Arthur Lourié

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.

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.

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.

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.

This list is based on that of the Arthur Lourié Society. Works composed by Arthur Lourié • Title — Year — Medium • Délie/Madrigal funèbre — Voice, piano • 5 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1 — 1908–1910 — Piano • 2 Estampes, Op. 2 — 1910 — Piano • Intermède enfantine, Op. 3 — 1910–1911 — Piano • 3 Études, Op. 4 — 1910–1911 — Piano • Mazurkas, Op. 7 — 1911–1912 — Piano • Doroenka/Fusspfad — 1912 — Voice, piano • Verlaine — 1912–1919 — Voice, piano • Prélude, Op. 12/2 — 1912 — Quarter-tone keyboard • 2 Poèmes, Op. 8 — 1912 — Piano • Salomé-Liturgie, Op. 11 bis — 1912–1913 — Piano • 2 Poèmes, Op. 5 — 1912 — Voice, piano • 4 Poèmes, Op. 10 — 1912–1913 — Piano • Spleen empoisonnée — 1913 • Masques (Tentations), Op. 13 — 1913 — Piano • Menuet — 1914 — Piano • Chetki (Rosary) — 1914 — High voice, piano • Quasi Valse — 1914 — Voice, piano • Grecheskie Pesni — 1914 — Voice, piano • Synthèse, Op. 16 — 1914 — Piano • String Quartet No. 1 — 1915 — 2 violins, viola, cello • Corona Carminum Sacrorum (Ave Maria, Salve Regina, Inviolata) — 1915–1917 — Voice, piano • Suite japonais — 1915 — Soprano, piano • Triolety/Triolets — 1915 — Voice, piano • Pleurs de la Vierge, Op. 26 — 1915 — Voice, violin, viola, cello • 5 Rondeaux de Christine de Pisan — 1915 — Women‘ voices, harp, cembalo or piano • Formes en l'air — 1915 — Piano • Dvevnoi uzor (Order of the Day) — 1915 — Piano • Rodestvo Bogorodicy/Naissance de la Vierge (Birth of the Virgin) — 1915 — Voice, piano • Tri svetlych tsaria (The Three Kings) — 1916 — Voice, piano • Pastorale de la Volga — 1916 — Oboe, bassoon, 2 violas and cello • Oshibka baryshni smerti (Death's Mistake), Op. 40 — 1917 — Piano • 3rd Sonatina, Tret'ia sonatina dlia roialia — 1917 — Piano • Rondel de Stéphane de Mallarmé — 1917 — Voice, piano • Upmann/Smoking Sketch, Kuritel'naia shutka — 1917 — Piano • Azbuka/Dve pesenki dlia detei (text by Leo Tolstoy) — 1917 — Voice, piano • Roial'v detskoi/Piano Gosse/Klavier im Kinderzimmer — 1917 — Piano • Nash Marsh (Our March) — 1918 — Piano und speaker • Bolotnyi popik/Das Sumpfäffchen — 1919 — Voice, piano • Golos Muzy/Voix de la Muse/Voice of the muse — 1919 — Women's chorus • V kumirniu zolotogo sna (In the Temple of Golden Dreams) — 1919 — Chorus a capella • Chetyre Narodnye Pesni Ninei Bretany/4 Chants populaires de Basse Bretagne — 1920 — Voice, piano • Uzkaia lira/die schmale Leier/La Lyre étroite — 1920–1941 — Voice, piano • Elisium/Vosem' stichtvoreniia Pushkina — 1920–1921 — Voice, piano • Shagi Komandora/The Commander's Stride — 1920 — Voice, piano • Lament from Dante's Vita Nouva — 1921 — Women's chorus, strings • Canzone de la Vita Nuova de Dante — 1921 — Women's chorus a cappella • Pesni o Rossii: Korshun — 1921 — Chorus • Dvě kolybelnyia/2 Berceuses — 1921 — Voice, piano • Prochitanie/Chant des Gueuses/The Beggar Woman — 1922 — Soprano, contralto, English horn • Chant funèbre sur la mort d'un poète/Pogrebal'nyi plach na smert' poeta/Funeral Song on the Death of a Poet — 1922 — Chorus • String Quartet No. 2 'A little Chamber