# Nikolai Roslavets: "The Russian Schoenberg"



## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

Roslavets (1881-1944) is a real historical phenomenon - mostly overlooked because the Soviets censored his music completely from about 1930-1990 for how radical it was.

Anyone who has listened to his music will notice the surface similarity between his music and Scriabin and Schoenberg. However, his fully mature music differs from the two in very important ways:

Scriabin: In the music of his late period (1909 on), he based his music on "sets" of pitches derived from whole tone or octatonic scales, usually consisting of 4-6 notes. The "mystic chord" is one example, but he used many. Within these scales, he usually created harmonies based on extended dominant structures (French 6th, altered dominant) without resolution of the dominant tensions, creating his signature sound. He would usually base an entire piece on one or two of these "sets."

Roslavets: Like Scriabin, he based his compositions on "sets" of pitches. However, in his mature music (1919 on), the pitches in his sets were not based on any scales but were completely freely chosen, and consisted of 8-9 notes. The "sets" were not ordered, so his composition style was not "serialism." He also did not have a preference for dominant harmonies. Thus, his compositional style consists of a unique method of organizing the 12 tones of the scale. The only difference between his music in Schoenberg (who developed serialism around 1923), is that Schoenberg used all 12 tones and ordered them.

In fact, Schoenberg's music can be seen as a logical extension of Roslavets' music, since the only way a 12-tone set can be unique is if the pitches are ordered in some way. Did Schoenberg know about Roslavets' music before he developed serialism? No one knows...

Here's a sample of music from Roslavets' late period, the _Five Preludes_ (1919-22):


----------



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Interesting. I've heard of this composer. Unfortunately I don't have headphones to listen at the moment. I'll get back to this thread.


----------



## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Wow! He may have ordered his music similar to Schoenberg, but that's where the comparison ends. In this piece, he's more lyrical and sensual than psychological. Too bad his country shunted his music to the hinterlands.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I am listening to his Piano Trios 2,3,4 once again (Trio Fontenay). It´s incredibly intense and dense music in a rather Bergian, dark mood; one feels that one is listening to a concentrated symphony, with the atmosphere changing, in the whole range from lyricism to ugliness, sometimes for short intervals, sometimes with a more stable mood for longer periods. It can be exhausting, in a way there´s enough music for a whole day, but one cannot but admire such ambitious and avant-garde undertaking from Roslavets during those turbulent decades of the Russian Revolution. The 4th Trio is the longest and most listener-friendly, sometimes reminding of Brahms a bit I think, yet seems a true masterpiece to me. The 2nd is probably too repetitive though. I can only recommend getting to know especially trios 4 and 3 by repeated listening.


----------

