Nietzsche's Orphans: Music, Metaphysics, and the Twilight of the Russian Empire (Eurasia Past and Present)

336 Pages·2016·4.004 MB·English

by  Rebecca Mitchell

Nietzsche’s Orphans
EURASIA PAST AND PRESENT
General Editors
CATRIONA KELLY
University of Oxford
DOUGLAS ROGERS
Yale University
MARK D. STEINBERG
University of Illinois
Nietzsche’s
Orphans
Music, Metaphysics, and the
Twilight of the Russian Empire
Rebecca Mitchell
New Haven & London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory
of James Wesley Cooper of the Class of 1865, Yale College.
Copyright © 2015 by Rebecca Mitchell.
All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2015941641
ISBN: 978- 0- 300-20889- 4 (cloth : alk. paper)
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For Andrew
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Contents
Preface ix
Note on Transliteration and Usage xiii
Introduction: In Search of Unity 1
ONe  Musical Metaphysics in Late Imperial Russia 25
twO  Aleksandr Scriabin: Music and Salvation 61
three The Medtner Brothers: Orpheus in an Age of Nationalism 104
fOur  Sergei Rachmaninoff: The Unwilling Orpheus 137
fIve  Musical Metaphysics in War and Revolution 165
Epilogue: Reverberations 207
Glossary of Names 227
Notes 235
Bibliography 291
Index 313
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Preface
As an inquisitive undergraduate piano performance student at the University
of Saskatchewan, I spent long hours in the music library’s audio collection in
search of new repertoire. One of my most striking discoveries was a recording
of émigré pianist Vladimir Horowitz performing works by Aleksandr Scriabin, a
composer hitherto unknown to me. Immediately captivated by the composer’s
elaborate harmonies, intense drama, and mysterious mood, I began reading
about this enigmatic figure from late imperial Russia. Why had Scriabin believed
that music would usher in the end of the world, and what was the nature of
his apocalyptic vision? What sort of cultural and intellectual environment had
nourished Scria bin’s seemingly megalomaniacal vision of his power to spiritually
transform reality? What had his contemporaries made of his messianic claims?
How did his vision interact with the political and social upheaval in the final
years of the Russian Empire?
My search for answers to these questions led me ever deeper into the mys-
tical, philosophical, religious, and cultural circles of Russia’s prerevolutionary
elite. Along the way, I discovered many unexpected interlocutors, from German
philosophers to wealthy Moscow merchants and Soviet politicians. My quest to
understand the “true” Scriabin soon transcended the composer himself, leading
to engagement with ever broader questions of modernity, Russian identity, and
empire. This book is the result of my exploration of the complex worldview of Rus-
sia’s cultural elite amid the turmoil of the early twentieth century as they sought to
comprehend and prescribe solutions for the challenges of the modern age.
My scholarly path took many twists and turns along the way, which both altered
my understanding of this project and enhanced my overall intellectual develop-
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