CHAPTER 4 CONNECTIONS AND CONFLICT WITH STRAVINSKY
Connections and Collaborations
A close friendship between Arthur Lourié and Igor Stravinsky began once both had left their native Russian homeland and settled on French soil.
Stravinsky left before the Russian Revolution occurred and was on friendly terms with his countrymen when he departed; from the premiere of the Firebird (1910) in Paris onward he was the favored representative of Russia abroad. "The force of his example bequeathed a russkiv slog (Russian manner of expression or writing) to the whole world of twentieth-century concert music."1 Lourié on the other hand defected in 1922 after the Bolshevik Revolution and, because he had abandoned his position as the first commissar of music, he was thereafter regarded as a traitor. Fortunately this disrepute did not follow him to Paris, where Stravinsky, as did others, appreciated his musical and literary talents.
The first contact between the two composers was apparently a correspondence from Stravinsky to Lourié September 9, 1920 in regard to the emigration of Stravinsky's mother. The letter from Stravinsky thanks Lourié for previous help and requests further assistance in selling items from Stravinsky's
1 Richard Taruskin, Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the 61
62 apartment in order to raise money for his mother's voyage to France.2 She finally left in 1922, which was the year in which Lourié himself defected while on government business in Berlin. The two may have met for the first time in 1923 when Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat was performed at the Bauhaus exhibit in
Weimar, Germany. At the time, Lourié lived nearby in Berlin. Gojowy mentions
1923 as the year of their meeting, but in Paris not Germany.3 The first substantial evidence of a personal introduction is a comment in Vera Sudeikina's diary entry from January 14th, 1924. Lourié, already very much an admirer of Stravinsky, accompanied him to Brussels in January 1924,4 where Stravinsky was conducting his own works and Sudeikina wrote about this occasion that "Lourié is so pleased to be present and to be talking to Stravinsky that he blushes."5
The two composers' professional collaboration was strengthened through shared interests and a common peer group of Russian emigrants. Two photos show Lourié and Stravinsky on a picnic in the Vallée de Chevreuse accompanied by fellow Russian émigrés Vera Sudeikina, Olga Glebova-Sudeikina, and Tamara
Works through Mavra, vol. 2 (Berkeley: University of California, 1996), 1675. 2Vera Stavinsky and Robert Craft, Stravinsky in Pictures and Documents (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), 632.
3 Gojowy, "Zeittafel," 40. According to Gojowy this was on a visit Lourié made to Paris."
4Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 632. On January 1, 1924 Stravinsky and Vera Sudeikina had supposedly sent a letter to Poulenc regarding this trip, yet the Correspondence has no record of a letter on this date. Vera Stravinsky and Robert Craft Dearest Bubushkin trans. Lucia Davidova (London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1985), 20. 5Vera Stravinsky,Pictures, 290. Also see Dearest Bubushkin, 20.
63 Lourié, the composer's wife from 1924 to 1930.6 Though difficult to understand and explain, the relationships between these people are fascinating. Vera
Sudeikina had become Stravinsky's mistress in 1921, yet Lourié, in approximately 1916, had lived in St. Petersburg with her, her husband Serge
Sudeikin, and Olga Sudeikina. Olga Sudeikina had separated in March of 1916 from Serge and was likely Lourié's lover during the time the four shared this apartment.7 Gojowy indicates that Lourié had lived with Serge and Olga, before
Vera arrived, and Lourié's relationship with Olga had made Serge jealous.8 On a trip to Moscow Serge met Vera, at this time Vera Arturovna, who left her husband and came with him to St. Petersburg. Even though Serge Sudeikin divorced Olga to marry Vera, the two women remained close friends. Although
Lourié eventually broke off his relationship with Olga for the poetess Anna
Akhmatova, he and Olga apparently remained friends. Lourié, Anna, and Olga had shared an apartment in the early 1920s. Furthermore, Stravinsky assisted
Olga in her immigration to Paris9 and Vera was the one to formally introduce
Lourié to Stravinsky once Lourié left Germany to settle in France.
From 1924 to 1932, Stravinsky's home was in Nice, France; however, his frequent concertizing and conducting engagements, as well as his affair with
Vera Sudeikina, prompted frequent sojourns to his Paris studio. During this time
6Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 220.
7Ibid., 288.
