Arthur Lourié

Artur Sergeyevich Lurye (; born Naum Izrailevich Lurya; ; 14 May 1892 – 12 October 1966), better known as Arthur-Vincent Lourié, was a Russian composer, writer, administrator, and musical agent. Lourié played an important role in the earliest stages of the organization of Soviet music after the 1917 Revolution but later went into exile. His music reflects his close connections with contemporary writers and artists, and also his close relationship with Igor Stravinsky.

Russian career Born into a prosperous Jewish family in Propoysk, he converted to Catholicism while still in Russia. An admirer of van Gogh, from whom he derived the name 'Vincent', Lourié was partly self-taught, but also studied piano with Maria Barinova and composition with Glazunov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1913. He became friendly with the Futurist poets and particularly Anna Akhmatova, whose poetry he was among the first to set. He was also acquainted with Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolai Kulbin, Fyodor Sologub and Alexander Blok; and was deeply influenced by contemporary art. His early piano pieces, from 1908 onward, take on from the late works of Scriabin but evolve new kinds of discourse, arriving in 1914 at an early form of dodecaphony (the Synthèses) and in 1915 at the Formes en l'air, dedicated to Picasso, a rather Cubist conception using an innovative form of notation in which different systems are placed spatially on the page in independent blocks, with blanks instead of bars' rest. At this stage of his career, he seems a parallel figure to Nikolai Roslavets, though Lourié's aesthetic appears more 'decadent'. Essentially, he was the first Russian Futurist in music, and in 1914 was the co-signatory, with the painter Georgy Yakulov and the poet Benedikt Livshits, of the Petersburg Futurist Manifesto, 'We and the West', proclaiming principles common to all three arts.

Revolutionary Russia After the October Revolution of 1917, Lourié served under Anatoly Lunacharsky as head of the music division (Muzo) of the Commissariat of Popular Enlightenment (Narkompros). Lourié held this position until January 1921. Then he took up the position of teacher. For a while, he shared a house with Serge Sudeikin and his wife Vera Sudeikina. His tenure proved to be contentious. When he suggested renaming his music department "The People's Tribune for Civil Music", and styling himself the "People's Tribune", Lunacharsky allegedly replied: "No, Artur Sergeevich, this does not suit us." Alexander Goldenweiser and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov complained to Lenin himself about him. Though his sympathies were Leftist, he became increasingly disenchanted with the Bolshevik order in Russia.

Into exile In 1921 he went on an official visit to Berlin, where he befriended Ferruccio Busoni, and from which he failed to return. His works were thereafter proscribed in the USSR. In 1922 he settled in Paris, where he became friends with the philosopher Jacques Maritain and was introduced to Igor Stravinsky by Vera Sudeykina. Maritain championed his work early on, viewing the young Lourié not only as an important composer, but as a composer with an important capacity to express Catholic theology and philosophy in music. Lourié dedicated a number of his works to Maritain, including the Gigue from 4 Pièces Pour Piano (1928). From 1924 to 1931, he was one of Stravinsky's most important champions, often becoming part of the Stravinsky household as he wrote articles about his fellow composer and made piano reductions of his works. He and the Stravinskys eventually parted company over a feud with Vera, and Stravinsky seldom afterwards mentioned his existence. In his works of the Paris years Lourié's early radicalism turns to an astringent form of neoclassicism and Russophile nostalgia; a dialogue with Stravinsky's works of the same period is evident, even to the extent that Stravinsky may have taken ideas from the younger composer: Lourié's A Little Chamber Music (1924) seems to prophesy Stravinsky's Apollon musagète (1927), his Concerto spirituale for chorus, piano and orchestra (1929) the latter's Symphony of Psalms (1930). Certainly, in his later works, Stravinsky adopted Lourié's style of notation with blank space instead of empty bars. Lourié also composed two symphonies (No. 1 subtitled Sinfonia dialectica) and an opera, The Feast in a Time of Plague. A man of very wide culture, who cultivated the image of a dandy and aesthete, he set poems of Sappho, Pushkin, Heine, Verlaine, Blok, Mayakovsky, Dante, classical Latin and medieval French poets. He was also a talented painter.

American years

When the Germans occupied Paris in 1940, Lourié, with assistance from Serge Koussevitzky, emigrated to the United States. He settled in New York. In 1946, he became an American citizen and joined the staff of Voice of America's Russian division. He was recorded in the 1950 United States census as living in Manhattan with Elizabeth.

