Musical Thanatos: The Theme of Death in Vladimir Martynov’s and Alexander Bakshi’s Music

Abstract

The article examines the interpretation of death and dying in the music of contemporary Russian composers Vladimir Martynov and Alexander Bakshi. The relevance of the indicated subject is stipulated by the fact of the musicians turning to the most crucial philosophical issues of humanity and the necessity to trace the forms which the comprehension of the present theme takes on in the history of the art of music. The methods applied in this research include both the general scholarly ones (a systematic approach, comparative analysis, the biographical method), and those pertaining to art studies (narrative-thematic, motivic analysis) and, to a certain degree, the musicological means proper. As a result of the undertaken study, the conclusion is arrived at that the tradition of the philosophical-musical interpretation of the thanatic problem range has found original interpretations in the compositions of Martynov and Bakshi. Martynov’s music is based on an authorial philosophical conception of “the end composers’ time” and contains Christian theological and eschatological connotations; it is characterized by an aspiration towards minimalism, simplicity, and an artlessness of artistic expression, static character of development, a rejection of striking effects and a rational simplicity of musical language featuring “repetitive” musical techniques reducing the level of complexity and semantic complicacy of musical discourse. The thanatic ideas in Bakshi’s music take on increasing importance by means of traditional and innovational approaches: mysterial quality and a directedness towards archaic musical elements and subject matter, animism and ritualism, pre-historical patterns and archetypes.

Keywords: Thanatos, Requiem, the theme of death in music, Vladimir Martynov, Alexander Bakshi