8Gojowy, Arthur Lourié und der russische Futurismus, 67. 9 Once in Paris, Lourié also assisted Koussevitsky and Glazounov in their
64 Stravinsky made Lourié his musical and literary assistant. Lourié transcribed three of Stravinsky's pieces, the Concertino (1925), the Octet (1926), and the
Symphony of Wind Instruments (1926), and proofed manuscripts. In addition he was privileged to hear the first informal read-throughs of Stravinsky's latest creations. Pierre Souvchinsky states that Lourié was the first person to be shown
Stravinsky’s new works up until the time of Perséphone.10 In gratitude for
Lourié's correction of the proofs for Les Noces, Stravinsky gave him the original full score of L' Histoire du Soldat, which later elicited a reprimand from J. & W.
Chester, his publisher.11 Another piece he proofed was the Octet, in which, according to Stravinsky, Lourié failed to correct a major error.12 During this time,
Lourié had wide access to Stravinsky's music; in response to Ernst Ansermet's request for some of Stravinsky's manuscripts, Stravinsky sent him Lourié's address, stating that perhaps Lourié could send what was requested.13
Stravinsky valued and utilized Lourié's musical expertise as well as his literary abilities. At various times Stravinsky recommended Lourié as an expert on his music and asked him to write articles promoting his music. These articles
emigration.
10Stravinsky, Retrospectives, 195.
11Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 633. 12Ibid., 632-633. This is according to a letter dated October 28, 1926 from Stravinsky to Pachadze. In the 1930s Paichadze, a publisher at Edition Russe de Musique, was Stravinsky's business negotiator and his second closest Russian- émigré friend after Walter Nouvel, who translated Stravinsky's autobiography into French. By this time Lourié and Stravinsky had become more distant for various reasons discussed later.
13Craft, Correspondence, 1:198. Letter is dated Friday, July 16, 1929, and
65 were part of Stravinsky's promotional strategy. As early as Mavra and the
Octet, such articles in newspapers or magazines, or even interviews, radio talks, or public lectures would serve to introduce Stravinsky's newest creations.14 In
1929 Stravinsky proposed to Columbia Records in London that Lourié give a series of lectures in conjunction with a tour Stravinsky would be making through
Germany.15 In effect, Lourié was Stravinsky's official spokesperson during the
1920s. In the article "Neogothic and Neoclassic" of April 1928, Lourié solidified the view that Schoenberg and Stravinsky were leaders of the two opposing camps in the contemporary musical world.16 Schoenberg was the thesis and
Stravinsky the antithesis. This article substantiated Stravinsky's association with
Neoclassicism as well. Boris de Schloezer had first linked the term Neoclassical to Stravinsky in an article from February 1923 that contrasted Stravinsky's
"system of sounds" to Schoenberg's "psychological and expressionistic aesthetic."17
unfortunately the specific manuscript requested is not explicitly stated.
14Ibid., 219.
15Ibid., 290. Also see the letter dated August 30, 1929, from Stravinsky to Universal Edition in Appendix B.
16Arthur Lourié, "Neogothic and Neoclassic," 3.
17Scott Messing, Neoclassicism in Music: From the Genesis of the Concept through the Schoenberg/Stravinsky Polemic (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1982), 130. According to Messing "neoclassicism was easiest to identify when it was expressed in cultural values" (129), and "Schloezer, in fact, defined Neoclassicism as "a rigor, simplicity, and purity that was foreign to the nineteenth-century German Tradition"(131).
66 Lourié and Stravinsky's many collaborations required frequent meetings and correspondences. In perusing entries in Vera Sudeikina's diary Dearest
Bubushkin one notices many lunches and evenings shared between the composers, especially from 1926 to 1929.18 Pierre Souvchinsky, who was perhaps the second closest friend to Stravinsky during the 1920’s after Lourié, nicknamed
Lourié--Stravinsky's "valet de chambre."19 According to an interview that Craft had with Souvchinsky in 1956, "Arthur Lourié . . . was closer to Stravinsky in the
Twenties and Thirties than anyone else. In fact, Lourié's ascendancy between
1920 and 1926 was nearly complete and nearly disastrous."20 When he states the influence was "nearly disastrous" the implication is that Lourié almost succeeded in bridling Stravinsky's creative genius by imposing his own conservative aesthetic beliefs.21 However, Souvchinsky, who never understood why
Stravinsky became so attached to Lourié, likely didn't understand the deeper camaraderie between the composers. Regardless of whether one accepts
Souvchinsky's negative assessment of Lourié's role, Lourié was nonetheless a close confidant to Stravinsky in these years.
18 Gojowy, Arthur Lourié, und der russische Futurismus, 174. Some of the lunches shared between the composers did include Vera and on one occasion Nicholas Nabokov, who claims Lourié was Stravinsky's pet.
