Alexander Vasilyevich Mosolov
[Mosolov's name is transliterated variously and inconsistently between sources. Alternative spellings of Alexander include Alexandr, Aleksandr, Aleksander, and Alexandre; variations on Mosolov include Mossolov and Mossolow (as in German).] ( rus, Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Мосоло́в, Aleksandr Vasil'evič Mosolov; – 11 July 1973) was a composer of the early Soviet era, known best for his early
futurist piano sonatas, orchestral episodes, and vocal music.
Mosolov studied at the
Moscow Conservatory and achieved his greatest fame in the Soviet Union and around the world for his 1926 composition, ''
Iron Foundry''. Later conflicts with Soviet authorities led to his expulsion from the Composers' Union in 1936 and imprisonment in the
Gulag in 1937. Following an early release, which had been argued for by his Conservatory teachers, Mosolov turned his attention to setting Turkmen and Kyrgyz folk tunes for orchestra. His later music conformed to the Soviet aesthetic to a much greater degree, but he never regained the success of his early career.
Mosolov's works include five piano sonatas (only four of which are extant), two piano concerti (only one movement exists of the second piano concerto), two cello concerti, a harp concerto, four string quartets, twelve orchestral suites, eight symphonies, and a substantial number of choral and voice pieces.
Biography
Mosolov was born to an upper-middle-class family in Kiev, in the Russian Empire. His mother, Nina Alexandrovna, was a professional singer at the
Bolshoi Theater
The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, literally "Big Theater", p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈatər) is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and ope ...
and a graduate of the Kiev school of music, and she gave Mosolov his first musical lessons. The family moved to Moscow in 1904. Mosolov's father, Vasiliy Alexandrovich, died a year later when Mosolov was five years old. After his father's death, Mosolov's mother married a successful painter and teacher, Mikhail Leblan.
Rimsky Rimsky is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov (1753–1840), Russian general
* Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov (1754–1831), Russian courtier and lover of Catherine the Great
* Voin Rimsky-Korsak ...
, "Biograficheskiy ocherk," p. 9. Young Mosolov was greatly impacted by the cosmopolitan lifestyle into which he was raised; both German and French were spoken in the home and the family took trips to Berlin, Paris, and London.
Mosolov attended high school until 1916, and in 1917 worked in the office of the
People's Commissioner for State Control. Through this, he personally delivered mail to
Vladimir Lenin three times, which had a profound impact on the young Mosolov.
[ Henck, "Piano works," n.p.] At the start of the
Bolshevik Revolution, Mosolov volunteered in the
Red Army's
First Cavalry Regiment and fought on the Polish and Ukrainian fronts. He received the
Order of the Red Banner on two occasions.
[ Sitsky, "Man of Steel," p. 60.] He suffered from
post-traumatic stress disorder due to the war and was medically discharged in July 1921.
Rimsky Rimsky is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include:
* Alexander Rimsky-Korsakov (1753–1840), Russian general
* Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov (1754–1831), Russian courtier and lover of Catherine the Great
* Voin Rimsky-Korsak ...
, "Biograficheskiy ocherk," p. 10. Mosolov entered the
Moscow Conservatory, where he studied under
Reinhold Glière until 1925; in that year he began composition studies under
Nikolai Myaskovsky.
Ewen
Ewen is a male given name, most common throughout Scotland as well as Canada, due to the immigration of Scottish people. It is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name, Eòghann. It is possibly a derivative of the Pictish name, ''Uuen'' (or ' ...
, "Alexander Mossolov, 1900–," p. 178. He also studied piano under
Grigoriy Prokofiev and
Konstantin Igmunov
The first name Konstantin () is a derivation from the Latin name ''Constantinus'' (Constantine) in some European languages, such as Russian and German. As a Christian given name, it refers to the memory of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great ...
.
He graduated from the Conservatory in 1925 after presenting his graduation piece, the cantata ''Sphynx'', based on the
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
poem of the same name. That same year, he was granted membership in the
Association for Contemporary Music (ACM).
