BORIS ASAFIEV’S ARTICLE ABOUT AFANASII FET: “MUSIC OF THE WORLD” AS PERCEIVED BY THE POET AND THE COMPOSER

This article accompanies the first publication of a manuscript entitled “Fet v slukhovom vospriiatii mira” (“Fet in the Auditory Perception of the World”), which was written by the musicologist Boris Asafiev, probably in 1917 or 1918. This study presents issues raised in Asafiev’s text and interprets them within the framework of the history of ideas. It establishes connections between Asafiev’s work and scholarly and philosophic movements of the first decades of the 20th century, such as the “Sprech- und Ohrenphilologie” (oral and auditory philology) of Eduard Sievers and Boris Eichenbaum and the “organic worldview” of Henri Bergson and Nikolai Losskii. Moreover, the author’s analysis reveals that Asafiev’s article initiated his reflection upon topics that subsequently became key to his research: the phenomenon of the “sounding substance” and the essence of “creative hearing.” These findings testify to the high value of this manuscript and its relevance to the reader of our time. Asafiev’s work represents a significant stage in the formation of his research conception, touches upon uncommon aspects in the analysis of poetry, and applies an original methodology that allowed him to obtain qualitatively new results compared to those of his contemporary philologists.