{{Short description|Russian-born American composer (1892–1966)}} {{multiple issues| {{original research |date=July 2023}} {{weasel |date=July 2023}} {{more citations needed |date=July 2023}} }} thumb|Portrait by {{ill|Lev Bruni|fr}}, 1915
'''Artur Sergeyevich Lurye''' ({{langx|ru|Артур Серге́евич Лурье}}; born '''Naum Izrailevich Lurya'''; {{langx|ru|Наум Израилевич Лурья|link=no}}; 14 May 1892 – 12 October 1966), better known as '''Arthur-Vincent Lourié''', was a Russian composer, writer, administrator, and musical agent. Lourié played an important role in the earliest stages of the organization of Soviet music after the 1917 Revolution but later went into exile. His music reflects his close connections with contemporary writers and artists, and also his close relationship with Igor Stravinsky.
==Russian career== Born into a prosperous Jewish family in Propoysk, he converted to Catholicism while still in Russia. An admirer of van Gogh, from whom he derived the name 'Vincent', Lourié was partly self-taught, but also studied piano with Maria Barinova and composition with Glazunov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1913. He became friendly with the Futurist poets and particularly Anna Akhmatova,<ref>Everdell, William R., ''The First Moderns: Profiles in the Origins of Twentieth-Century Thought''. University of Chicago Press, 1998.</ref> whose poetry he was among the first to set. He was also acquainted with Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolai Kulbin, Fyodor Sologub and Alexander Blok; and was deeply influenced by contemporary art. His early piano pieces, from 1908 onward, take on from the late works of Scriabin but evolve new kinds of discourse, arriving in 1914 at an early form of dodecaphony (the ''Synthèses'') and in 1915 at the ''Formes en l'air'', dedicated to Picasso, a rather Cubist conception using an innovative form of notation in which different systems are placed spatially on the page in independent blocks, with blanks instead of bars' rest. At this stage of his career he seems a parallel figure to Nikolai Roslavets, though Lourié's aesthetic appears more 'decadent'. Essentially he was the first Russian Futurist in music, and in 1914 was the co-signatory, with the painter Georgy Yakulov and the poet Benedikt Livshits, of the Petersburg Futurist Manifesto, 'We and the West', proclaiming principles common to all three arts.
==Revolutionary Russia== After the October Revolution of 1917 Lourié served under Anatoly Lunacharsky as head of the music division (Muzo) of the Commissariat of Popular Enlightenment (Narkompros). Lourié held this position until January 1921. Then he took up the position of teacher. For a while he shared a house with Serge Sudeikin and his wife Vera Sudeikina. His tenure proved to be contentious. When he suggested renaming his music department "The People's Tribune for Civil Music", and to style himself the "People's Tribune", Lunacharsky allegedly replied: "No, Artur Sergeevich, this does not suit us." Alexander Goldenweiser and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov complained to Lenin himself about him.<ref>{{cite web|title=Человек дня: Артур Лурье|trans-title=Man of the Day: Arthur Lurié|url=https://polit.ru/news/2021/05/13/lurye/ |website=polit.ru |access-date=16 June 2021}}</ref> Though his sympathies were Leftist, he became increasingly disenchanted with the Bolshevik order in Russia.
==Into exile== In 1921 he went on an official visit to Berlin, where he befriended Ferruccio Busoni, and from which he failed to return. His works were thereafter proscribed in the USSR. In 1922 he settled in Paris, where he became friends with the philosopher Jacques Maritain and was introduced to Igor Stravinsky by Vera Sudeykina. Maritain championed his work early on, viewing the young Lourié not only as an important composer, but as a composer with an important capacity to express Catholic theology and philosophy in music.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Messiaen's Relationship to Jacques Maritain's Musical Circle and Neo-Thomism|last=Shadle|first=Douglas|date=2010|title=Messiaen the Theologian|editor=Andrew Shenton|pages=83–99|doi=10.4324/9781315091228-8|isbn=9781315091228|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> Lourié dedicated a number of his works to Maritain, including the Gigue from ''4 Pièces Pour Piano'' (1928).<ref>{{IMSLP|work=4 Pièces pour piano (Lourié, Arthur)|cname=4 Pièces pour piano: 4. Gigue (Lourié)}}</ref> From 1924 to 1931 he was one of Stravinsky's most important champions, often becoming part of the Stravinsky household as he wrote articles about his fellow composer and preparing piano reductions of his works.<ref>Igor Stravinsky, ''Selected Correspondence'', ed. with commentaries by Robert Craft, 3 vols (London: Faber and Faber, 1982–85), vol. 1, 217n.</ref> He and the Stravinskys eventually parted company over a feud with Vera, and Stravinsky seldom afterwards mentioned his existence. In his works of the Paris years Lourié's early radicalism turns to an astringent form of neoclassicism and Russophile nostalgia; a dialogue with Stravinsky's works of the same period is evident, even to the extent that Stravinsky may have taken ideas from the younger composer: Lourié's ''A Little Chamber Music'' (1924) seems to prophesy Stravinsky's ''Apollon musagète'' (1927), his ''Concerto spirituale'' for chorus, piano and orchestra (1929) the latter's ''Symphony of Psalms'' (1930). Certainly in his later works Stravinsky adopted Lourié's style of notation with blank space instead of empty bars. Lourié also composed two symphonies (No. 1 subtitled ''Sinfonia dialectica'') and an opera, ''The Feast in a Time of Plague''. A man of very wide culture, who cultivated the image of a dandy and aesthete, he set poems of Sappho, Pushkin, Heine, Verlaine, Blok, Mayakovsky, Dante, classical Latin and medieval French poets. He was also a talented painter.
== American years ==
When the Germans occupied Paris in 1940, Lourié, with assistance from Serge Koussevitzky, emigrated to the United States. He settled in New York. In 1946, he became an American citizen and joined the staff of Voice of America's Russian division.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = July 15, 2023 | agency = UPI | date = October 15, 1966 | title = Arthur Lourie, Was Composer: Penned Many Articles on Musical Topics | url = https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-obituary-for-arthur-lourie/128270420 | via = Newspapers.com | work = Hackensack Record }}</ref> He was recorded in the 1950 United States census as living in Manhattan with Elizabeth.<ref>{{Cite web| title=New York, New York, 31-1407 | format=JSON | url=https://1950census.archives.gov/api/manifest?ed=31-1407&state=NY | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241221233615/https://1950census.archives.gov/api/manifest?ed=31-1407&state=NY | archive-date=2024-12-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lourié |first=Arthur |title=Sergei Koussevitzky and His Epoch |publisher=Creative Media Partners, LLC |year=2018 |isbn=0353357464 |pages=253}}</ref>
He wrote some film scores but gained almost no performances for his more serious works, though he continued to compose. He spent over ten years writing an opera after Pushkin's ''The Moor of Peter the Great'' called ''The Blackamoor of Peter the Great'', so far unperformed, though an orchestral suite has been recorded. He also composed a setting of sections from T. S. Eliot's ''Little Gidding'' for tenor and instruments (1959).
Lourié died in Princeton, New Jersey.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davenson |first1=Henri |title=Arthur Lourié (1892-1966) |journal=Perspectives of New Music |date=1967 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=166–169 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/832168 |issn=0031-6016}}</ref>
==Works== This list is based on that of the Arthur Lourié Society.<ref>[http://www.lourie.ch/arthur-lourie/works/ Arthur Lourié Society – Works].</ref>
{| class="wikitable" |+ Works composed by Arthur Lourié |- ! Title ! Year ! Medium
|- |Délie/Madrigal funèbre || ||Voice, piano |- |5 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1 ||1908–1910 ||Piano |- |2 Estampes, Op. 2 ||1910 ||Piano |- |Intermède enfantine, Op. 3 ||1910–1911 ||Piano |- |3 Études, Op. 4 ||1910–1911 ||Piano |- |Mazurkas, Op. 7 ||1911–1912 ||Piano |- |Doroenka/Fusspfad ||1912 ||Voice, piano |- |Verlaine ||1912–1919 ||Voice, piano |- |Prélude, Op. 12/2 ||1912 ||Quarter-tone keyboard |- |2 Poèmes, Op. 8 ||1912 ||Piano |- |Salomé-Liturgie, Op. 11 bis ||1912–1913 ||Piano |- |2 Poèmes, Op. 5 ||1912 ||Voice, piano |- |4 Poèmes, Op. 10 ||1912–1913 ||Piano |- |Spleen empoisonnée ||1913 || |- |Masques (Tentations), Op. 13 ||1913 ||Piano |- |Menuet ||1914 ||Piano |- |Chetki (Rosary) ||1914 ||High voice, piano |- |Quasi Valse ||1914 ||Voice, piano |- |Grecheskie Pesni ||1914 ||Voice, piano |- |Synthèse, Op. 16 ||1914 ||Piano |- |String Quartet No. 1 ||1915 ||2 violins, viola, cello |- |Corona Carminum Sacrorum (Ave Maria, Salve Regina, Inviolata) ||1915–1917 ||Voice, piano |- |Suite japonais ||1915 ||Soprano, piano |- |Triolety/Triolets ||1915 ||Voice, piano |- |Pleurs de la Vierge, Op. 26 ||1915 ||Voice, violin, viola, cello |- |5 Rondeaux de Christine de Pisan ||1915 ||Women‘ voices, harp, cembalo or piano |- |Formes en l'air ||1915 ||Piano |- |Dvevnoi uzor (Order of the Day) ||1915 ||Piano |- |Rodestvo Bogorodicy/Naissance de la Vierge (Birth of the Virgin) ||1915 ||Voice, piano |- |Tri svetlych tsaria (The Three Kings) ||1916 ||Voice, piano |- |Pastorale de la Volga ||1916 ||Oboe, bassoon, 2 violas and cello |- |Oshibka baryshni smerti (Death's Mistake), Op. 40 ||1917 ||Piano |- |3rd Sonatina, Tret'ia sonatina dlia roialia ||1917 ||Piano |- |Rondel de Stéphane de Mallarmé ||1917 ||Voice, piano |- |Upmann/Smoking Sketch, Kuritel'naia shutka ||1917 ||Piano |- |Azbuka/Dve pesenki dlia detei (text by Leo Tolstoy) ||1917 ||Voice, piano |- |Roial'v detskoi/Piano Gosse/Klavier im Kinderzimmer ||1917 ||Piano |- |Nash Marsh (Our March) ||1918 ||Piano und speaker |- |Bolotnyi popik/Das Sumpfäffchen ||1919 ||Voice, piano |- |Golos Muzy/Voix de la Muse/Voice of the muse ||1919 ||Women's chorus |- |V kumirniu zolotogo sna (In the Temple of Golden Dreams) ||1919 ||Chorus a capella |- |Chetyre Narodnye Pesni Ninei Bretany/4 Chants populaires de Basse Bretagne ||1920 ||Voice, piano |- |Uzkaia lira/die schmale Leier/La Lyre étroite ||1920–1941 ||Voice, piano |- |Elisium/Vosem' stichtvoreniia Pushkina ||1920–1921 ||Voice, piano |- |Shagi Komandora/The Commander's Stride ||1920 ||Voice, piano |- |Lament from Dante's Vita Nouva ||1921 ||Women's chorus, strings |- |Canzone de la Vita Nuova de Dante ||1921 ||Women's chorus a cappella |- |Pesni o Rossii: Korshun ||1921 ||Chorus |- |Dvě kolybelnyia/2 Berceuses ||1921 ||Voice, piano |- |Prochitanie/Chant des Gueuses/The Beggar Woman ||1922 ||Soprano, contralto, English horn |- |Chant funèbre sur la mort d'un poète/Pogrebal'nyi plach na smert' poeta/Funeral Song on the Death of a Poet ||1922 ||Chorus |- |String Quartet No. 2 'A little Chamber Music' ||1923–1924 ||2 violins, viola, cello |- |Nos (The Nose) ||1923 ||Opera |- |String Quartet No. 3 'Suite' ||1924–1926 ||2 violins, viola, cello |- |Toccata ||1924 ||Piano |- |Regina Coeli ||1924 ||Contralto, trumpet, oboe |- |Sonata ||1924 ||Violin, double bass |- |Capriccio sur un thème de J. S. Bach / For pipe smokers ||1924 ||Voice, piano |- |2 chants ||1926 ||Voice, piano |- |Sonnet de Dante ||1926 ||Voice, 2 violins, viola, cello |- |Valse ||1926 ||Piano |- |Petite suite en fa ||1926 ||Piano |- |Obriadovaia / Svadebni Prichet (poslě Bani) ||1926 ||Voice, piano |- |Improperium (pour l'office du Dimanche des Rameaux) ||1926 ||2 violins, baryton, double bass |- |Marche ||1927 ||Piano |- |Sonnet de Dante ||1927 ||Voice, piano |- |Gigue ||1927 ||Piano |- |Intermezzo ||1928 ||Piano |- |Nocturne ||1928 ||Piano |- |Sonate liturgique ||1928 ||Chorus, piano und chamber ensemble |- |Deuxième Tzigane (Sérénade) ||1928 ||Voice, piano |- |Concerto Spirituale ||1928–1929 ||Piano, 3 choruses, brass, 10 double basses, timbales and organ |- |Divertissement ||1929 ||Violin, viola |- |Le Festin durant la Peste/Das Festmahl während der Pest/Pir vo vremia chumy (ballet in 2 acts) ||1929–1931 ||Orchestra, chamber chorus and 2 soloists |- |Sinfonia Dialectica: Anno Domini MCMXXX/Symphonie 1930 ||1930 ||Orchester |- |Procession ||1934 ||2 women's voices, piano |- |Tu es Petrus (Motet) ||1935 ||Chorus a capella |- |Berceuse de la chevrette ||1936 ||Piano |- |Naissance de la Beauté ||1936 ||6 sopranos, piano (or cembalo), clarinet, bassoon, crotales |- |Symphony No. 2 'Kormtchaïa' ||1936–1939 ||Orchestra |- |La Flûte à travers le Violon ||1935 ||Flute, violin |- |Allegretto ||1936 ||Flute, violin |- |Dithyrambes ||1938 ||Flute |- |A Christo crucificado ante el mar ||1938 ||Baritone, mezzo-soprano, piano |- |Phoenix Park Nocturne ||1938 ||Piano |- |Symphony No. 2 'Kormtchaïa' (in 10 movements) ||1939 ||Orchestra |- |A Hamlet Sonata ||1941–1944 ||2 violins, viola, cello |- |2 Poems ||1941 ||Voice, oboe, Klarinette (in A), bassoon and strings |- |Toskà - Vospominaniia (Memories of the Past) ||1941 ||Voice, harp (or piano) |- |De Ordinatio Angelorum ||1942 ||Chorus, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba |- |2 Études sur un sonnet de Mallarmé ||1945–1962 ||Voice, flute, piano |- |Little Gidding ||1945 ||Tenor, flute, oboe, clarinet in A, basson, piano, cymbals, and strings |- |Concerto da camera ||1946–1947 ||Violin solo, string orchestra |- |Paysage de sons ||1948–1958 ||Voice, piano |- |Ave atque vale/Drei Dionysos-Dithyramben (Die Sonne sinkt) (text by Friedrich Nietzsche) ||1948 ||Voice, piano |- |Epilogue ||1948 ||2 violins, viola, cello, double bass |- |Arap Petra Velikogo/Der Mohr Peter des Grossen (opera) ||1949–1961 || |- |Anathema/Motette ||1951 ||Tenor, baritone, bass, men's chorus, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones |- |Postcommunion ||1952 ||5 women's voice a cappella |- |The Mime ||1956 ||Clarinet |- |Sunrise ||1956 ||Flute |- |The Flute of Pan ||1957 ||Flute |- |Iva/Die Weide ||1958 ||Voice, piano |- |Ernste Stunde ||1958 ||Voice, piano |- |Zaklinaniia/Beschwörungen 1-4 ||1959 ||Voice, piano |- |Ten' (Schatten)/Madrigal ||1962 ||Voice, piano |- |Sibylla dicit (cantata) ||1964 ||Women's voices, 4 instruments, cymbals |- |Funeral Games in Honor of Chronos ||1964 ||3 flutes, piano, crotales |}
==Selected recordings== * Arthur Lourié Songs & Choruses: ''The Rosary'', ''Voice of the Muse'', on poems of Anna Akhmatova. Cantata ''In the Sanctuary of a Golden Dream'' on collected texts of Alexander Blok, Natalia Gerassimova, Vladimir Skanavy et al., rec. 1994, reissued by Brilliant Classics (2010) * Futurpiano: ''Synthèses'' (Op. 16), ''Formes en l'air'' (for Pablo Picasso). Daniele Lombardi, piano. Rec. 1995. Issued by LTM (2009) * ''12 Greek Songs to Texts from Sappho'', translated by Viacheslav Ivanov (1914) on: ''Viacheslav Ivanov in Music of Miaskovsky, Lourié, Shebalin, Gretchaninov'' Ludmila Shkirtil (mezzo-soprano), Northern Flowers (2010) * ''Solo Piano Works'', plus ''Der Irrtum der Frau Tod''/''Death's Mistake'' for speaker and piano; 3-CD set, Moritz Ernst (piano), Oskar Ansull (speaker), Capriccio (2016) * ''Complete Piano Works'', Giorgio Koukl (piano), Naxos ( 2016)
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} * {{IMSLP|author=Lourié, Arthur}} * [http://www.lourie.ch Arthur Lourié Gesellschaft, Basel]
{{Igor Stravinsky|state=collapsed}} {{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lourie, Arthur}} Category:1892 births Category:1966 deaths Category:20th-century Russian classical composers Category:20th-century Russian Jews Category:20th-century Russian male musicians Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Category:Jewish classical composers Category:People from Bykhovsky Uyezd Category:People from Slawharad district Category:Russian male classical composers Category:Russian Roman Catholics Category:Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States Category:Voice of America people