Conception of music in Boris Poplavsky's early works

The article explores the conception of music in Boris Poplavsky's early works of the late 1910s and first half of the 1920s. In his poems of 1919-1921, Poplavsky turns out to be very close to the avant-garde poetics, which is associated with the tradition of Russian and Italian futurism. In many miniatures, the poet uses typical techniques of futurists with a phonic structure of his verses (zaum, pun, phonic semantisation). These phonic devices create the specific music of his verses. Another aspect, in which the poet is close to futurists, is his conception of noise, which greatly repeats ideas of Luigi Roussolo (The Art of Noises). In the verses “Poem about Revolution” and “Hysteric of Hysteric,” the motif of noise is the central theme and connects with typical futurists motifs of theomachy, Apocalypse, creation of the New World. But traditions break in these verses by Poplavsky. The motif of noise does not have a positive connotation; it symbolizes a worldwide catastrophe and death of Beauty and Harmony. The most important difference from futurists is his views on the poet's figure. If in avant-garde a poet is a theurgist that has god's powers, Poplavsky sees him as a victim of his creativity and a madman. This conception of music art and creator continues in the poetry of the first half of the 1920s (“Sea Serpent,” “Murder of man,” “Musician Did Not Realize,” “Letter of a Doorman,” “Green Horror”). In these works, the poet preserves the features of the avant-garde poetics. He uses the motif of aggression and fight, but if predecessor poets perceived violence as an opportunity to conquer the transcendental sphere and a way to transform reality, Poplavsky uses these motifs to show his conception of art like a process painful and destructive for its creator and the world. Music is a great vital power, which can destroy the profane underworld and transform it. But the lyrical hero, represented by a pianist or a poet who creates this music, or tries to fight with music, or gives up and tries to escape, or does not understand music. A creator is a mediator, a bearer of Beauty. He can dive into the unknown world of art, but this immersion and music born from the abyss of the unconscious, bring him physical and spiritual suffering. The creation of art is shown to be fatal and mysterious. Further Poplavsky moves away from the avant-garde, preferring symbolist aesthetics. He works with a philosophical conception of the spirit of music, in which he keeps elements of the avant-garde poetics. An artist must die for this spirit, connect with it. This process is expressed in the poem “Green Horror,” in which a poet experiences states of sleep, illness, agony, death, and becomes a slave of music. Thus, in the early lyrics of Poplavsky, a special conception of music as a great power arising from spaces unknown to man begins to form, and the creation of a work of art turns out to be a mysterious and elusive process that is difficult to understand.

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