Valery Bryusov and the musical world of Russia in the late 19th — early 20th centuries (Introduction)

While there are many studies on biography, literary work, and theepistolary heritage of V.Ya. Bryusov, his connections with the musical world of Russiain the late 19th — early 20th centuries remain on the periphery of research interest.Significantly less attention was paid to the historical and literary study of the poet’spersonal and creative contacts with composers, music critics, and musicologists. Inthe late 19th — early 20th centuries V.Ya. Bryusov’s poetry as a source of musicalcompositions attracted composers of various creative and aesthetic principles, fromrealistic to modernist, each of whom found in Bryusov's works related images,themes and motifs. Today, the names of more than thirty composers, who addressedboth original works and translations of the head of Russian Symbolism, are known.Among them are composers who by the beginning of the 20th century had becomeoriginal figures of Russian musical culture — A.T. Grechaninov, S.V. Rachmaninov,N.K. Metner, R.M. Glier, S.I. Vasilenko — and less known today V.I. Rebikov,A. Kankarovich, A.G. Shaposhnikov et al. One of the first works devoted to this topicwas an article by the poet’s sister, Nadezhda Bryusova, “Music in Valery Bryusov’sworks” (Iskusstvo, 1929, no. 3 – 4), outlining two main areas of research: historicaland literary and theoretical, philosophical and historical. O. Tompakova, V. Dronov,E. Etkind et al. also researched Bryusov’s connections with the musical culture ofRussia at the beginning of the 20th century. Interest in Bryusov’s work did not fadeeven after the poet’s death, many Soviet composers turned to his poetry in the newsocio-political environment. The Appendix contains materials for the annotatedbibliography of music editions related to Bryusov