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[FULL RUN] Muzyka. Organ muzykal’nogo dnia [i.e. Music. The Organ of a Musical Day] No. 1–4 [and all]

Item #2452

Moscow: Muzyka, 1922. #1: 3-20, [2] pp.: ill. #2: [2], 29-46 pp.: ill. #3: 51-68, [2] pp.: ill. #4: 78-94 pp.: ill. 34x24 cm. In original avant-garde wrappers with portraits mounted. Spine and tears of edges (#1) restored, tears of spine (#2, 3), stains occasionally, stamp of private library on p.75 (No.4). Otherwise good.

Full set of issues of an early Soviet weekly magazine. One of 8000 copies each one. Very rare. Contains 6 modernist portraits of contemporary musicians.

The periodical “Muzyka” was initiated and edited by conductor and folk music enthusiast Vladimir Messman (1898–1972). Most likely, the cover designs were created by Galina Chichagova (1891–1967) during her study at VKhUTEMAS. Together with her older sister Olga, they studied under Rodchenko and joined the 1st Working Group of Constructivists. They became masters of constructivist children’s books, freely playing with fonts, forms and colors. In the 1920s, they collaborated with Gosizdat, ‘Zemlia i fabrika’, ‘Novaia Moskva’, ‘Molodaia gvardiia’, etc. The magazine includes articles on the history of music, contemporary trends in the socialist state, music pedagogy, official regulations on music, reviews of concerts and musical literature.
Each issue comprises an interesting section of international concerts and musical news. Сontemporary Moscow concerts and theatrical performances are listed at the end, alongside various advertisements for contemporary enterprises. No. 3 and 4 together contain 6 modernist portraits in which cubist influence is clearly noticed.

Some of them were created by book designer and film actor Piotr Galadzhev. Drawings feature Jewish musicians Alexander Krein, Naoum Blinder and Oskar Fried, also Alexander Goldenweiser, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and Heinrich Neuhaus. Besides mentioned drawings, the issues are illustrated with photographs. The front article about Oskar Fried’s concert in the USSR (No. 3) reads: “First of all, we are glad to note that the window to musical Europe has finally been opened and we are beginning to join the musical life of the West”. In the front article of No.4, comparing Soviet and foreign musical audiences, Messman complains on lack of enthusiasm for music and concerts in Bolshevik Russia. Such a praise of capitalist culture couldn’t go unnoticed by the authorities.
The fifth issue was supposed to be dedicated to PERSIMFANS, the Soviet orchestra without conductor, but the issue wasn’t released. The magazine was forcedly closed while Messman underwent criticism because of his last name similar to an American journalist. In the mid-1920s, Messman headed the musical and ethnographic expedition to the North Caucasus. During this time, he collected a huge amount of material, which he used in subsequent publications. In the early 1930s, the magazine ‘Soviet Music’ published an article ‘Musical periodicals for 15 years (1917-1932)’ by A. Steinberg, where the author harshly criticized this particular magazine ‘Music’ and its editor-in-chief, accusing him of lacking a stable proletarian position. By that time, Messman became chairman of the Composers’ Section of the Moscow Society of Dramatic Writers and Composers (MODPIK). Messman was perceived as a class opponent and a supporter of Trotskyism. Many composers from the Moscow Conservatory and the Rabis Music Section stood up for him, but in vain. Nothing is known about him during WWII. In the post-war period, Messman was prosecuted, blamed for cosmopolitanism, but nevertheless acquitted. He moved to Kazakhstan where studied the Kazakh musical and theatrical culture.

Worldcat shows only microfilm copies of issues of the journal located in UC Berkley and Illinois Universities.

Price: $3,500.00