19Stravinsky,Retrospectives, 194.
20 Ibid. These dates contradict evidence by Craft earlier and are thus questionable.
21Ibid., 195.
67 This close relationship is confirmed by Robert Craft, who was a collaborator to Stravinsky in later years as Lourié had been earlier. As an
"impassioned liberal" Craft admits to an inability to understand the religious component of the relationship.22 Even so, Craft readily acknowledges that
"Stravinsky respected Lourié's musical opinions, was interested in his philosophical ideas, and enjoyed his company."23 Given that Lourié and
Stravinsky shared a common language, homeland, profession, and friends, it is not difficult to believe the attachment to have been sincere.
Besides many Russian emigrant acquaintances, another common acquaintance was the French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain (1882 - 1972).
Lourié seems to have known the Maritains from his early days in Paris, when
Raissa Maritain introduced him to many people.24 Lourié was away from the lively social atmosphere he had experienced in St. Petersburg and found his saving emotional stronghold in the Catholic circle of Jacques Maritain. A close acquaintance to Lourié in his later years made the comment:
His loneliness and the lack of Russian cultural support made him get close to the avant-garde Catholic circles as Catholicism is universal, apolitical and anti-materialistic. Catholicism replaced the roots of his native country to Arthur Lourié.25
22Peyser, 515. Craft prefers a more humanistic interpretation of Stravinsky's beliefs and is quick to claim responsibility for Stravinsky's absence from Orthodox Services after 1951, citing that he helped to broaden Stravinsky's intellectual basis by introducing him to modern "humanistic philosophies." Stravinsky stated his absence was more out of laziness. Pictures, 516. 23Ibid., 220.
24Lourié later composed pieces to the poetry of Raissa Maritain.
25Graham, 18.
68
Interestingly, Stravinsky met Maritain at a concert of his music in June 1926, shortly after Stravinsky's spiritual conversion.26 Stravinsky valued the friendship with Maritain and stated that "Maritain was amazingly erudite, and though he was unobtrusively so, to be with him was to learn."27 The last meeting between the two was in 1942, when Maritain attended a lecture Stravinsky gave at the
University of Chicago.28
Both Lourié and Stravinsky were preoccupied with questions of spirituality when their friendship was the strongest, 1924 to 1930. Excerpts from
Lourié's letters to Stravinsky reveal his religious fervor, which was to continue to the end of his life. They included prayers written out for Stravinsky, discussions about Lourié's wife Tamara's conversion from Judaism, and thoughts about various theologians.29 Lourié would have discussed similar topics with Jacques
Maritain, especially in regard to his wife's conversion, since Maritain's wife
Raissa was a Catholic convert of Jewish descent. A letter from Lourié to
Stravinsky of November 11, 1924 reads partly as follows: "I have just read the
Spiritual Exercises of Loyola, thinking the while that if you were a theologian, you would write in the same way; you have the same dry passion."30
26Pictures, 632. This is according to a letter from Maritain to Stravinsky. Vera Stravinsky, 27Stravinsky, Expositions, 64.
28Ibid.
29Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 290.
30Ibid., 220.
69 In regard to his conversion, Stravinsky stated that Maritain's influence was indirect at best; yet, when he mentioned that his conversion was affected by the "reading of the gospels and other religious literature,"31 there is no doubt that the writings of Jacques Maritain were a part of this literature. His musical output seems to have been influenced as well. Stravinsky was in a compositional rut just before the time of his renewed profession at the Russian Orthodox church in
1926.32 Yet after this renewal he completed Oedipus Rex and, four years later, his first religious masterwork the Symphony of Psalms. Even previous to his conversion Stravinsky's thoughts and musical genre were affected by Maritain's
Neoclassical philosophy.33 In 1924 Stravinsky sketched a vocal piece named
Dialogue Between Joy and Reason, with a text by Petrarch.34 The title indicates an affinity with Maritain's philosophy. During the same year that Stravinsky had started this sketch Lourié completed his opera The Feast during the Plague, which included a setting of the same text.35 Maritain's religious aesthetic provided a new community in Lourié's case and a much longed for creative energy and inspiration in Stravinsky's case.
31Stravinsky, Expositions, 63.
32Stephen Walsh. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 4. The conversion"may have been connected with a renewed creative need for richness and colour and hidden meanings, after the rather desiccated series of abstract instrumental works."
33Ibid.
34Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 217.
35Taruskin, Stravinsky Russian Traditions, 1588.
