Word is
multisignificant. But the most valuable was such One, that "was
with God": that Word was "God", - id est invocation, sound,
"aum"("om").
Music is monosignificant - also being polydynamic. Sound is
absolute, it carries a monosemantic experience. (1994)
Music does not tolerate an exposition, retelling of an
observation, or a commentary, a reflection of this observation,
which is also an exposition. Music demands a revelation, a
concentrate of an emotional experience. (1994)
Music must be pithy. Its pithiness is in expression and
strain. No sound without clear mood, fit, aspiration!
(1994)
There is an element of game in every music. But its essence
is not in game, but in opening of the last truth of Being.
(1994)
Applying to God you display your the most sincere feelings,
and your music can become a gift. Not every applying to a man
promises to become the same and to give birth to any value. But
music always needs an internal strength, passion and beauty.
(1994)
Music created by mind serves for mind, composed by heart -
goes to the heart. We have to speak with heart. (1995)
Music - as and love - creates a new reality. (1994)
Music is a concentration of soul experience, self-existence,
- but not a game. The same formal means (like texture) can serve
to very different essences and targets.
But sum of all expressive elements of the musical language
determines the direction and the main point of music. (1994)
Music is not a sign, not a text, not a reflection of being.
This is the only true way of cognition of sense of the
existence. (1990)
Music is perceived not only by ear but by the whole body, it
penetrates the entire man which opens himself trustfully and
devotedly to the music, - and all his structure is changing.
In a composition one need to plunge intimately, come in with
the whole his essence, with the whole heart, one need to live in
it, - and its influence will be beneficial. (1990)
Culture - this is all that remains after a man's stay on the
Earth, this is the only value in the whole world, this is the
attempt to understand - what is a man. (1990)
Music is a mean of spiritual transfiguration of the world.
(1991)
Topography of soul is polyphonic. To open inner world for
self means to cognize self. To open with music and by music.
(1991)
Title - is not an opening of essence of music, - but rather
cover. This is a reference, hint to only one property of that
plural world which is presented by the music. (1991)
Finiteness of a personal being as well as impossibility to
achieve the Ideal in this life - these are the reasons of
tragedy. The tragedy of somebody's own being is getting rid of
in creativity. (1995)
Composer is a religious worker. He strives to approach the
Ideal through the creation of such being which music is. Music
is the most real being. (1995)
If music is revelation this means - it is a gift. Presenting
a composer offers up by himself. He overcomes himself by an act
of will. Revelation is connected with offering. This is a
religious act. (1995)
Man is a creator because he is created by the image and
likeness of the Creator. (1995)
Man appeals to God. The most passionate and multiform, the
most strong, deep and sincere appeal - through Music (musical
appeal). This is sent to God energy of man as his reply to the
effusion of the Divine energy. (11.02.1996)
Music is an ecstasy, the liberation from the "final (limited)
consciousness" (Plotin), the way of inclusion in the Infinity.
(1996)
(Selfdescription)
I started to compose music seriously in 1958. Everything I
could hear around then suited me very little. Not only was
avantgarde music unknown, but so was also neoclassical music
like Hindemith, Barto'k, or Milhaud. Stravinsky was inaccessible.
It was not until about 1960 that some of Prokofiev's unfamiliar
works appeared on G.Rozhdestvensky's TV programs. We discovered
his 2nd-4th Symphonies and the operas The Flaming Angel and The
Gambler, in excerpts at that time. I passed through Prokofiev,
later - Stravinsky, and others, but the one work that impressed
me most was the Symphonie Liturgique by Arthur Honegger - even
to this day I deeply appreciate this work. Next came Edgard
Vare'se and finally Luciano Berio - the Sinfonia.
Besides this, my main sources included Russian folklore
(around 1965 I made several expeditions across the North of
Russia in search of surviving folk songs), Eastern traditional
music, and Romanticism. At various times I listened to Chopin,
Schubert, Scriabin, Wagner, and Bruckner. This was the stuff
that nourished me. Here I am speaking of spiritual influences,
and not of directly musical ones, for I have never imitated any
style. I always tried to find my own way, and my symphony Way to
Olympus is but one major landmark in this quest.
It has happened that my way was to be realized by various
means, and that I have approached the elements of musical
language from my own point of view. At different times, I have
focused on different aspects: intonation, rhythm, harmony. My
first task was to make a personal system of expressive
intonation, of sounds and their relationships ("melody"). This
was first accomplished in my Sonata for clarinet solo of 1966.
