The World and the Human Being of the Beginning of the 20th Century Reflected by the Art of Music in Russia. First Essay

In the beginning of the first of a series of essays devoted to the issue of the reflection of the human being in the art of music, there is a proposition of a periodization of art, the concepts of the Classical Era and the Modern Era are substantiated, which makes it possible to examine their interaction during the period between the 1890s and the 1920s. Subsequently they are manifested in the beginning of the 20th century. When studying the art of music in Russia of the indicated time periods, we must presume its status of a multinational state, which was inherited by the Soviet state. For this reason, the analysis draws in artefacts pertaining not only to the Russian compositional school, but also to those of other peoples (chiefly, those of the Ukraine, the Baltic countries and the Trans-Caucasus). At the same time, there is no dividing line presented between the musical legacy of the pre-revolutionary and the post-revolutionary periods, so the musical compositions of Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Davidenko, Vitols and Komitas, as well as many others are analyzed on an equal footing. While recreating the artistic picture of the world by means of comprehension of this material, the author deems the radical innovation and cardinal spreading of living horizons to be one of the most important existential processes. The 20th century began its evolution with a most intensive production of ideas, discoveries and innovations. This was a real boom of modernization, a truly revolutionary upheaval. In the context of the headlong expansion of the Modern Era the overcoming of inertia frequently presumed a challenge to the past, a break with it, or its subversion. By means of a harsh dismantlement of previous perceptions and notions, at times through considerable expenditures a breakthrough was made into a qualitatively new living reality, a principally different type of world perception, psychology, motional-emotional attitude was created. All of this is viewed through analysis of image-related lines connected with the categories of the macrocosm and the microcosm, youthful subject matter, neo-folklorism, active-transforming initiatives in the hypostases of heroism and dynamism.