70 Louis Andriessen and Elmer Schönberger suggest that Stravinsky's basic philosophy of the 1920s shares so many similarities with Maritain's philosophy that the influence is undeniable. These authors conclude that, "it remains a fact that Lourié--as a mouthpiece for Maritain--was largely responsible for formulating Stravinsky's homo faber philosophy as reflected in Stravinsky's own writings and in publications written under his supervision or with his permission."36 The "homo faber philosophy" is otherwise known as "the ideal of the village virtues, meaning the moral superiority of simple things."37 The philosophy is a precursor of the new classicism. Stravinsky himself never acknowledged Maritain's influence on his aesthetic views, even though Roland-
Manuel, who collaborated on the Poetics with Stravinsky, was close to the
Maritains.38
Various biographical studies on Stravinsky mention Maritain's influence on Stravinsky, and Stephen Walsh even states that Maritain promoted a sort of religious Neoclassicism.39 Maritain's book Art and Scholasticism (1920) dealt with art and aesthetic considerations, emphasizing "the fact that art is a result of active
36Louis Andriessen and Elmer Schönberger, The Apollonian Clockwork: On Stravinsky, trans. Jeff Hamburg (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 94.
37Igor Stravinsky and Robert Craft Dialogues and a Diary (London: Faber & Faber, 1961),159. Also see Eric Walter White, Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1979), 54-55.
38Raissa Maritain listed Roland-Manuel as one of the voices of his time. "Roland Manuel, Ravel's friend and historiographer, fervent admirer of Satie and Falla, and himself a musician of great talent, who is bound to us by so many memories and so much affection." Raissa Maritain, 35.
39Walsh, Oedipus, 4.
71 labour and that the work of art is an artifact."40 Maritain's remarks about the artist and artifact will sound familiar to anyone who has knowledge of
Stravinsky's statements about the role of the composer as craftsman in the Poetics of Music (1942). In this same book Stravinsky's idea of the Neoclassical style is also expressed in his compositional motto, "the acceptance of limits as a means to freedom."41 Stravinsky's acceptance of such limits and his continued adaptation of classical styles reflected a deeper religious need, the pursuit of an earlier and more ideal civilization.42
Martain's religious philosophy "reconciled reason and belief, was intellectualistic, provided answers to every question just like any totalitarian ideology, and formulated statutes for classicism, especially for the spiritually homeless artists."43 These years between the wars were a tumultuous time of spiritual upheaval in the lives of many artists, and Maritain's message was pervasive and appealing. Lourié and Stravinsky admired him as a religious thinker and, like many other artist-intellectuals, found that his disciplined ideology in many respects supported the New Simplicity known as
Neoclassicism and its opposition to Romanticism. According to Maritain's wife:
40Andriessen and Schönberger, 87. This book is an excellent source with which to explore the triangular relationship that existed between Maritain, Lourié and Stravinsky.
41Grout, 849.
42Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Stravinsky, Igor, "1980, 253.
43Andriessen and Schönberger, 86
72 Those were the days of the search for "purity" in art. Of course this did not mean moral purity. This search, ever since Mallarmé, had been growing in precision and in rigorousness. The artistic conscience was truly purifying itself, tending toward that "discovery of the spiritual in the sensible" which not only defines poetry but defines the soul of every art, painting as well as music and the theater.44
The group known as the French Six--Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger,
Darius Milhaud, Germaine Tailleferre, Georges Auric, and Francis Poulenc-- sought this purity in art. Along with Stravinsky, these artists found themselves looking toward the simplicity of the past as a reference point for greatness, and, through the writings of Maritain, they found a mystical link between their own search for simplicity and a religious philosophy which discussed beauty and reason. The link with spirituality elevated and made implicit what was already being expressed explicitly in musical compositions which were written stylistically without excess.
Jean Cocteau advocated and perhaps more than anyone else defined the new classicism. Cocteau, like The Six pursued the quest of "disenchanting"
French music from Wagner and Debussy.45 Besides being the theoretical spokesperson for The Six, Jean Cocteau was a poet, painter and the librettist for
Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. The homo faber philosophy, Stravinsky's earlier philosophical bent, was a sort of humanistic precursor to Neoclassicism, and both Jean Cocteau and C.F. Ramuz, Stravinsky's collaborator on Les Histoire du
44Raissa Maritain, 33. 45Ibid., 34. Later Cocteau apologized for his accusations against Debussy, stating that "in reality I was attacking Debussyism." He had learned to appreciate Debussy's music. Raissa Maritain, 33.