Later works carried on this emphasis, specifically the
Confession for clarinet solo of 1971 and the Recitations for
various woodwinds of 1975-1981.
My second chosen problem was to develop various forms and
combinations and to attain a maximum of rhythmic expression and
of melodiousness for percussion. Thus, my Totem (1976), A Sonata
of Meditations (1978), and Invocations (1981) first appeared.
A third phase focused on a search for expressive harmony -
the connections between complexes of sounds. Works that
exemplify this search include the Star Wind (1981), Moonlight
Dreams (1982), Hymns of Sudden Wafts (1983-85) and Lamentations
(1985).
Latest is a turn for polyphony which for me is the
simultaneous combination of diverse textures, characters, and
images that oppose or complement one another. I have already
produced one such work - the Sola Fide (1986-87) and I am
continuing in this pursuit at the present time.
Besides all this, each work has its own tasks, of course. But
the important thing for me is not structure but meaning. I do
write different kinds of msic; yet all my works are facets of a
single composition - of one hidden image. For me, music is an
expression of the life of the human soul - of the composer's
soul as a manifestation of World Soul. Thus I now find that my
actual interest is in the expression of the profundity of
existence, of the deepest and innermost events - in the other
words, the way inward.
There may be different kinds of interior music such as
Awakening (1978) as well as Invocations, Dreams, and Hymns. It
all depends upon the task and the means. I call it penetrata.
This word does not refer to style but rather to the intended
result - a penetration into the heart of an emotional world that
is charged with lofty aspirations. This Other World can be found
only in the depths of the human heart. After all, nothing ever
passes away or disappears from this world except for "gloria
mundi". For an artist, there is nothing for it but to remember.
Sound is something one cannot be deceitful with - a
composer's whole personality is evident in it. One need but know
how to perceive it. An artist is an exposed nerve, a light, a
conscience. He must not obscure himself, but rather must change
the world along with himself. As the Apostle says: "But we are
all with an open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the
Lord, and are changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord".
I believe in the transfiguration of the created world through
music. From this point of view, my Symphony of Elegies (1977) is
singular, I feel sure. It is unique not in form but in
substance. The score is headed by an epigraph from D.T.Suzuki
:"All this is but moments in our innermost life, which revives
and comes into touch with Eternity".
The Elegies were written for the most part in the Armenian
mountains, and may be closer to the Heavens because of this. It
is interesting that while I was there, I was trying to compose
an entirely different work, but something compelled me to write
these Elegies instead. Could this be a message?
After composing the Symphony of Elegies I became less
interested in my immediate musical environment. Its spirit
didn't satisfy me. And I saw more clearly than ever my aims.
Penetrata is also a way. I think it is the way of Vivaldi,
Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Webern, and Vare'se - the main
stream of music. In Russia it was Scriabin who was the last to
belong in this context. Now I hope to take the next step.
(V.Artyomov, 1988; retold by S.A.Whealton)
About Artyomov's music
I am under an incredible impression, almost a shock, produced
by all that I've found in his inexhaustible (for the range of
those problems which can not leave indifferent any human heart)
scores...
Each sound in the Artyomov's music is the heart, the soul, the
nerves, - it is a fine melodics, it is a kind of heavenly magic,
which drives you up - to the purity, self-perfection,
beauty... - I cry, I enjoy it, I suffer, when I work with
Vyacheslav Artyomov's scores...
It seems to me, that we - performers and listeners - are on
the threshold of a greatest musical discovery of the present
time, which are the works of this composer for our culture.
I am delighted, that this nation has got such a composer!
(Dmitri Kitayenko, 1988)
I do not know an analogy for "A Symphony of Elegies" in the
world's music. It is unique.
(Saulius Sondetskis, 1987)
Artyomov is an outstanding composer. His "Requiem" has raised
the Russian music to the unattainable height it had never
reached before. I'm sure it is due to Artyomov that we not only
reached the European level in this genre but surpassed its acmes
- "Requiems" by Mozart and Verdi.
(Tikhon Khrennikov, 1988)
Artyomov has the absolute clear and the absolute unique
composer's visage. Artyomov brings Glory for our country and
the Russian art. Here is Slava ("glory" - in Russian and
Artyomov's short first name) who brings Glory.
(Mstislav Rostropovich, 1990)
Vyacheslav Artyomov holds a special place in Russian music.
(Alfred Shnittke, 1983)
The first part of the tetralogy, the"Way to Olympus", is
stunning.
