Obouhov, Nicolas(actually, Nikolai)

Obouhov, Nicolas(actually, Nikolai), remarkable Russian composer; b. Kursk, April 22, 1892; d. Paris, June 13, 1954. He studied at the St. Petersburg Cons, with Nikolai Tcherepnin and Maximilian Steinberg. After the Revolution in 1917, he emigrated to Paris, where he received instruction from Ravel. As early as 1914 he began experimenting with harmonic combinations containing 12 different notes without duplication (he called his system “absolute harmony”). In 1915 he devised a special notation for this type of harmony, entirely enharmonic, with crosses indicating sharps or flats; several composers, among them Honegger, wrote pieces in Obouhov’s notation. He gave a demonstration of his works written and notated in this system in Petrograd at a concert organized by the eds. of the review Muzykalnyi Sovremennik on Feb. 3, 1916. He devoted his entire life to the composition of his magnum opus, Le Livre de vie, for Solo Voices, Chorus, 2 Pianos, and Orch. The MS score, some 2,000 pages in length, was deposited after his death at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. A mystic, Obouhov signed his name “Nicolas l’illuminé” and used his own blood to mark sections in the score; the finale represented the spiritual and religious apotheosis in which both the old and the new Russian societies and political factions become reunited. In this and some other scores, Obouhov introduced shouting, screaming, sighing, and groaning sounds for the voice parts. A section of Le Livre de vie was performed by Koussevitzky in Paris on June 3, 1926. In quest of new sonorities, Obouhov devised an electronic instrument, the “croix sonore/’ in the form of a cross, and composed works for it, which were performed by Mme. Aussenac de Broglie. He publ. Traité d’harmonie tonale, atonale et totale (Paris, 1946), which presents an exposition of his system.

Bibliography

C. Laronde, Le Livre de vie de N. O. (Paris, 1932).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire