RUSSIAN MUSIC From the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century by B. V. Asafev Igor 1 Glebov Translated from the Russian by Alfred J. Swan Published for American Council of Learned Societies by J. W. Edwards, Publisher Ann Arbor, Michigan FOREWORD The Russian Translation Project of the American Council of Learned Societies was organized in 1944 with the aid of a subsidy from the Rockefeller Foundation. The aim of the Project is the translation into English of significant works in the field of the humanities and the social sciences which pro vide an insight into Russian life and thought. Since Russian history is a continuum, the volumes trans lated are of various dates and have been drawn from both the prerevolutionary and postrevolutionary periods, from writ ings published inside and outside of Russia, the choice depend ing solely on their value to the fundamental aim of the Pro ject. Translations are presented in authentic and unabridged English versions of the original text. Only in this way, it is believed, can American readers be made aware of the tradi tions, concepts, and ideologies by which the thinking and at titudes of the people of Russia are molded. The first eleven volumes in the series were published only after the original translators texts were subjected to a thor ough editorial revision, annotation, correction, or refinement. With the termination of available funds on December 31, 1951 it is no longer possible to give the remaining titles, of which this is one, the same degree of editorial supervision accorded the first eleven volumes. This and the other volumes in the series to be published are, however, documentary material which will be useful to scholars and others more interested in their factual content than in the niceties of their presenta tion. They are, therefore, deserving of publication. With this reservation, it is believed that these works faithfully represent the Russian originals and serve to pro vide that insight into Russian life and thought which is the aim of the Russian Translation Project. It should of course, be clearly understood that the views expressed in the works translated are not to be identified in any way with those of the translator or of the American Council of Learned Societies. Washington, D. C. l5t C V February 15, 1953 CONTENTS Page Foreword iii Introduction for American Readers vii Chapter I Opera in Russia 1 II The Nineteenth Century Russian Song Romance 47 III The Cultivation of the Folk-Song in the Cities 91 IV The Vocal Ensemble 103 V Choral Music Ill VI Russian Instrumental Music 134 VII The Instrumental Concerto 199 VIII Instrumental Chamber Music 209 IX Thoughts on Music 269 Notes to Text References 277 List of Musical Authors 325 INTRODUCTION for American readers In singling out Igor Glebovs pseudonym of Boris Asafev book on Russian Music for translation under the Russian Translation Project of the American Council of Learned So cieties, I was actuated by the following considerations 1 Glebovs position as a thinker about music, and es pecially Russian music, was an assured one since the days of the First World War. It would be no exagger ation to call him the Russian counterpart of Ernest Newman. 2 his book was the first attempt among histories of Russian music, to treat the subject not in the more customary way of a continuous historic narrative, but in the manner of the German Kleine Handbuecher der Musik, each of which is devoted to a separate branch of music. 3 he had amassed an incredible amount of well-nigh unknown material about the early folk-song collections, the precursors of Glinka, and practically all the secon dary figures of Russian music. But, naturally, the principal value of the book lay not in its arrangement, or even in the new material, but in the piercing scrutiny to which the various phenomena were subjected...