Despite forays into composition, Mosolov's primary emphasis at this time was with performance, as he was an accomplished pianist. After the performance of his First String Quartet at the Frankfurt Festival of the
International Society for Contemporary Music
The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.
The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...
(ISCM) on 30 June 1927 was met with critical acclaim, Mosolov shifted his focus to composition.
[ Sitsky, "Man of Steel," p. 62.] He was appointed secretary of the Russian section of the ISCM in 1927 and 1928. In 1928 and 1929, Mosolov was commissioned by the Bolshoi Theater to compose a futurist imagination of what
Moscow would be like in 2117 for a speculative ballet called ''The Four Moscows''.
Leonid Polovinkin
Leonid (russian: Леонид ; uk, Леонід ; be, Леанід, Ljeaníd ) is a Slavic version of the given name Leonidas. The French version is Leonide.
People with the name include:
*Leonid Andreyev (1871–1919), Russian playwright and ...
,
Anatoly Alexandrov, and
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
were also involved, each to compose Moscow in 1568, 1818, and 1918 respectively, but nothing ever came of the project.
After the onset of
socialist realism as the official aesthetic of the
Soviet Union in 1932, Mosolov traveled to Central Asia, where he researched and collected samples of
Turkmen
Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to:
Peoples Historical ethnonym
* Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages
Ethnic groups
* Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...
,
Tajik
Tajik, Tadjik, Tadzhik or Tajikistani may refer to:
* Someone or something related to Tajikistan
* Tajiks, an ethnic group in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan
* Tajik language, the official language of Tajikistan
* Tajik (surname)
* Tajik cu ...
,
Armenian, and
Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to:
* Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan
*Kyrgyz people
*Kyrgyz national games
*Kyrgyz language
*Kyrgyz culture
*Kyrgyz cuisine
*Yenisei Kirghiz
*The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China
...
songs. Mosolov became the first composer to create a symphonic suite on a Turkmen folk song.
[ Edmunds, "Ambiguous Origins," n.p.] His settings of folk songs were met with criticism from Soviet arbiters. Rather than simply set the melodies in an orchestral setting, Mosolov used dense textures and polytonality that disregarded the style of socialist realism.
[ Sitsky, "Man of Steel," p. 63.] In 1932 and in desperation, he wrote a letter to
Joseph Stalin pleading for Stalin's influence.
[ Hakobian, ''Music of the Soviet Age'', p. 55n]Yakub
Yakub or Yaqub ( ar, يعقوب, Yaʿqūb or Ya'kūb , links=no, also transliterated in other ways) is a male given name. It is the Arabic version of Jacob (name), Jacob and James (name), James. The Arabic form ''Ya'qūb/Ya'kūb'' may be direct ...
, "Interview with Edisson Denisov." In his letter, Mosolov wrote, "Since 1926, I am an object of permanent badgering. Now, this has become insufferable. I must compose, and my works must be performed! I must test my works against the masses; if I come to grief, I'll know where I must go." He went further to ask for Stalin to "influence the
proletarian musicians and their myrmidons, who have badgered me during the whole last year, and to allow me to work in the USSR" or "authorize my departure abroad, where I, with my music, could be more useful for the USSR than here, where I am harassed and badgered, where I'm not allowed to display my forces, to test myself."
[ Mosolov to Stalin, n.p.][ Kadlets, album notes, n.p.]["Я терплю травлю с 1926 года. Сейчас я больше ждать не хочу. Я должен сочинять и исполняться! Я должен проверять свои сочинения на массе; пусть это будут провалы, но я увижу, куда мне идти и как мне перестраиваться."]
(Since 1926, I am an object of permanent badgering. Now, this has become insufferable. I must compose, and my works must be performed! I must test my works against the masses; if I come to grief, I'll know where I must go.)
"1. Либо воздействовать на ВАПМ и подвапмовцев в смысле прекращения моей травли, тянущейся уже целый год, и дать мне возможность работать в СССР. 2. Либо дать мне возможность уехать за границу, где я своей музыкой принесу гораздо больше пользы СССР. Чем здесь у нас, где меня гонят, травят, не дают возможность выявлять свои силы и проверять себя."
