The 'flue

Iron Foundry (machine music), Op. 19 - Esa-Pekka Salonen & Los Angeles Philharmonic
I stumbled across the term 'modern classical music' the other day. It's modern, but it's classical? How? As I was reading up on the subject (in short, the last century has been kind of musically frazzled and "modern classical" features lots of dissonance) I was drawn to one Alexander Vasilievich Mosolov. Mosolov was a significant Russian avaznte-garde composer from the early Soviet era. Mosolov worked in the office of the People's Commissioner for State Control during the revolution (even having brief contact with Lenin) before joining the Red Army and serving on the Polish and Ukrainian fronts during World War I before being wounded and suffering from shell shock. From 1920-22 Mosolov worked as a pianist for silent films before entering the Moscow Conservatory. 1925 saw a now lettered Mosolov joining the Moscow branch of the Association of Contemporary Music where he became director of chamber music while working as a radio music editor.

Sadly, Mosolov fell from political favor and by 1936 was thrown out of the Union of Soviet Composers for 'public drunkenness.' Mosolov was given some 'busy work' documenting folk song in Armenia, Kirghizia, Turkmenia and Daghestan before being arrested in 1937 for "anti-Soviet propaganda" and sent off to the labor camps. Thanks to intervention by his former teachers, Mosolov was released a few months into his sentence. In poor health, Mosolov spent the rest of his days composing and working with folk music but largely ignored by authorities.

Today's "song" is taken from the 1927 ballet entitled Steel and is meant to embody the brutalism and worship of the machine that was all the rage back in the 1920s.

Listen to a sample at the iTunes Store