73 Soldat, espoused this philosophy. Before finding the answer to his search for truth and the essence of beauty, Cocteau experienced a depression that led to opium addiction. While at a sanitarium in 1925 he found a contemplative peace with the help of Maritain, who had become his friend sometime around 1917.
During this experience a series of letters were exchanged between Cocteau and
Maritain and both sent copies to Stravinsky. The following excerpt from Art and
Faith: Letters Between Jacques Maritain and Jean Cocteau reveals Cocteau's poetic pathway to faith, as well as his respect for Stravinsky at this time:
A priest struck me with the same shock as Stravinsky and Picasso. Thus he furnishes me with a proof of God's existence; for Picasso and Stravinsky know how to cover the paper with divine signs, but the Host is the only masterpiece Charles (the priest sent by Maritain) offers me.46
In another excerpt, Cocteau says that "only love and faith enable us to go out of ourselves."47 Cocteau found an expression of his own artistic desire in
Stravinsky's creative endeavors, for there is an authenticy and love that
Stravinsky "imparts to every composition".48 These statements indicate that
Cocteau believed Stravinsky was influenced by the religious philosophy of
Maritain, and Cocteau desired the same sort of spiritual renewal that he believed
Stravinsky had undergone or was undergoing. It is not surprising that in 1918
Cocteau's book Le Coq et l'arlequin hailed Erik Satie as the most representative
46Jacques Maritain and Jean Cocteau, Art and Faith: Letters Between Jacques Maritain and Jean Cocteau, trans. John Coleman (New York: Philosophical Library, 1948), 41. 47Maritain and Cocteau, 54.
74 Neoclassical composer; however, when the book was reissued in 1925, an afterforward gives prominence to Stravinsky.
Cocteau writes that "Satie was our schoolmaster,"49 and "set the example of a musical saint. . . . I saw him substitute form for the reflections of form."50 By the time Satie died in 1925, Stravinsky had become the new "schoolmaster" and only
Milhaud, among The Six, remained loyal to Satie's legacy.51 Satie at the end of his life was also close to Maritian. "During those last days the musician and the philosopher understood each other as though companions in mystery and became friends beyond death."52 Thus, Cocteau and Satie's connection with
Maritain reveals a further link between Maritain's religious philosophy and the
Neoclassical aesthetic then prevalent in music.
From Lourié's perspective the aesthetic of New Simplicity became an important counterpart of Stravinsky's spiritual crisis in the 1920s. Lourié himself encouraged this connection. At Stravinsky's request, Lourié wrote an article about Apollo Musagetes.53 In it Lourié propagated Stravinsky's "new musical philosophy in the light of Thomist ideas on the correlation of esthetics and ethics
48Ibid., 28.
49Raissa Maritain, 33. A quote from 1916.
50Maritain and Cocteau, Letter to Jacques Maritain. Raissa Maritain, 34.
51Ibid., 33. 52Ibid.
53Arthur Lourié, "Apropos de 'l' Apollon' d'Igor Stravinsky," Musique (December 12, 1927).
75 that Lourié, a disciple of Jacques Maritain, had been inculcating in Stravinsky since the beginning of their acquaintance."54 In another article, Lourié writes:
Stravinsky, after playing the role of the bellicose king of the underbrush, of the steppes and the jungle, of the nonconformist . . . restores [the canon] of Johann Sebastian and utilizes it as a polemic against modernism.55
Perhaps Lourié's regard for Stravinsky influenced Maritain's view of the composer. Maritain admired the earliest forms of the new simplicity and stated that the "effort toward 'pure art' in the latter part of the 19th century may have been a beneficent phrase after the "exasperation of sensibility provoked by impressionism."56 However, in Art and Scholasticism from 1920 he wrote that
"Wagner and Stravinsky belonged to the same line of development, diametrically opposed to Gregorian chant and Bach."57 Later in the revised edition a footnote reads as follows: "On the whole, Stravinsky's 'remarkable, disciplined oeuvre with its profusion of truth' was still 'the best lesson in creative greatness and strength, an oeuvre that really did meet the rigours of strict classicism.'"58
Although Debussy and Satie offered models of simplicity, Stravinsky's music defined the Neoclassical aesthetic. In the Poetics Stravinsky states that a
54Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 219.
55Watkins, 44. Arthur Lourié's "Lecons de Bach," La Revue musicale 13.131 (1932): 60-64.
56Paul Edward, ed. Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: Collier- Macmillan, 1967), s.v."Maritain, Jacques," by Joseph W. Evans.
