The Orpheus Myth and Plato's Philosophy of Music

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Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed) Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 THE ORPHEUS MYTH IN MUSICAL THOUGHT OF ANTIQUITY, THE RENAISSANCE, AND MODERN TIMES DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Vladimir L. Marchenkov, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1998 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Lee Brown, Adviser Professor James Scanlan Adviser Professor Margarita Ophee-Mazo Interdisciplinary Graduate Professor Charles Atkinson Programs Professor Sabra Webber UMI Number: 9834028 Copyright 1998 by Marchenkov, Vladimir Leonidovich All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9834028 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ABSTRACT The Orpheus myth has played an important role in European musical thought for over twenty-five hundred years. As a comprehensive symbol of the powers of music, it has had an impact on many philosophers and musicians. In Antiquity Plato's treatment of the myth assumed three distinct, yet closely intermingled forms. Orpheus was for Plato one of the great Greek poets of the past whose art represented the supreme achievements of poetry. He was also, in contrast to the first role, a representative of the race of poets whose art had to be radically submitted to the censure of philosophy in Plato's ideal city-state. Finally, the Orpheus myth's symbolism served as a source for Plato's cosmology and music's ethical influence. This symbolism was transformed by Plato into abstract concepts of his theories, as well as into a distinct intermediary form that combined mythical with philosophical language, i. e. into mythosophia. In the Renaissance the interpretations of the Orpheus myth occur within two major trends; aesthetic-humanistic and Hermetic. In Marsilio Ficino's conceptions of music's powers the myth was a source for a theory of musical magic that also served as a basis for attempts to reconstruct and practice magical ii "Orphic” rites. Claudio Monteverdi's and Alessandro Striggio's use of the myth in their Orfeo drew on both the humanistic and magical traditions. Orpheus the magus, however, was completely overshadowed by Orpheus the operatic hero. As a theatrical figure he was understood in fundamentally different ways from the ancient magus. The magus was a real-historical figure for Ficino, whereas Orpheus on the operatic stage was a purely fictional one. Ficino's beliefs about music's ability to influence celestial bodies yielded to purely psychological and subjective view of music's impact. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov used a Russian counterpart of the Orpheus myth as a subject of his opera Sadko. The opera projects a symbolic narrative that communicates Rimsky- Korsakov' s ideas about music, fantasy, and the real world. The effects of music are directly dependent, the narrative suggests, on the moral content of the musician. Music's benign impact on life is only possible when the musician obeys the commandment of divine authority to serve his community. Vyacheslav Ivanov made a conscious attempt to revive the myth in its mystical significance and employed it as a central symbol in his doctrine of theurgy. The composer Alexander Scriabin, whom Ivanov portrayed as a reincarnation of Orpheus' spirit, made an attempt to create the Mysterium, a mystical world-transfiguring act. Scriabin's mysticism, however, defied the basic precepts of Ivanov's understanding of theurgy. The analyses show that a myth can be demythicized by iii philosophical critique, but also restored as a myth through a conscious theoretical effort. The Orpheus myth thus retains its ability to resume functioning as a myth (as distinct from a fictional story), and redefine our conceptions about the powers of music. IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser. Dr. Lee B. Brown, and the members of my committee for their support, advice, patience, and guidance in my work on this dissertation. I would like to thank my wife, Ludmila, and my daughters, Maria and Darya, for their unfailing support and encouragement of my work. They have been a source of strength and inspiration for me during the past few exciting, if sometimes trying, years. I am also grateful to the staff of the OSU Graduate School, and especially Stephanie Griffin, who have helped me on numerous occasions in the course of my interdisciplinary program. VITA June 24, 1957.............. Born, Leninogorsk, Kazakhstan, USSR 1980 ...................... Diploma, English and Danish, Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages, Moscow, USSR 1980-1989..................Translator, Central Pulp and Paper Research Institute, Moscow, USSR 1989-1991..................Translator, Post factum News Agency, Moscow, USSR 1992 - present............ Graduate Research Associate, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Research Publications 1. Vladimir Marchenkov, “Orpheus and Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Philosophy of Art,” Symposion. A Journal of Russian Thought, vol. 2 (1997). 2. Vladimir Marchenkov, “From The Dialectics of Myth,” excerpt from the translation of Alexei Losev’s book Dialektika mifa (The Dialectics of Myth) (1930), Symposion. A Journal of Russian Thought, vol. 1 (1996): 122-140. 3. Vladimir Marchenkov, “Conservative Ideas in Modern Russia,” Slavic Almanach: The South African Year Book for Slavic, Central and East European Studies, vol. 3/Numbers 3-4, 1995, University of South Africa, Pretoria. FIELDS OF STUDY Interdisciplinary Philosophy, Music, and Corparative Studies v i TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .................................................. ii Acknowledgments .......................................... v Vita ...................................................... vi Chapters : 1. Introduction ........................................ 1 2. Outlining the Questions: Myth, Philosophy, and Music ........................................... 6 3. The Orpheus Myth and Plato's Philosophy of Music ............................................ 35 4. From Ficino to Monteverdi: Transformations of Orpheus' Power ................................... 64 5. The Orpheus Myth in Modernity: Rimsky-Korsakov's Opera Sadko ......................................... 126 6. The Orpheus Myth and Musical Theurgy: Vyacheslav Ivanov and Alexander Scriabin .......... 161 7. Conclusions ......................................... 204 Bibliography ............................................. 211 Vll Chapter 1 Introduction This study will address the role that the Orpheus myth played in formulating the views of music’s powers in Antiquity, the Renaissance, and modern times. The Orpheus myth is the most remarkable example in the history of European music culture of the influence that a myth can exercise on musical thought and musical practice. What makes it especially important and interesting is its continuous and active presence from archaic times to the twentieth century. In the course of its history the Orpheus myth has been used innumerable times by poets, composers, artists, sculptors, and philosophers. The history of its uses and interpretations is a rich resource for understanding the roots of our ideas about music and its possibilities. To investigate the role of the Orpheus myth during such an enormous historical period in one study is obviously impossible and one therefore must concentrate on representative cases. For the analyses that will follow we have chosen the treatment of the Orpheus myth by Plato in Antiquity; philosopher Marsilio Ficino and composer Claudio Monteverdi in the Renaissance; and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Alexander Scriabin in modern times. In all these cases the myth (or its Russian counterpart, the myth of Sadko) provided inspiration for articulating beliefs about the powers of music. Plato’s doctrine about music has served as the primary source for the entire history of musical thought in Europe, hence the importance of investigating the factors that contributed to its formation. The Renaissance

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