(Either influence the proletarian musicians and their myrmidons, who have badgered me during the whole last year, and to allow me to work in the USSR or authorize my departure abroad, where I, with my music, could be more useful for the USSR than here, where I am harassed and badgered, where I'm not allowed to display my forces, to test myself.)
On February 4, 1936, Mosolov was expelled from the
Composers' Union
The Union of Russian Composers (formerly the Union of Soviet Composers, Order of Lenin Union of Composers of USSR () (1932- ), and Union of Soviet Composers of the USSR) is a state-created organization for musicians and musicologists created in 193 ...
for treating waiters poorly and taking part in a drunken brawl in Press House, a local restaurant.
[ Mikkonen, ''State Composers'', p. 253.] After this, Mosolov traveled voluntarily to the
Turkmen
Turkmen, Türkmen, Turkoman, or Turkman may refer to:
Peoples Historical ethnonym
* Turkoman (ethnonym), ethnonym used for the Oghuz Turks during the Middle Ages
Ethnic groups
* Turkmen in Anatolia and the Levant (Seljuk and Ottoman-Turkish desc ...
and
Uzbek republics to collect folk songs as a form of rehabilitation. His attempts were unsuccessful, and he was arrested on November 4, 1937, for alleged counter-revolutionary activities under
Article 58,
Paragraph 10 of the Soviet criminal code and sentenced to eight years in the
Gulag.
Brooke Brooke may refer to:
People
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Places
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* Brooke, Virginia, US
* Brooke's Point, Palawan ...
, "Soviet Musicians," p. 409. He served in the prison from December 23, 1937, until August 25, 1938. Glière and Myaskovsky had sent a letter to
Mikhail Kalinin, the chairman of the
Central Executive Committee of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, arguing for Mosolov's release citing his turn towards realism, his "outstanding creative ability," and the fact that neither teacher had seen in Mosolov any anti-Soviet disposition. On July 15, 1938, Mosolov's sentence was commuted to a five-year exile—he could not live in Moscow,
Leningrad, or
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
until 1942.
[ Sitsky, "Man of Steel," p. 64.] His quick release, having only served eight months of his eight-year sentence, was possible because he had been imprisoned not on political charges but on an overblown accusation of "hooliganism" brought by Mosolov's enemies in the Composers' Union.
[ Taruskin, ''Defining Russia Musically'', p. 92n19.]
When
World War II broke out, Mosolov composed ''Signal'', an opera which dealt with the war. However, the compositions of Mosolov's later life were so uncharacteristic of his earlier style that one scholar noted that it was "impossible to discern the former avant-gardist in the works written from the late thirties onward".
[ Frolova-Walker, "National in Form," p. 336n8.] Mosolov lived in Moscow and continued to compose until his death in 1973.
Musical style
Mosolov's earliest music implies that Mosolov was influenced by German romanticism,
but this influence waned as he began studying under Myaskovsky and Glière. In an early piece, "Four Songs," Op. 1, Mosolov explored the use of
ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include ...
. Widespread use of ostinato became the defining signature of Mosolov's music:
[ Sitsky, "Man of Steel," p. 69.] ''Iron Foundry'' is built of many ostinati working in tandem to create the sound of a factory, it is used in the Second and Fifth Piano Sonatas, etc.
Dissonance "in the extreme"
[ Lewis, "Alexander Vasil'yevich Mosolov," p. 882.] and chromaticism are also Mosolov's signatures, though he stops short of the structured twelve-tone technique of Schoenberg. Instead of tone rows, Mosolov uses thickly-clustered, heavily chromatic chords to make his point. Folk music also saw use by Mosolov. As the first composer of a symphonic suite on a Turkmen folk song, Mosolov adopted the use of folk music before it was mandated under Socialist realism. His Second Piano Sonata incorporated Kyrgyz melodies, and his "Three Children's Scenes" utilized a city street song. However, instead of carefully setting the music for orchestra, Mosolov handled the music "like thematic grist for his compositional mill."
This use of folk tunes continued after his Stalinist "rehabilitation." However, Mosolov's early works were marked by dense textures and polytonality that was lost after his expulsion and persecution.