57Andreissen and Shönberger, 92.
58Ibid.
76 "classical work was a triumph of order and measure over the self-centered
Romanticism."59 While this statement has certain affinities with Maritain's religious philosophy in its opposition to Romantic emotionalism, there is in the end a more prominent tendency toward humanism, which had been the dominating philosophy in the Classical era. Another statement by Stravinsky frequently mentioned in regard to Neoclassicism is the idea that music is powerless to express anything. He stated as much in his article about the Octet:
"My Octuor in not an 'emotive' work but a musical composition based on objective elements which are sufficient in themselves."60 This ideology was appealing to The Six, yet those, including Lourié, who were inclined to believe that a spiritual quality was within music's grasp were not convinced that such an objectivity existed or was desirable. This philosophical difference led the composers apart in various ways.
Disconnection and Conflicts
"As the 1930s ended and Stravinsky was preparing to marry Vera de
Bosset, . . . the friendship between the two [Lourié and Stravinsky] ended and became outright enmity."61 Lourié considered Vera Sudeikina, formerly Vera de
Bosset, a worldly influence and compared her "paganism" to Stravinsky's own
59Ibid., 86.
60Igor Stravinsky, "Some Ideas about My Octuor," The Arts, (January 1924); reprinted in Eric Walter White, Stravinsky, 2d ed., (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1979), 574.
77 religion.62 When Stravinsky's wife Katherine died in March of 1939 after a long illness, Lourié joined with Stravinsky's children in opposing the marriage to Vera
Sudeikina.63 The breach in their relationship was caused by this personal disagreement, and other more underlying differences of conviction that will be discussed.
Lourié commented later in life that although he thought Stravinsky was "a man of great talent," he did not think he was a genius.64 He asserted that
Stravinsky "changed his style too much, that he was facile and clever: a clever technician and composer."65 In Lourié's diary is the following assessment:
[It was] a musical association with tensions and clashes. What fascinated me about him in this epoch was the effortlessness and energy of his lifestyle. We were the same with respect to the appetite for life in its plastic aspect, the sense for action, the taste and the fragrance of things. What disgusted me was his despotism, his egocentricism. I never experienced the consequences of this personally, but [was] in his vicinity.66
In addition to the criticism of Stravinsky's character and his relationship with Vera Sudeikina cited above, Lourié seems to accuse Stravinsky of immorality on the basis of his musical preferences. From "Crisis in Form" Lourié writes:
61Roziner, 38.
62 Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 290. Known from a letter Lourié sent to Stravinsky shortly after visiting Nice and upon meeting Vera Sudekina back in Paris.
63Roziner, 38. 64Ibid.
65Ibid.
78 Modernism at first pursued the goal of unity of form and content in some new aspect. But further development gave a decided predominance to the formal element. The entire complex of spiritual values came to be regarded as something leading the thought and desire of the artist away from the single important objective, the search for new form.67 Stravinsky led this modern school in a return to forms of the past.
Although reluctant to claim that his "classicism" lay in his choice of gestures borrowed from the eighteenth century,68 Stravinsky agreed that he was
Neoclassical in that his compositions "reflected an affinity with formal procedures of early music."69 Later in life Stravinsky vowed that "I am not neo- classic; I have simply devoted myself to a more austere form of construction, but
I have remained a modern composer."70
In his article, "An Inquiry into Melody,"(1929) Lourié criticized modern music for its rhythmic emphasis and lack of important melodic content, referring specifically to Stravinsky's Les Noces.71 "This was an article which contained many general and hidden as well as concrete and open attacks against his
[Stravinsky's] position."72 Quoting scripture Lourié argued that "from the
66Gojowy, Hindemith 8, 6. Lourié Diary at the Laloy Collection in Paris.
67Lourié, "Crisis in Form," 9-10. 68Messing, 148.
69Ibid., 149. The term Neoclassicism "connotated an attachment to the past by the use of the surface design of eighteenth-century forms or melodic and rhythmic gestures." Messing, 87.
70Heinrich Strobel, "Igor Strawinsky," Melos, 14.13 (1947); quoted in Messing, 379.
71Lourié, "Inquiry Into Melody," 7.
72Gojowy, Arthur Lourié und der russische Futurismus, 189.
79 overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."73 Since melody was the essence of music's sublime qualities, once it is lost in musical craft the heart has somehow also become lost and evil. "Our melodic gift is in direct ratio to our capacity for good, not in the sentimental but in the religious sense."74 Melody
"discloses the nature of the subject, not the object," and is the test of genuine art.
