Alexei Ogolevets investigated a plethora of equal divisions of the octave, concluding that equal divisions of around 200 tones per octave are most suitable to represent the musics of all the cultures of the world. During his lifetime, the Soviet Stalinist Regime considered his ideas too pluralistic and therefore subversive and dangerous, so that Ogolevets was forced to carry out his work under constant resistance and opression.

NOTE: The information given here has been graciously provided by Alexei Ogolevets's former student Gennadiy Kogut (b. 1944), musicologist living in Ukraine and author of Mikrotonovya muzyka (Microtonal Music) 2005.

The Early Years

Alexei Stepanovich Ogolevets was born in Poltava, Ukraine in 1891. After graduating from Ostrogradskiy grammar school with a silver medal in 1911, he studied piano and music theory under the instruction of composer and pianist L. Lisovsky. Simultaneously, Ogolevets studied painting with artists A. Roshchinoi and G. Miasoedov, as well as the theory of painting, architecture, literature and language.

He further studied at the University in Moscow, under the natural-historical branch of the physical science and mathematics faculty, receiving a diploma of law in 1916. During this time, Ogolevets also studied music composition and music theory at the National Conservatory with B. Yavorsky, as well as piano with E. Bogoslovskiy and A. Gedike. Among his compositions are manuscripts for five piano sonatas, many miniatures, romances, and a sketch for a symphony.

After the revolution of 1917, Ogolevets worked as a commissariat for the city of Moscow from 1917 to 1921. Between 1923 and 1931, he worked for the newspaper Pravda (Truth) as the senior editor, and also served in the publishing house of the Academy of Architecture.

Microtonal Research

Alexei Ogolevets's intensive musical activity begins in 1933. At the recommendation of A. Krein, R. Glier and A. Gedike, he was accepted into the Union of Composers of the U.S.S.R. At this time he finished a number of theoretical articles he had begun in manuscript during the period between 1923 and 1933, which later were editied together into the 970-page book Osnovy garmonicheskogo yazyka (Foundations of Harmonic Language).

Between 1936 and 1939, Ogolevets served as the Vice President and the Supervisor of Studies at ANTES (the independent scientific and technical section of the Union of Composers of the U.S.S.R., Chairman B. Krasin, and Secretary A. Avraamov), carrying out research in the field of electronic music and the graphical representation of sound. From 1937 to 1941, he also served both in the department of Architecture as well as the department of History. In December 1936, Ogolevets finished drafting his book Foundations of Harmonic Language, which summarizes his work in microtonal music theory from 1923 to 1936. The book was issued three weeks prior to Hitler's attack on the U.S.S.R. in 1941.

The War Years

In October 1941, Ogolevets evacuated to Kuibyshev where he resided ultil August 1943. In Kuibyshev, local composers decided to reorganize the then fractured Union of Composers. The Chair of the new organization was held by Dimitri Shostakovich, and the new Secretary was K. Shchedrin. Alexei Ogolevets served as Vice President. At this time the manuscript of Ogolevets's book Vvedenie v sovremennoie muzykalnoie myshlenie (Introduction to Modern Musical Thinking) was finished, later to be issued in 1946, at which time the Oxford press in New York also received a new edition of his previously published book Problemy tonalnosti (The Problem of Tonality), a manuscript which remains untranslated and unpublished by the Oxford press, due to the subsequent historical breakdown of relations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. The first book from the series Struktura tonalnoi systemy (The Structure of the Tonal System) was also completed in manuscript in 1947.

"Cosmopolitan No. 1"

In 1945, a cabinet known as the Laboratory of Tonal Systems, intended to investigate all manner of musical systems of intonation, was created, with Ogolevets acting as director and supervisor of studies. However, the systematic and pluralistic implications of the Laboratory's subject matter soon drew the attention of the Soviet Regime, and the cabinet was promptly liquidated in 1948 by the Central Committee of the Soviet State (CPSU), at which time Ogolevets was declared "the leader of a formalistic direction". This intervention eventually led to total paralysis of Ogolevets's creative work in 1947, and subsequent meeting of the Central Committee the following year declared Ogolevets "the leader of a formalism". Suspicion of Ogolevets peaked in 1949, when during a campaign initiated by Malenkov "to struggle against cosmopolitism", Ogolevets was declared "Cosmopolitan No. 1". Progressive ideas about music and the pluralistic nature of the tuning systems of the world had made Ogolevets a silenced man in the Soviet Republic, forbidden to publish his work.

The Last Years

Between 1960 and 1966, Ogolevets was given the opportunity to publish two books, Slovo i musyka v vokalno-dramaticheskih zhanrah (The Word and Music in Vocal Drama Genres) and Vokalnaya dramaturgiya Musorgskogo (Musorgsky's Vocal Dramatic Art). Ogolevets died in 1967. His last book, Specifika vyrazitelnyh sredstv musiki (Specificity of Expressive Means in Music) was published posthumously in 1967.

Ogolevets contributed significant work to the histroy of music theory, including a theory of rhythm. During the time Ogolevets was able to focus his full attention to intonation systems, he deduced mathematical formulas for the calculation and optimization of temperaments, and also designed several musical instruments, among them 17, 22 and 29-tone harmoniums. Ogolevets predicted that the existing tonal system should develop and increase the number of tones within one octave up to 233 tones, and he considered a tuning system of 200 tones per octave ideal for theoretical purposes.

NOTE: The above text was supplied by Gennadiy Kogut in May 2008, edited by Aaron Andrew Hunt.