Boris Asafyev

Boris Asafyev, who also wrote under the literary pseudonym Igor Glebov, was a Russian and Soviet composer, musicologist, music critic, teacher, public figure, and publicist. He was born in St. Petersburg on July 29, 1884, into the family of a civil servant. His childhood was marked by poverty: his father was strict and drank heavily, while his mother supported the family with sewing. Asafyev studied music from childhood, largely as a self-taught musician, and from the age of twelve he supported himself by giving private lessons. He also broadened his musical experience by attending concerts in St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk, while reading widely in Russian literature and history.

He graduated from gymnasium in 1903. From 1904 to 1910 he studied composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov, and from 1903 he also studied at the historical-philological faculty of St. Petersburg University, graduating in 1908. At the conservatory he became acquainted with Sergei Prokofiev and Nikolai Myaskovsky, with whom he maintained close relations for many years. An important influence on his life was his acquaintance with Vladimir Stasov, through whom he came to know Maxim Gorky, Ilya Repin, Alexander Glazunov, and Feodor Chaliapin. After graduating from the conservatory, he worked as a ballet répétiteur at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Asafyev warmly welcomed the October Revolution and became the author of the first Soviet ballet, Carmagnole. From 1918 he worked in the music department of the People's Commissariat for Education, and from 1919 he served as repertoire adviser at the Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky theatres. In the same year, together with Sergei Lyapunov, he organized the department of music history at the Petrograd Institute of Art History and led it until 1930; there he also headed the Higher Courses in Art Studies and postgraduate training. From 1921 to 1930 he was artistic director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and from 1921 he taught the history and theory of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, becoming professor in 1925 of the historical-theoretical department that he had founded. He took part in a major revision and unification of the conservatory's curricula, helping students receive a full general theoretical musical education alongside their specialist studies.

From 1914 onward, Asafyev's articles, usually published under the name Igor Glebov, appeared regularly in leading music periodicals. The years 1919 to 1928 were especially productive and defined the central sphere of his musicological interests: the Russian classical heritage and the music of contemporary composers. In 1926 he was one of the founders of the Leningrad branch of the Association for Contemporary Music, which promoted the newest works of world and Soviet composers. Through this activity he helped renew the repertory of Leningrad opera theatres, where in the mid-1920s such modern operas as Richard Strauss's Salome, Alban Berg's Wozzeck, and Ernst Krenek's Jumping Over the Shadow were staged. He also studied Igor Stravinsky intensively and in 1929 wrote the first book in Russian devoted to that composer.

In the 1930s, after the dissolution of the Association for Contemporary Music, Asafyev turned more fully to composition and created his best-known works. These included the ballets The Flames of Paris (1932), The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1933), and Lost Illusions (1934), as well as symphonic compositions. His output was extensive: the article attributes to him operas, ballets, orchestral works, chamber music, vocal music, piano music, works for guitar, incidental music for the theatre, and an orchestration of Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina. His literary legacy was also vast, amounting to more than 900 printed works.

At the beginning of the 1940s he returned to research work and continued to labor during the siege of Leningrad. In 1943 he moved to Moscow, where he headed the research cabinet at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory. He also served as a consultant to the Bolshoi Theatre, and from 1945 he was head of the music sector of the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He received the degree of Doctor of Art History in 1941 and in 1943 became an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, the only academician among musicians. In 1948, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Composers, he was elected chairman of the board of the Union of Composers of the USSR.

Asafyev was recognized with many official honors. He was named Honored Art Worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1933, People's Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1938, and People's Artist of the USSR in 1946. He received two Stalin Prizes, including a first-degree prize in 1948 for his book Glinka. The article also describes him as one of the founders of Soviet musicology. He died in Moscow on January 27, 1949, and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.

Connections

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