The article is devoted to the feature film “Solaris” by Andrey Tarkovsky—one of the masterpieces in author’s intellectual cinematograph of the second half of the 20th century. The interpretation of the conceptual intention of this film as the comprehending of the “mystery of holiness and God”, which belongs to the prominent Russian philosopher and culturologist G. Pomerants, is outwardly paradoxical. In interviews and notes by An. Tarkovsky about “Solaris”, in numerous film studies and critical essays by domestic and foreign authors, religious problems are barely outlined, the priority role is given to the philosophical, ethical and sociocultural aspects of the future “contact of minds”. At the same time, the particular artistic and sensual significance of the musical line (by the composer E. Artemiev) is ignored or perceived in a deliberately simplified way. The key element of this soundtrack is a quote from J. S. Bach’s music — the Organ Choral Prelude “Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ” BWV 639. This quotation (in fact, endowed with the function of a link between the imaginative spheres of “The Earth” and “The Ocean Solaris”) sounds four times throughout the film — at first in the original version and subsequently in specific electronic “instrumentations”. The implied confessional-liturgical text of the Protestant chorale of the 16th century (J. Agricola) is organically combined with the musical-exegetical interpretation of the High Baroque era (J. S. Bach), as well as with the composer’s later “impression” about this interpretation (E. Artemiev) and mysterious “sound esotericism” of Solaris. Under the conditions of the film’s multi-level artistic structure, the choral motif of the “penitential soul” is set off by bright pictorial and associative “comments” from world religious painting, and the scenario description of the alien “Ocean as Super-mind” is clearly likened to the Divine “absolute morality”.
1. Artemyev, Eduard N. 1989. “On byl i ostanetsya dlya menya tvortsom [He Was and Will Remain for Me as Creator].” In O Tarkovskom: Vospominaniya [On Andrei Tarkovsky: Recollections], compiled by M. A. Tarkovskaya, 211–23. Moscow: Progress. (In Russian).
2. Bogomolov, Yury A. 1990. “Ya svecha, ya sgorel na piru…” [“I am a Candle, I’ve Burnt Away at the Feast…”]. In Mir i fil’my Andreya Tarkovskogo [The World and Films by Andrei Tarkovsky], compiled by A. M. Sandler, 156–72. Moscow: Iskusstvo. (In Russian).
3. Paisov, Yury I. 1999. “Beseda s kompozitorom E. V. Denisovym [Conversation with Composer E. Denisov].” In Traditsionnye zhanry russkoy dukhovnoy muzyki i sovremennost’ [Traditional Genres of Russian Sacred Music and Modernity]: articles, studies, interviews, compiled and edited by Yu. I. Paisov, issue 1, 223–32. Moscow: Kompozitor.
4. Pomerants, Grigory S. 2001. “Vstrechi Andreya Tarkovskogo s Dostoevskim [Meetings of Andrei Tarkovsky with Dostoevsky].” In Dostoevskiy i mirovaya kul’tura [Dostoevsky and the World Culture]: an Anthology, issue 16, 110–120. Moscow, Russian Christian
Academy for the Humanities (in Russian). Available at: http://www.dostoevsky.rhga.ru/section/pro-et-contra/vstrechi-andreya-tarkovskogo-s-dostoevskim.html (accessed 05.11.2022).
5. Romadin, Mikhail N. 1990. “Tarkovskiy i khudozhniki [Tarkovsky and Painters].” In Mir i fil’my Andreya Tarkovskogo [The World and Films by Andrei Tarkovsky], compiled by A. M. Sandler, 370–74. Moscow: Iskusstvo. (In Russian).
6. Turovskaya, Maya I. 1991. Sem’ s polovinoy, ili Fil’my Andreya Tarkovskogo [Seven and Half, or Films by Andrei Tarkovsky]. Moscow: Iskusstvo. (In Russian).
7. Uvarov, Sergey A. 2022. “Golos Vremeni i Vechnosti: muzyka v kinematografe Andreya Tarkovskogo [A voice of Time and of Eternity: Music in the Films by Andrei Tarkovsky].” Muzykal’naya zhizn’ 4 (1233), 87–89. (In Russian).
8. Shak, Tat’yana F. 2020. Muzyka v structure mediateksta: na materiale khudozhestvennogo i animatsionnogo kino [Music in the Structure of Media-Text: On the Material of Fiction and Animation Films], a textbook. St. Petersburg: Planeta muzyki. (In Russian).
9. Broschinski, Annette. 2003. “Im Umbruch (Ein Interview mit Edward Artemiev).” The Film Music Journal 30, 33–36.
10. Neuthinger, G. 2002. “The Ode to the Good Composer Edward Artemiev.” Praktika 4, 32–34.
11. Yegorova, Tatiana K. 2007. Edward Artemiev’s Musical Universe. Moscow: Vagrius.