The Principle of Integrativity in Musicology (On the 140th Anniversary of Boris Asafiev)

Abstract

The article approach musicology as a type of literature. Distinguishing between three types of basic contacts the word and music might establish, the author focuses on the historical analysis of the third type, which is the description of the semantics and style of musical works in musicological and critical publications. The article shows that the dictionary describing music uses the same concepts and terms as the ‘dictionary’ of visual arts. It is noted that the simultaneous emergence of stylistic movements in both art forms, which are referred to using the same terms, implies that the authors of the works and critics perceived the concepts of avant-garde and modernism, on the one hand, and neoclassicism, on the other, as the embodiment of the spirit of the epoch, which marked the early 20th century.

Acknowledging the difficulties that arise when describing works of musical art in terms of their content and style, the author illustrates the possibilities of developing the content of musical images using the language of science and criticism through the scientific and critical work of the outstanding composer, musicologist, art historian, and teacher Boris Vladimirovich Asafyev (1884–1949).

The methodology implied in the analysis relies on the principles of integrative art history, considering the terminological interdisciplinary parallelism of the vocabulary of different types of art in the early 20th century through the lenses of social psychology, philosophy, and semiotics.

The author draws the conclusion that, firstly, the task of imagining the subject of musical content can be solved, apparently, on the basis of the principle of integrativity, which is ensured by the systematic nature of art criticism analysis. Secondly, the systematic approach may be achieved by combining the intersubjective semantic connections of a single object of study — art. Thirdly, the systematic nature of art criticism analysis allows for the identification of at least two main historical universals of art development.

References

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