Lourié, Arthur (EN)

Lourié Arthur Vincent, *14 May 1892 St. Petersburg, †12 October 1966 Princeton (New Jersey), Russian composer. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and also took private lessons with A. Glazunov. In 1918, he was appointed to the position of Commissar for Music in the Commissariat of People’s Education. After three years in this position, he left the Soviet Union, settling initially in Berlin (where he met Busoni), and then in 1924 in Paris, where he established a warm and long-lasting friendship with Stravinsky. In 1941, he left for the United States, accepting American citizenship in 1947.

Lourié’s early compositions show the influence of Debussy and Scriabin (piano Cinq préludes fragiles, Synthèses), as well as Schönberg. Lourié began searching for a new sound language while still studying in Russia. He absorbed cubist and futuristic tendencies from other arts. He experimented with tonality – he tried to write atonally, used quarter tones, and serial technique; he also had interesting ideas for notational solutions – in the piece dedicated to P. Picasso, Formes en l’air, he used interruptions of the stave instead of rests. The Paris period and his acquaintance with Stravinsky brought about the crystallization of Lourié’s style – the compositional technique became strict and concise, the sound language simple, clear, abundant in modal phrases (in melody and harmony). Following Stravinsky’s example, Lourié reached for old forms of religious and secular music. The composer’s mystical-religious inclinations also developed. The most representative of the religious trend, Sonate liturgique and Concerto spirituale, are maintained in modal harmony, melodically and harmonically they are close to Old Church Slavonic music. References to old Russian music and the use of works by outstanding Russian poets in vocal and stage compositions testify to Lourié’s strong bond with Russian culture. However, Lourié’s work was not approved in his homeland. In Soviet encyclopaedic sources and historical syntheses, Lourié was omitted, and his name was only mentioned when condemning formalism in music (Istorija russkoj sowietskoj muzyka, vol. 1, Moscow 1956). Lourié is the author of a monograph on Koussevitzky; he also wrote articles on music. 

Literature: D. Gojowy, Arthur Lourié und der russische Futurismus, Laaber 1993; Funeral Games in Honor of Arthur Vincent Lourié, ed. Klara Moricz, Simon Morrison, Oxford University Press 2014.