Formalism as “Bad Magic”: Russian Orthodoxy, Eurocentrism, and Yuri Kholopov’s Musical Logic

Abstract This article argues that Yuri Kholopov's (1932–2003) allegedly formalist music theory was ideologically undergirded by Russian Orthodox Christianity and Eurocentrism. Part I sketches the institutional origins of Kholopov's formalism, tracing the contemporaneous disciplinary battles between theorists and historical musicologists vis-à-vis Soviet communism's attacks on modernist music and the academic study of music. Part II explores the relationship between Kholopov's theory of musical logic and its relation to evolutionism. In Part III, the theory of musical logic is placed in dialogue with the aesthetic, philosophical, and religious thought of Aleksei Losev (1893–1988)—Kholopov's most esteemed Russian philosopher. Lastly, Part IV identifies the ideological valence of the Christian foundations of Kholopov's theory within the competing frameworks of das Abendland and Eurasianism. By showing how Kholopov's formalism was entangled in ideology and politics, this article ultimately questions whether formalism is indeed an epistemic system capable of severing form from content.