He wrote some film scores but gained almost no performances for his more serious works, though he continued to compose. He spent over ten years writing an opera after Pushkin's The Moor of Peter the Great called The Blackamoor of Peter the Great, so far unperformed, though an orchestral suite has been recorded. He also composed a setting of sections from T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding for tenor and instruments (1959).

Lourié died in Princeton, New Jersey.

Works This list is based on that of the Arthur Lourié Society.

+ Works composed by Arthur Lourié Title Year MediumDélie/Madrigal funèbre Voice, piano5 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1 1908–1910 Piano2 Estampes, Op. 2 1910 PianoIntermède enfantine, Op. 3 1910–1911 Piano3 Études, Op. 4 1910–1911 PianoMazurkas, Op. 7 1911–1912 PianoDoroenka/Fusspfad 1912 Voice, pianoVerlaine 1912–1919 Voice, pianoPrélude, Op. 12/2 1912 Quarter-tone keyboard2 Poèmes, Op. 8 1912 PianoSalomé-Liturgie, Op. 11 bis 1912–1913 Piano2 Poèmes, Op. 5 1912 Voice, piano4 Poèmes, Op. 10 1912–1913 PianoSpleen empoisonnée 1913 Masques (Tentations), Op. 13 1913 PianoMenuet 1914 PianoChetki (Rosary) 1914 High voice, pianoQuasi Valse 1914 Voice, pianoGrecheskie Pesni 1914 Voice, pianoSynthèse, Op. 16 1914 PianoString Quartet No. 1 1915 2 violins, viola, celloCorona Carminum Sacrorum (Ave Maria, Salve Regina, Inviolata) 1915–1917 Voice, pianoSuite japonais 1915 Soprano, pianoTriolety/Triolets 1915 Voice, pianoPleurs de la Vierge, Op. 26 1915 Voice, violin, viola, cello5 Rondeaux de Christine de Pisan 1915 Women‘ voices, harp, cembalo or pianoFormes en l'air 1915 PianoDvevnoi uzor (Order of the Day) 1915 PianoRodestvo Bogorodicy/Naissance de la Vierge (Birth of the Virgin) 1915 Voice, pianoTri svetlych tsaria (The Three Kings) 1916 Voice, pianoPastorale de la Volga 1916 Oboe, bassoon, 2 violas and celloOshibka baryshni smerti (Death's Mistake), Op. 40 1917 Piano3rd Sonatina, Tret'ia sonatina dlia roialia 1917 PianoRondel de Stéphane de Mallarmé 1917 Voice, pianoUpmann/Smoking Sketch, Kuritel'naia shutka 1917 PianoAzbuka/Dve pesenki dlia detei (text by Leo Tolstoy) 1917 Voice, pianoRoial'v detskoi/Piano Gosse/Klavier im Kinderzimmer 1917 PianoNash Marsh (Our March) 1918 Piano und speakerBolotnyi popik/Das Sumpfäffchen 1919 Voice, pianoGolos Muzy/Voix de la Muse/Voice of the muse 1919 Women's chorusV kumirniu zolotogo sna (In the Temple of Golden Dreams) 1919 Chorus a capellaChetyre Narodnye Pesni Ninei Bretany/4 Chants populaires de Basse Bretagne 1920 Voice, pianoUzkaia lira/die schmale Leier/La Lyre étroite 1920–1941 Voice, pianoElisium/Vosem' stichtvoreniia Pushkina 1920–1921 Voice, pianoShagi Komandora/The Commander's Stride 1920 Voice, pianoLament from Dante's Vita Nouva 1921 Women's chorus, stringsCanzone de la Vita Nuova de Dante 1921 Women's chorus a cappellaPesni o Rossii: Korshun 1921 ChorusDvě kolybelnyia/2 Berceuses 1921 Voice, pianoProchitanie/Chant des Gueuses/The Beggar Woman 1922 Soprano, contralto, English hornChant funèbre sur la mort d'un poète/Pogrebal'nyi plach na smert' poeta/Funeral Song on the Death of a Poet 1922 ChorusString Quartet No. 2 'A little Chamber Music' 1923–1924 2 violins, viola, celloNos (The Nose) 1923 OperaString Quartet No. 3 'Suite' 1924–1926 2 violins, viola, celloToccata 1924 PianoRegina Coeli 1924 Contralto, trumpet, oboeSonata 1924 Violin, double bassCapriccio sur un thème de J. S. Bach / For