Works
Among Mosolov's more notable pieces are his ''Four Newspaper Advertisements'' and ''Three Children's Scenes'', written in 1926. In ''Four Newspaper Advertisements'', Mosolov set four brief announcements in the newspaper ''
Izvestiya'' to music. The topics of the four short pieces range from a lost dog to the announcement of a name change.
[ Hakobian, ''Music of the Soviet Age'', p. 51.] In contrast, the text to ''Three Children's Scenes'' was written by Mosolov himself, and is much darker. The first, called "Mama, give me a needle, please!" is a short song in which the protagonist tortures a cat; the singer even mimics the screams of the cat, and the song ends with a sung shout of "A wicked creature!"
Mosolov's most famous composition, ''
Iron Foundry'', was originally the final movement of a
ballet suite
A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...
titled, ''Steel''. The work premiered in Moscow on December 4, 1927, in a concert held by the
ACM
ACM or A.C.M. may refer to:
Aviation
* AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile
* Air chief marshal
* Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting
* Air cycle machine
* Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia
Computing
* ...
to commemorate the tenth anniversary of
the Revolution
A revolution is a drastic political change that usually occurs relatively quickly. For revolutions which affect society, culture, and technology more than political systems, see social revolution.
Revolution may also refer to:
Aviation
*Warner ...
. Its Western debut was at the
ISCM
The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.
The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...
festival in Liège on September 6, 1930, and it came to America two months later when the
Cleveland Symphony Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Se ...
held a performance.
O'Connell O'Connell may refer to:
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, "Alexander Mossolov," p. 337. Although it was originally praised as "a mighty hymn to machine work" and as a piece that glorified
industrialization
Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
and "the worker", as the years passed the piece began to receive criticism from increasingly conservative Soviet authorities. Some critics argued that the workers, ironically enough, didn't enjoy such music,
Roberts
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People
* Roberts (given name), a Latvian masculine given name
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;United Stat ...
, "Aleksandr Vasil'yevich Mosolov," p. 315. while others argued that the workers, "for whom machine oil is mother's milk," were roused and inspired by music of their time.
[ Leningrad Association of Contemporary Music, ''October and the New Music'' (1927). Quoted in ]Slonimsky Slonimsky is an Ashkenazi Jewish surname popular among people of Belarusian, Polish and Russian people of Jewish origin. It means "a person from the city of Slonim".
Persons with this surname include the following:
*Antoni Słonimski: Polish poet ...
, "Soviet Music and Musicians", p. 3. One critic found in the music "no organized will to victory, in fact very little besides the
petty-bourgeois anarchy", while conceding that it was "striving to find an individual idiom";
Ewen
Ewen is a male given name, most common throughout Scotland as well as Canada, due to the immigration of Scottish people. It is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic name, Eòghann. It is possibly a derivative of the Pictish name, ''Uuen'' (or ' ...
, "Alexander Mossolov, 1900–," n.p. another called it a "grossly formalistic perversion of a contemporary topic".
[ Schwarz, "Opera, Ballet and Orchestral Music" n.p.] Today, only ''Iron Foundry'' remains from ''Steel'': the manuscripts were lost in 1929, the same year that Mosolov came under increased fire from Soviet authorities.
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Leningrad Association of Contemporary Music, ''October and the New Music'' (1927). Quoted in
*
*
*Mosolov, Alexander (2004). "Alexander Mosolov to Joseph Stalin, May 1932". In ''
Russkiy avangard i tvorchestvo Aleksandra Mosolova 1920–1930-kh godov'', by Igor Vorobev. St. Petersburg: Kompozitor.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Chronology of Mosolov's life and compositionsBiography on the official website of MyaskovskyDocumentary film about Mosolov and the forgotten music of the Soviet avant garde
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosolov, Alexander Vasilyevich
1900 births
1973 deaths
20th-century classical composers
Moscow Conservatory alumni
Musicians from Kyiv
Male classical pianists
Male opera composers
Soviet classical composers
Soviet classical pianists
Soviet male classical composers
Soviet opera composers
20th-century male musicians