Foundation of the Philosophy of Music

Vyacheslav Artyomov

A composer whose heart belongs to the mountains.

In the beginning was the Word, i.e. God, Who has created the World. And in the beginning was the Sound, which accompanied the Creation. And the first sound which was uttered by man was a cry – and it became the beginning of his knowledge of the created World and of his calling to God. Music is a special substance. It has no prototype in Nature. Its origins are the moan and the cry. Its means of expression developed especially radically during the last century. Music can be considered a myth, a rite, a dream, a game, a historic document or a mark of the evolution of the world and of consciousness. However, its most important task is to acquire knowledge of the world, expressed in a unique form.

Man incorporates the Universe in himself. Through him the knowledge of God and of the world is attained. Music reveals the soul of man and the Divine Spirit inherent in it.  

In interiore homine habitat veritas – Truth dwells in the depths of man (St. Augustine).

Music is the true expression of the life of the soul. What is important in music is not the final result, but each moment which gives birth to emotional experience. Such a moment is important not as a psychological fact, but because it is directed to that grand and mysterious goal, which should be considered the main final purpose of each soul – the recognition of God in oneself.

Music is a mediator between God and man. Music is a concentrate of spiritual energy, which should awaken man’s ethical understanding and purify his soul. Creation of music is man’s answer to God, the supreme act of love and repentance. Truth is in beauty. Beauty justifies man, it is the revelation of his divine nature. 

Music transmits the entire spectrum of experience in all its nuances. The extension of this spectrum and the penetration into the inner world’s deeper strata lead one to discover in oneself the Other World, beyond all known boundaries. I call this way the “penetrata”: it is neither a form nor a style, but a purpose and a result. All possible means of expression can be used to reach this goal. 

The psychological stream in music is the central one. Boleslav Yavorsky considered musical Romanticism as the beginning of the psychological epoch in music. In this sense, I can call myself a Romantic. Or, to be more precise, – a Romantic Expressionist: what counts for me is the ecstatic absorption in the mysteries of the spiritual world. Self-discovery brought to its extreme limits is redemptive. Revelation is wonder before the mystery of creation.

Music is a science sui generis – a cosmology of the spirit. It requires neither speculations nor logical descriptions. It gives us insights which are expressed directly by sounds.

The composer’s soul, being a manifestation of the Universal Soul, reveals itself in sounds, and thus, the Universal Spirit speaks to us through it.

V. Artyomov (1996)

Translated by S.Horuzhy, revised by V. Konecni

All materials are edited by J. Gibson