pipe smokers 1924 Voice, piano2 chants 1926 Voice, pianoSonnet de Dante 1926 Voice, 2 violins, viola, celloValse 1926 PianoPetite suite en fa 1926 PianoObriadovaia / Svadebni Prichet (poslě Bani) 1926 Voice, pianoImproperium (pour l'office du Dimanche des Rameaux) 1926 2 violins, baryton, double bassMarche 1927 PianoSonnet de Dante 1927 Voice, pianoGigue 1927 PianoIntermezzo 1928 PianoNocturne 1928 PianoSonate liturgique 1928 Chorus, piano und chamber ensembleDeuxième Tzigane (Sérénade) 1928 Voice, pianoConcerto Spirituale 1928–1929 Piano, 3 choruses, brass, 10 double basses, timbales and organDivertissement 1929 Violin, violaLe Festin durant la Peste/Das Festmahl während der Pest/Pir vo vremia chumy (ballet in 2 acts) 1929–1931 Orchestra, chamber chorus and 2 soloistsSinfonia Dialectica: Anno Domini MCMXXX/Symphonie 1930 1930 OrchesterProcession 1934 2 women's voices, pianoTu es Petrus (Motet) 1935 Chorus a capellaBerceuse de la chevrette 1936 PianoNaissance de la Beauté 1936 6 sopranos, piano (or cembalo), clarinet, bassoon, crotalesSymphony No. 2 'Kormtchaïa' 1936–1939 OrchestraLa Flûte à travers le Violon 1935 Flute, violinAllegretto 1936 Flute, violinDithyrambes 1938 FluteA Christo crucificado ante el mar 1938 Baritone, mezzo-soprano, pianoPhoenix Park Nocturne 1938 PianoSymphony No. 2 'Kormtchaïa' (in 10 movements) 1939 OrchestraA Hamlet Sonata 1941–1944 2 violins, viola, cello2 Poems 1941 Voice, oboe, Klarinette (in A), bassoon and stringsToskà - Vospominaniia (Memories of the Past) 1941 Voice, harp (or piano)De Ordinatio Angelorum 1942 Chorus, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba2 Études sur un sonnet de Mallarmé 1945–1962 Voice, flute, pianoLittle Gidding 1945 Tenor, flute, oboe, clarinet in A, basson, piano, cymbals, and stringsConcerto da camera 1946–1947 Violin solo, string orchestraPaysage de sons 1948–1958 Voice, pianoAve atque vale/Drei Dionysos-Dithyramben (Die Sonne sinkt) (text by Friedrich Nietzsche) 1948 Voice, pianoEpilogue 1948 2 violins, viola, cello, double bassArap Petra Velikogo/Der Mohr Peter des Grossen (opera) 1949–1961 Anathema/Motette 1951 Tenor, baritone, bass, men's chorus, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 trombonesPostcommunion 1952 5 women's voice a cappellaThe Mime 1956 ClarinetSunrise 1956 FluteThe Flute of Pan 1957 FluteIva/Die Weide 1958 Voice, pianoErnste Stunde 1958 Voice, pianoZaklinaniia/Beschwörungen 1-4 1959 Voice, pianoTen' (Schatten)/Madrigal 1962 Voice, pianoSibylla dicit (cantata) 1964 Women's voices, 4 instruments, cymbalsFuneral Games in Honor of Chronos 1964 3 flutes, piano, crotales

Selected recordings Arthur Lourié Songs & Choruses: The Rosary, Voice of the Muse, on poems of Anna Akhmatova. Cantata In the Sanctuary of a Golden Dream on collected texts of Alexander Blok, Natalia Gerassimova, Vladimir Skanavy et al., rec. 1994, reissued by Brilliant Classics (2010) Futurpiano: Synthèses (Op. 16), Formes en l'air (for Pablo Picasso). Daniele Lombardi, piano. Rec. 1995. Issued by LTM (2009) 12 Greek Songs to Texts from Sappho, translated by Viacheslav Ivanov (1914) on: Viacheslav Ivanov in Music of Miaskovsky, Lourié, Shebalin, Gretchaninov Ludmila Shkirtil (mezzo-soprano), Northern Flowers (2010) Solo Piano Works, plus Der Irrtum der Frau Tod/Death's Mistake for speaker and piano; 3-CD set, Moritz Ernst (piano), Oskar Ansull (speaker), Capriccio (2016) Complete Piano Works, Giorgio Koukl (piano), Naxos ( 2016)