Edison Denisov Contemporary Music Studies A series of books edited by Peter Nelson and Nigel Osborne, University of Edinburgh, UK Volume 1 Charles Koechlin (1867–1950): His Life and Works Robert Orledge Volume 2 Pierre Boulez—A World of Harmony Lev Koblyakov Volume 3 Bruno Maderna Raymond Fearn Volume 4 What’s the Matter with Today’s Experimental Music? Organized Sound Too Rarely Heard Leigh Landy Additional volumes in preparation: Stefan Wolpe Austin Clarkson Italian Opera Music and Theatre Since 1945 Raymond Fearn The Other Webern Christopher Hailey Volume 5 Linguistics and Semiotics in Music Raymond Monelle Volume 6 Music Myth and Nature François-Bernard Mache Volume 7 The Tone Clock Peter Schat Volume 8 Edison Denisov Yuri Kholopov and Valeria Tsenova Volume 9 Hanns Eisler David Blake Cage and the Human Tightrope David Revill Soviet Film Music: A Historical Perspective Tatyana Yegorova This book is part of a series. The publisher will accept continuation orders which may be cancelled at any time and which provide for automatic billing and shipping of each title in the series upon publication. Please write for details. Edison Denisov by Yuri Kholopov and Valeria Tsenova Moscow Conservatoire Translated from the Russian by Romela Kohanovskaya harwood academic publishers Australia • Austria • Belgium • China • France • Germany • India Japan • Malaysia • Netherlands • Russia • Singapore • Switzerland Thailand • United Kingdom • United States Copyright © 1995 by Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in Singapore. Harwood Academic Publishers Poststrasse 22 7000 Chur, Switzerland This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Kholopov, Yuri Edison Denisov.—(Contemporary Music Studies, ISSN 0891–5415; Vol. 8) I. Title II. Tsenova, Valeria III. Kohanovskaya, Romela IV. Series 780.92 ISBN 0-203-47959-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-47998-X (Adobe e-Reader Format) ISBN 3-7186-5425-3 (Print Edition)(hardcover) 3-7186-5426-1 (Print Edition) (softcover) zvv CONTENTS Introduction to the Series viii List of Plates x Foreword xix 1. A Biographical Outline 1 2. The Composer’s Inner World 34 3. The Composer’s Style and Techniques 40 4. Musical Compositions 84 5. Denisov on Music: Literary Writings and Public Statements 153 Afterword 169 Appendices 171 Name Index 232 Index of Denisov’s Compositions 239 INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES The rapid expansion and diversification of contemporary music is explored in this international series of books for contemporary musicians. Leading experts and practitioners present composition today in all aspects—its techniques, aesthetics and technology, and its relationships with other disciplines and currents of thought—as well as using the series to communicate actual musical materials. The series also features monographs on significant twentieth-century composers not extensively documented in the existing literature. NIGEL OSBORNE LIST OF PLATES Frontispiece: Edison Denisov at home in Moscow (Photograph: Valery Plotnikov) 1 Zagreb, May 1969: Makoto Shinohara, Ursula and Heinz Holliger, Alfons Kontarsky and Klaus Huber 2 With Luigi Nono in a Moscow electronic studio in the mid-1960s 3 With Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Moscow 1988 4 With Pierre Boulez, Moscow, 1967 5 With Ursula Koubler-Vian (1980s) 6 With Pierre Boulez, Moscow, 1990 (Photograph: Viktor Bazhenov) 7 Scene from Confession (Theatre Estonia), 1984 8 Scene from Confession (Theatre Estonia), 1984 (Photograph: Vladimir Krasnoperov) 9 Scene from l’Ecume des jours (Perm Theatre of Opera and Ballet), Moscow, 1989 10 Scene from l’Ecume des jours (Opera de Paris), 1986 (Photograph: Michel Jzabo) 11 At home (Photograph: Monroe Warshaw) 12 With Yuri Kholopov and Alfred Schnittke, Moscow, 1984 1. Zagreb, May 1969: Makoto Shinohara, Ursula and Heinz Holliger, Alfons Kontarsky and Klaus Huber 2. With Luigi Nono in a Moscow electronic studio in the mid-1960s 3. With Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Moscow 1988 4. with Pierre Boulez, Moscow, 1967 5. With Ursula Koubler-Vian (1980s) 6. With Pierre Boulez, Moscow, 1990 (Photograph: Viktor Bazhenov) 7. Scene from Confession (Theatre Estonia), 1984 8. Scene from Confession (Theatre Estonia), 1984 (Photograph: Vladimir Krasnoperov) 9. Scene from l'Ecume des jours (Perm Theatre of Opera and Ballet), Moscow, 1989 10. Scene from 1'Ecume des jours (Opéra de Paris), 1986 (Photograph: Michel Jzabo) 11. At home (Photograph: Monroe Warshaw) 12. With Yuri Kholopov and Alfred Schnittke, Moscow, 1984 Edison Denisov at home in Moscow (Photograph: Valery Plotnikov) FOREWORD Edison Denisov belongs to a generation of composers who came to the fore in the post- Stalinist era and were destined to change the course of Russian music. This generation includes the Moscow-born Andrei Volkonsky, Alfred Schnittke and Sophia Gubaidulina, and some more talented composers from other Russian cities. It would be hard to find a more impressive case of ‘running against the stream’ in the history of Russian music. An artist invariably reflects in his creations the pace of his times. That ‘…wie die Zeit vergeht…’ (Stockhausen) manifests itself in the very spirit of his art and the artistic conceptions underlying his most remarkable works. Modern Russian art, music included, has been naturally involved in the current spiritual movement unfolding both in this country and the world at large, revealing its prevailing trends. It is another matter in what way these trends are reflected. That post-war generation of composers grew up in an atmosphere of totalitarianism raging behind the Iron Curtain, under the upsurge of the ‘personality cult’ and the enforced precepts of so called ‘socialist realism’. Their reaching maturity coincided with persecutions of the best writers, poets and theatrical figures in the late 1940s, the party resolutions on music, and the struggle against ‘formalism’ and ‘cosmopolitanism’. This generation took the challenge and embarked on its own way. For all its individual differences, during the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, it was proceeding through some definite stages: from an unconscious, but mounting intellectual ferment to an open breach with the official ideological doctrines cultivated by the Composers Union, a state controlled body in the musical sphere, towards more and more daring and independent artistic conceptions. On the road to self-expression this generation was guided by the idea of spiritual freedom. It was not stated in their artistic programmes or ‘platforms’, for it was out of the question. Rather, on the contrary, it was disguised in musical experimentation or concealed behind some neutral declarations, which allowed it to stay away from the ruling ideological dogmas and cliches. To be able to profess an idea one had to follow it as a reference point, rather than demonstrate it openly and directly. One of the means of gaining spiritual freedom was to address oneself to the banned modern methods of musical composition. It eventually gave rise to the Russian avant-garde that emerged and developed in music in the late 1950s—early 1960s. Though outwardly it represented just a subsidiary of the Western avant-garde of the same historical period, this trend in Russia was motivated by somewhat different factors. In Western Europe the avant-garde constituted primarily an artistic, musical phenomenon. As for Russia, the natural urge to keep abreast of the times was interlinked here with the process of spiritual emancipation from the ideological pressures of the ruling system. The Russian avant- garde was progressing within the context of ‘the struggle against avant-gardism’. The innovators in music were inevitably subjected to ideological criticism and accused of hidden political motives, though they were spared the sensational scandals that erupted around such ‘dissidents’ as Boris Pasternak and Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The creative personality of Edison Denisov, one of the leading Russian avant-gardists, was shaping up under the above described conditions. In this respect his career is most characteristic. Starting in the Shostakovichian style, Denisov then took a sharp turn towards the New Music cultivated by Boulez and Nono. The employment of modern technical procedures proved to be a powerful means for releasing his creative potential which lay beyond the control of the ruling system. The revelation of an artist’s attitude to the effect exerted by the environment is paramount to opposing it. Denisov’s creative individuality, rooted in the past of Russian music and developed under the beneficial impact of such twentieth-century classics as Stravinsky, Bartók and Webern, got an opportunity to reveal itself to its best advantage in his avant-garde compositions written during the period from the 1960s to the 1980s, beginning with his cantata The Sun of the Incas. The name of Edison Denisov has also been associated with a wide range of matters involved in the creative organization of music as an art of sound production. A change of generations naturally entails a drastic renovation of musical thinking, its genre systems, the logic of its musical language—melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, thematic arrangement, colour effects, and the principles of musical forms. The new image of modern Russian music is still little known in the West. As a matter of fact, it substantially differs from what it used to be in the times of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. This book is an attempt to disclose the inner world and the art of one of the prominent representatives of contemporary Russian culture. Yuri Kholopov and Valeria Tsenova CHAPTER 1 A BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE 1. CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL YEARS The Family Edison Vasilyevich Denisov was born on April 6,1929 in Tomsk, the first university city in the Asiatic part of Russia.