The new asceticism with its "reaction against the subjective" had become impersonal and thus less than genuine.75
Lourié's outspoken comments in regard to specific Stravinskian traits are actually evidence of a paradigm shift with regard to Neoclassicism.
In the 1930s Lourié argued . . . against the neoclassical idea of an 'objective music', as he had written before in Crisis in Form (1931). It was a fight against Stravinsky and the French neoclassic composers--on the contrary he emphasized the value of traditional emotion and the subconscious conventions of listening.76
Lourié's comments reflect his continued loyalty to a religious world view and the aesthetic philosophy of Maritain. The transformation of Neoclassicism that Stravinsky made from the early, more "pure" stages was the point where
Lourié and Stravinsky took different paths. By definition and in practice
Neoclassicism glorified objectivity and expressive restraint as its primary aesthetic goal rather than religious sentiment or purity.77 The earlier New
73Luke 6:45. 74 Lourié, "Inquiry Into Melody," 5.
75Ibid., 4.
76Gojowy, World Congress, 7.
77The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, 1986 ed., s.v. "Neoclassicism."
80 Simplicity, as represented by the mystical music of Erik Satie, evolved as the result of a quest for objectivity. Lourié simply did not accept Stravinsky's idea that music was powerless to express anything, which would by default include religious symbolism and expression.78
Lourié was disturbed by the emotional void he believed was left by the new philosophy and disagreed with Stravinsky's modifications of the new simplicity, modifications that came to define our current notions of the
Neoclassical musical aesthetic. In his article "Neogothic and Neoclassic," from
1928, Lourié predicted the demise of the Neoclassical movement because of its increasing formalism, but he was not ready to label Stravinsky as part of the problem. His earlier defense of Stravinsky had been based on a belief that
Stravinsky's works were examples of true and pure art, reflecting an older liturgical language, as he stated regarding Oedipus Rex.79 Lourié condemned the art of the 1800s and 1900s because it claimed to be a substitute for religion. "In this it opposed the eternal truthfulness of religion and dragged out religion like a
Neoclassicism's "chief aesthetic characteristics are objectivity and expressive restraint, its principal technical ones, motivic clarity, textural transparence, formal balance, and reliance upon stylistic models." 78Chroniques, 53-54. According to Glenn Watkins, after the publication of Stravinsky's biography in 1935 there is evidence that Maritain and Stravinsky's"philosophies were not totally in harmony with each other. Stravinsky's dictum that 'Music is powerless to express anything at all,' properly understood as a belief in the absolute autonomy of music, was questioned and pitted against Maritain's view concerning, ‘creative emotion and intuition.' " Glenn Watkins, Soundings: Music in the Twentieth Century (New York: Schirmer Books, 1988), 466.
79Arthur Lourié, "Oedipus Rex," La Revue Musicale 8 (June 1927), quoted in Gojowy, Arthur Lourié und der russische Futurismus, 174.
81 parasite, food."80 It is ironic that the initial stage of Neoclassicism which both
Lourié and Maritain admired would be transformed into a more objective form as a result of Stravinsky's musical aesthetic, when both of them had influenced
Stravinsky's beliefs, but desirous for a different aesthetic outcome.
An examination of Lourié's writings alongside the letters in the
Correspondence, published by Craft, reveals the effect that Lourié's shift in loyalty and criticism had on Stravinsky's loyalty to him. Lourié linked his deepening religious beliefs to his aesthetic views and created his own definition of greatness in music. Stravinsky, while also religious, saw his faith as the catalyst for an industrious work ethic, rather than as a philosophy which determined his musical style. He was offended by Lourié's comments, and reciprocated with his own criticism. In a letter to Ernst Ansermet from April 19, 1930, Stravinsky claimed that "Lourié's article has not pleased me much this time. I am somewhat of your opinion."81 Another comment that Stravinsky made in an interview from
January of 1925 could have been a criticism of Lourié's early involvement in
Futurism. "My objective is not to shock the world with stock phrases and theories, which, like 'Futurism' have turned into mere formulas."82 After 1931,
Stravinsky met frequently with Ernst Ansermet and Nadia Boulanger, while only
80Gojowy, Arthur Lourié und der russische Futurismus, 174.