Music' — 1923–1924 — 2 violins, viola, cello • Nos (The Nose) — 1923 — Opera • String Quartet No. 3 'Suite' — 1924–1926 — 2 violins, viola, cello • Toccata — 1924 — Piano • Regina Coeli — 1924 — Contralto, trumpet, oboe • Sonata — 1924 — Violin, double bass • Capriccio sur un thème de J. S. Bach / For pipe smokers — 1924 — Voice, piano • 2 chants — 1926 — Voice, piano • Sonnet de Dante — 1926 — Voice, 2 violins, viola, cello • Valse — 1926 — Piano • Petite suite en fa — 1926 — Piano • Obriadovaia / Svadebni Prichet (poslě Bani) — 1926 — Voice, piano • Improperium (pour l'office du Dimanche des Rameaux) — 1926 — 2 violins, baryton, double bass • Marche — 1927 — Piano • Sonnet de Dante — 1927 — Voice, piano • Gigue — 1927 — Piano • Intermezzo — 1928 — Piano • Nocturne — 1928 — Piano • Sonate liturgique — 1928 — Chorus, piano und chamber ensemble • Deuxième Tzigane (Sérénade) — 1928 — Voice, piano • Concerto Spirituale — 1928–1929 — Piano, 3 choruses, brass, 10 double basses, timbales and organ • Divertissement — 1929 — Violin, viola • Le Festin durant la Peste/Das Festmahl während der Pest/Pir vo vremia chumy (ballet in 2 acts) — 1929–1931 — Orchestra, chamber chorus and 2 soloists • Sinfonia Dialectica: Anno Domini MCMXXX/Symphonie 1930 — 1930 — Orchester • Procession — 1934 — 2 women's voices, piano • Tu es Petrus (Motet) — 1935 — Chorus a capella • Berceuse de la chevrette — 1936 — Piano • Naissance de la Beauté — 1936 — 6 sopranos, piano (or cembalo), clarinet, bassoon, crotales • Symphony No. 2 'Kormtchaïa' — 1936–1939 — Orchestra • La Flûte à travers le Violon — 1935 — Flute, violin • Allegretto — 1936 — Flute, violin • Dithyrambes — 1938 — Flute • A Christo crucificado ante el mar — 1938 — Baritone, mezzo-soprano, piano • Phoenix Park Nocturne — 1938 — Piano • Symphony No. 2 'Kormtchaïa' (in 10 movements) — 1939 — Orchestra • A Hamlet Sonata — 1941–1944 — 2 violins, viola, cello • 2 Poems — 1941 — Voice, oboe, Klarinette (in A), bassoon and strings • Toskà - Vospominaniia (Memories of the Past) — 1941 — Voice, harp (or piano) • De Ordinatio Angelorum — 1942 — Chorus, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba • 2 Études sur un sonnet de Mallarmé — 1945–1962 — Voice, flute, piano • Little Gidding — 1945 — Tenor, flute, oboe, clarinet in A, basson, piano, cymbals, and strings • Concerto da camera — 1946–1947 — Violin solo, string orchestra • Paysage de sons — 1948–1958 — Voice, piano • Ave atque vale/Drei Dionysos-Dithyramben (Die Sonne sinkt) (text by Friedrich Nietzsche) — 1948 — Voice, piano • Epilogue — 1948 — 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass • Arap 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 trombones • Postcommunion — 1952 — 5 women's voice a cappella • The Mime — 1956 — Clarinet • Sunrise — 1956 — Flute • The Flute of Pan — 1957 — Flute • Iva/Die Weide — 1958 — Voice, piano • Ernste Stunde — 1958 — Voice, piano • Zaklinaniia/Beschwörungen 1-4 — 1959 — Voice, piano • Ten' (Schatten)/Madrigal — 1962 — Voice, piano • Sibylla dicit (cantata) — 1964 — Women's voices, 4 instruments, cymbals • Funeral Games in Honor of Chronos — 1964 — 3 flutes, piano, crotales

Arthur Lourié is recorded with the occupation music critic. Classed in the genre opera. Recorded as composer, music critic and musicologist.