Lourie A.S. (1892-1966), composer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
LOURIE Artur Sergeevich (Arthur Vinzent) (1892-1966), composer, pianist, musical writer. Studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under A.K. Glazunov. In the early 1910s he became close with N.I. Kulbin and the Futurists, which included his contributions to their collections A Slap in the Face of Public Taste and Our Response to Marinetti. His activities at that time also included writing a manifesto, We and the West (1914), and elaborating the theory of "The Theatre of Reality." He was on close terms with poets and artists belonging to various non-academic movements, whom he collaborated with, took part in musical and poetical soirees, and appeared on the stage of The Stray Dog cabaret. A.A. Akhmatova wrote a script for a ballet entitled A Snow Mask especially for Lourie (1920-21, unpreserved), while the composer himself adapted her poems into the vocal cycles Beads (1914) and Spells (1959). His piano pieces Syntheses and Shapes in the Air convey Lourie's attempt to render the principles of a painterly avant-guard into the language of "revolutionary" musical forms. From 1918 to 1921 he was the commissar of the Musical Department of the People's Commissariat for Education. He emigrated in 1921. The State Russian Museum's collection include portraits of Lourie painted by P. Miturich, L.A. Bruni, Y.P. Annenkov and other artists of the Silver Age.

References: Кац Б. А., Тименчик Р. Д. Анна Ахматова и музыка: Исслед. очерки. Л., 1989; Белякаева-Казанская Л.В. Эхо серебряного века. СПб., 1999.

A. L. Porfiryeva. Akhmatova Anna Andreevna
Annenkov Yury Pavlovich
Bruni Lev Alexandrovich
Glazunov Alexander Konstantinovich
Kulbin Nikolay Ivanovich
Lurie Artur Sergeevich (Artur Vinzent)
Miturich Peter Vasilievich
Нестьев И. В. Из истории русского музыкального авангарда: Ст. первая: Артур Лурье - комиссар по делам музыки // Сов. музыка, 1991
Кац Б. А., Тименчик Р. Д. Анна Ахматова и музыка: Исслед. очерки. Л., 1989 Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Stray Dog, Cabaret
Russian Museum, State