81Correspondence, 1: 211. Unfortunately the exact opinion which Ansermet had voiced is not found in previous letters, because Ansermet's side of the letters is not published in this volume. Because of the date of this letter, the article referred to is likely "An Inquiry into Melody" from December of 1929. 82 Messing, 141. Another version of Stravinsky's words is: "They started out by trying to write so as to shock the Bourgeoisie and finished up by pleasing the Bolsheviki."
82 two diary entries mentioned meeting with Lourié.83 A letter from Lourié to
Stravinsky dated September 5, 1935 demonstrates Lourié's outcast status, because unlike in the past Lourié can no longer reach Stravinsky on the telephone; "Now I have to make arrangements through others and the result is perpetual postponement." Lourié was no longer correcting proofs for Stravinsky.
As indicated in letters to his publisher, Boulanger was given complete jurisdiction over the final proofreading for the Symphony of Psalms.84
Lourié's biography on Koussevitzky also strained the relationship, as
Stravinsky disliked the conductor. Lourié says in a letter to Stravinsky from
September 20, 1930, "I wrote quite candidly about his performance of your music, saying that, despite all of his love for your compositions, he is fundamentally at odds with them."85 A few weeks earlier Lourié, Paidchadze, and Koussevitzky heard Stravinsky play through his newly completed work, the Symphony of
Psalms. Stravinsky recalled that Lourié was there; the same Lourié "who brought Koussevitzky the terrible book that he had commissioned, thinking that
Lourié's pen would know how to immortalize his 'genius'."86 Stravinsky seems hypocritical in his stance toward Lourié's involvement with Koussevitzky, given that the Symphony of Psalms was commissioned by Koussevitzy, who requested
83Vera Stravinsky, Dearest Bubushkin.
84Ibid., 1: xvii.
85Ibid., 1: 216-217. 86 Ibid. Stravinsky to Ansermet in a letter from September 3, 1930.
83 that Stravinsky write a major work commemorating the Boston Symphony
Orchestra's fiftieth anniversary.87
Even though both composers later emigrated to the United States, they never visited each other. "His name [Lourié's] became so unmentionable in the
Stravinsky household that even the closest musical associate of his later years, his
'surrogate son' Robert Craft, felt unable to question him about this shadowy figure."88 In 1945 Vera writes in her diary that "the Dushkins come this afternoon to try to effect a reconciliation between us and Arthur Lourié, but Igor will not listen."89 Upon Lourié's death Stravinsky exhibited more detachment and sarcasm than grief.90
According to Detlef Gojowy, the primary Lourié scholar, the rift between the two hurt Lourié's career.91 Perhaps because of his growing religiosity and opinions against the main stream musical establishment, Lourié became an embarrasment to his former peers. If this is the case, Stravinsky, who was quite
87The premier in the United States was in Boston on December 19th, 1931, conducted by Serge Koussevitzky. Koussevitzky had commissioned the work, yet the performance in Europe came first because the conductor got sick and the earlier scheduled U. S. premier was canceled.
88Oliver, Igor Stravinsky, 107.
89Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 290. In the diary, Dear Babushkin, this is not included among the texts selected by Craft. Vera Stravinsky, Dear Babushkin, 132.
90 Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 290-291. After reading an obituary by Henri Massou in Le Monde which contained a statement by Lourié that "Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky knew each other well and mutually influenced each other," Stravinsky responded that "he was unaware that Bach and Mozart had been influenced by each other, let alone by himself."
84 concerned about his public image, would have been tentative in his support.
Lourié, in admiration, affectionately linked himself to one of the most powerful forces of twentieth century music, whom he had in turn found quite sympathetic to his own ideas and presumably to his music. Although after Lourié's death
Stravinsky wrote to Ansermet stating that he had never seen a single page of
Lourié's music or heard a note,92 this statement is inaccurate; Ansermet comments in a letter from December 31, 1929 to Stravinsky that "I received a letter from Lourié radiating joy because of the interest that you have shown in his work."93 In addition, Stravinsky attempted to find a publisher for Lourié's music and sent his own publisher Willy Strecker of Schott Söhne some of this music, which included the Concerto Spirituale and Sinfonia Dialectica.94 Perhaps
Stravinsky felt obligated to Lourié for his help in securing Stravinsky's mother's visa. From one of their first contacts, Stravinsky had complied with Lourié's large request, as passed along to Stravinsky by his mother, to have all of
Stravinsky's music since 1914 sent to Lourié in Russia.95 The two composers were in fact quite indebted to each other in different ways.
91Gojowy, World Congress, 7.
92Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 291.
93Ibid.
94Craft, Correspondence, 1: 216. 95Vera Stravinsky, Pictures, 632.
85