Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 24 November 1921

urn:iso:std:iso:639:ed-3:eng

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text excerpt

A grand evening at Rosenthal's, along the lines of the previous year except that this year Koshetz sang. I also played a few pieces. There was a heterogeneous guest list, and it was not too boring an occasion. Koshetz sang one of her songs, and I marvelled anew how it could be so fresj and so beautiful. She is obviously telling the truth and the song truly did manifest itself through the tapping of the table (if she is fibbing, then there is no way of explaining the different between this and what she produced in Moscow, they are chalk and cheese). If she herself was knocking the table it would be impossible randomly to produce beautiful music.

But if the music really is being dictated from 'out there', how is it that her instructor has been given the ability to create beautiful music? This was the question I asked Koshetz on our way home. Her answer was that she had been told on one occasion that her teacher had in a previous incarnation been Schumann, but she was not sure whether or not to believe it, since in the course of any séance many false statements are always included among those that are true. This is an interesting explanation, but if it really was Schumann, why have her songs turned out so Russian? This would be plausible if the creative flow were emanating from 'out there' and being incarnated through Nina's music-making, but Koshetz apparently does nothing except literally take down dictation.

excerpt from 'Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 24 November 1921' pp. 632 (254 words)

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