| While some composers were attracted to the most progressive and socially apocalyptic movements in the disciplines of philosophy and literature, other composers maintained independence. Antoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855-1914), Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1879-1951), and Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov (1864-1956) remained conservative in their use of symbols. Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (1871-1915) went so far s to develop his only theoretically-based symbolist musical language. Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (1881-1950), who remained in Russia and bore the full weight of Stalin's oppressions, reacted to the most severe modernizations leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution by staunchly maintaining symbols that had long since fallen from favor. This thesis presents a survey of several important literary, artistic, and philosophical inspire the musical aesthetic of Russia's Silver Age. |