("The Washington Times", 20.9.1990)
Vyacheslav Artyomov's "On the Threshold of a Bright World" is
even more rare - it is a work of genius...
This is unsettling music, profoundly moving and
extraordinarily beautiful...
Mr.Artyomov has created a frightening vision that has few
peers in recent music.
("The Washington Times", 24.9.1990)
... Mr.Artyomov's miraculous score is an unmistakable, joyful
affirmation. What we are witnessing is music that dares simply
to exist, shining like the sun, allowing us to bask in its
warmth.
Mr.Artyomov's profound religious convictions make him a
rarity among Russian composers and place him in the select
company of Olivier Messiaen and the early Krzyshtof Penderecki
in the international music scene.
("The Washington Times", 26.1.1992)
Vyacheslav Artyomov (1940) graduated from the Moscow
Conservatory in 1968. An examination of his music reveals an
interest which ranges from the archaic ("Invocations", "Totem")
and Christian motifs ("Requiem", "Ave, Maria") to Eastern
meditation ("Awakening", "A Symphony of Elegies", "Moonlight
Dreams"). In spirit Artyomov considers himself an adherent of
the romantic tradition. For Artyomov all elements of musical
language attend to one main purpose - penetration into the
deepest levels of an inner world, discovering of the "Other
World" in oneself. The process of obtaining knowledge of this
world can be a way of the joint moral perfecting of both
composer and listener: Artyomov believes in the transfiguration
of the created world through music.
His music has been performed by conductors - G.Rozhdestvensky,
D.Kitayenko, M.Rostropovich, V.Fedoseyev, T.Minbayev, V.Kozhin,
S.Sondetskis, M.Pletnev, F.Glushchenko, Virko Baley, pianists -
S.Bunin, D.Alekseyev, A.Diyev, violinists - L.Isakadze, O.Krysa,
T.Grindenko, V.Igolinsky, organists - O.Yanchenko, A.Semionov,
singers - L.Davidova, L.Piatigorskaya, M.Mescheriakova, N.Lee,
Ye.Brilyova, L.Petrova.
Ten TV films including full "Requiem", the cycle "Symphony of
the Way" and the premiere in London are prepared in 1992-1995
about Artyomov and his music.
Artyomov is an actual member of the Russian Academy of Natural
Sciences.
Works: Symphony of the Way (tetralogy: Way to Olympus,
1978-1984; On the Threshold of a Bright World, 1990, 2001;
Gentle Emanation, 1991; The Morning Star Arises, 1993);
Requiem, 1985-1988; In Memoriam, 1968, 1984; Gurian Hymn, 1986;
A Symphony of Elegies, 1977; A Garland of Recitations, 1975-1981;
Tristia I, 1983; Ave, Maria, 1989; Pieta', 1992, 1996;
Tristia II, 1997, 1998; Star Wind, 1981; Hymns of Sudden Wafts,
1983; Invocations, 1981; Moonlight Dreams, 1982.
CDs: Elegies ("Melodiya" SUCD 10-00078,"Olympia" OCD 515); Way
("Melodiya" SUCD 10-00079, "Olympia" OCD 516); Requiem
("Melodiya" SUCD 10-00106); Invocations ("Melodiya" SUCD
10-00243, "Olympia" OCD 514); Hymns ("Melodiya" SUCD 10-00244);
Way to Olympus ("Mobile Fidelity" MFCD 903); Songs, Hymns and
Dreams ("Mobile Fidelity" MFCD 918);
Artyomov - "Musica non grata" ("BMG Classics" 74321 56261 2);
Ave ("Boheme music" CDBMR 002124);
Requiem ("Boheme music" CDBMR 011129);
Awakening ("Boheme music" CDBMR 010127);
Lyubetskaya. Redemption ("Boheme music" CDBMR 008126);
Lyubetskaya. God's City ("Boheme music" CDBMR 011128).
Publishers: Kompozitor (Moscow), Agar (Moscow), Muzyka (Moscow),
C.F.Peters (Frankfurt).
Internet:
http://www.hbdirect.com (H&B Recording Direct. Complete Catalog);
http://www.winternet.com/~acm/artyo.htm ;
http://www.edition-peters.de ;
http://www.classicalmus.com (Classics World);
http://www.chat.ru/~horujy/art.html ;
http://www.chat.ru/~v_artyomov ;
http://www.chat.ru/~art_lyub_cd
(source: Vyacheslav Artyomov. (Materials).
Foundation for Spiritual Creativity. Moscow 1997)