A poet and a composer: the history of one acquaintance (pages of biography and works of V.Ya. Bryusov and S.N. Vasilenko)

The article considers creative and personal relations between V.Ya. Bryusov and S.N. Vasilenko. At the beginning of the 20th century, Bryusov, whose activity went far beyond purely literary, was one of the major figures in the cultural life of Moscow. By 1910, many of his poetic works were set to music by Russian composers (A.A. Krein, V.Ya. Pergament, A.I. Kankarovich, etc.). As chairman of the board, the poet was an active participant and organizer of literary and musical evenings, concerts at the Literary and Artistic Circle and at the Society of Free Aesthetics. One of those who helped Bryusov was the publisher of the weekly journal “Music” V.V. Derzhanovsky, one of the founders of the “Evenings of Modern Music”. In the Literary and Artistic Circle, which was a place of close creative communication of writers, composers, scholars, the poet had an opportunity to get acquainted and communicate closely with the composer S.N. Vasilenko, who has repeatedly turned to the lyrics of Russian symbolists and, in particular, Bryusov throughout his creative biography. Bryusov’s poems were included in the musical cycles “Incantation” and “Exotic Suite” written by the composer, and “Armenian Serenade” based on Bryusov’s translation by N. Hova-natan. S.N. Vasilenko also suggested to the poet the plot, which Bryusov could use when writing the libretto of the Opera “Red Lighthouse”. S.N. Vasilenko’s works were performed at various concert venues in Moscow more than once and received mixed reviews in music criticism. This article presents the archival materials of Bryusov’s epistolary heritage, and the facts of the creative dialogue between the poet and Russian composers reveal unexplored pages of Brusov’s communication with the musical world of Russia in the early 20th century, complementing the existing chronicles of the artistic life of Russia of the period in question.