The author of the soundtrack to “Sherlock Holmes” believes that only music will save the world

Composer Vladimir Dashkevich celebrates his 90th birthday. This is a serious number, but the Maestro is celebrating this impressive date actively, creatively, energetically and productively. Over the past few years, he has written a number of major works, including the Chekhov and Pushkin symphonies, the opera “The Twelve” based on the poem by Alexander Blok, “To Live Not by Lies” based on the work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and “King David” on a biblical theme. He also has many other works: concertos, sonatas, chamber works, vocal cycles, which outstanding musicians and artists consider it an honor to perform.

There is nothing to say about film music, which everyone knows and loves: “Heart of a Dog”, “Servant”, “Winter Cherry” – about 100 films in total! However, every great composer has a calling card. Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies and 32 sonatas. However, anyone will recognize it by the famous “fate theme”. Tchaikovsky, the author of 6 symphonies and 10 operas, is recognized from “The Nutcracker,” and Dashkevich is recognized from the theme from the television series “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.” And Vladimir Sergeevich is very pleased with this. Why – we talked about this with Maestro on the eve of the anniversary.

A modern composer must certainly go through the school of film music. Only then will he be able to communicate with listeners in the musical language that modern man needs. The great academic composers of the twentieth century, who not only felt, but also responded with their creativity to the crisis of musical language, survived thanks to their integration into cinema: Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Schnittke wrote film music in a clear, accessible language, the main indicator of which is memorability. Good music is the one that is remembered. And if it is remembered for more than 50 years, then it can already be called a classic.

The Sherlock Holmes theme appeared in the late 1970s. So there is very little time left before it is recognized as a classic. But the music for “Bumbarash” has already crossed this line: the songs “Horses Walk” and “A Crane Flies in the Sky,” written in 1970, still sound as if they were written just now.

Vladimir Dashkevich is not just a composer. He is a true philosopher, thinker, cultural scientist. Over the years, those who have the good fortune to communicate with him have encountered his predictions. One of them dates back to 2007, when the world premiere of his liturgy “Seven Lightnings of the Apocalypse” took place in the Great Hall of the Conservatory.

— Vladimir Sergeevich, what was the essence of your warning?

– On this earth, a person behaves like a big man in a cradle, which he has not only outgrown, but also broken. The very logic of evolution displaces man from the earth. And sooner or later he will throw it away. So the approaching, let’s say, “kirdyk” is deserved by us.

After another 6 years, at one of his original concerts, the composer “reassured”:

– It will all end very soon – in 2016. The evolutionary spiral will stop, a person will objectively lose the impulse to develop new goals…

Covid, which occurred in 2019–2020, seemed to mark the extreme point of risk. However, as further developments in world events showed, the scope of Dashkevich’s prophecies was much larger.

— Are your predictions coming true?

— Not predictions, but a simple scientific calculation, which is contained in my book “The Great Cultural Savagement.” This is not about the death of humanity, but about the completion of its evolution. What will happen next? That’s the question. It is important for us – that is, for all of humanity – today to understand what exactly we must do to preserve our species. It’s time to listen to what humanity was warned about back at the end of the 19th century.

– Who? Prophets?

– Composers. Man is helped throughout his life on Earth: the Higher Mind constantly intervenes in evolution. When it was necessary to saturate a person with knowledge, then 2.5 thousand years ago Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Pythagoras, and Socrates appeared in different places. Those who defined the culture of humanity. When humanity poorly conveyed important information to each other, the Mind created powerful shocks… Music is a model of evolution. All the messages are in the music. At least four great symphonies of the 19th and very early 20th centuries revealed to humanity the meaning of existence and warned against the program of destruction that the human brain launched. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the highest point of expression of the musical code used by the universal Reason, is still full of optimism. This is 1824. But in 1885 Brahms wrote the tragic finale of his Fourth Symphony in the form of a chaconne – variations on an ostinato bass. No one has ever used this form as the finale of a symphonic cycle. And Tchaikovsky goes even further – in the Sixth Symphony he seems to swap the third movement and the finale. Evolution ends with a warning of approaching tragedy. Six days later Tchaikovsky died.

– Do we have a chance?

– Maybe. And again it lies in the music. Today, an era of musical renaissance is emerging. But it itself will not develop if we do not do this. In the twentieth century, which brought wars, destruction, and nuclear explosions, a destructive musical language took hold, directly reflecting the destruction of society. It’s not for nothing that today we are seeing the “Nutcracker” effect – when people queue for hours for tickets to Tchaikovsky’s ballet at the Bolshoi Theater. People need beautiful music – it provides an opportunity to escape from the destructive reality. People need this kind of music, and it exists, it is written. And not only in the 19th century, but also in the 20th century, and today. And these are not short songs, but large forms. There are operas and ballets by Gennady Gladkov, Mark Minkov, Mikael Tariverdiev, Isaac Schwartz. Based on my music for the film, I wrote the ballet “Sherlock Holmes”. But, alas, all this has no outlet for people. Of course, there are recordings on the Internet, but for most the main resource is television. We need a federal channel “Music”, where music of all styles and genres will be heard.

— Several years ago you finished work on the opera “The Twelve”…

— The score is completely ready. I think it is very relevant today.

— In the text of the libretto of the opera “The Twelve” there is some freedom in relation to the original sources. Jesus says there: “I did not bring you a sword, but peace.”

“It all depends on what kind of sword it is.” I am sure that music is a powerful weapon. It’s music—beautiful music! — is capable of creating a model of the universe that will preserve humanity as a species.

FROM THE MK DOSSIER

Vladimir Dashkevich was born in Moscow. His character and biography contain a synthesis of paradoxical elements. Father is a Russian nobleman, mother is Jewish. My first education was as a chemist. The second is a musician. I sat down at the piano for the first time at the age of 17! And at 28 he already began teaching at the Gnessin Institute. He married his student Olga – they have been together for almost 60 years. The only daughter Olga did not follow in her parents’ footsteps and chose the profession of a doctor; she is a Doctor of Science, a specialist in child neurology. Vladimir Sergeevich is a candidate master of sports in chess.