Introduction to the Art of Boris Schloezer

Abstract

This paper tells about Boris de Schloezer, an outstanding thinker of the Russian Silver Age. This writer, philosopher, sociologist, translator, music and literature critic played the role of a mediator between two great cultures: the Russian and French ones. A connoisseur of Lermontov, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Gogol, Leskov, Bunin, Zamyatin, Shestov and Rozanov, he was active in translating Russian literature and philosophy, thus largely revealing them to European readers. He also paid attention to musicology. Realizing that philosophical analysis of music and research on psychology of creative work were insufficient in his time, Schloezer tried to fill in these gaps by writing numerous reviews on new compositions, notes about musicians and their performances, and essays on theoretical issues. His reflections are centered on the problems of the New Music analysis, on the relationships between the author and his works, between form and substance, on the language of music and the means of expression.