Photo: seefilename · Public domain · credits
Tier 3 · vertical & regionalfull biography
Arthur Lourié
Person · male · Russian Empire · Slawharad · born 1892 · died 1966 · recording since 1993
Russian-born American composer (1892–1966)
Listen on SpotifyYouTube Music
Also known as Arthur (Vincent) Lourié · Arthur Lourié · Arthur-Vincent Lourié · Artur Luriye · Artur Sergeyevich Luriye · アルトゥール・ルリエー
Timeline
13 events▣ Album 10◦ Birth 1† Death 1★ Debut release 1
1890s
1960s
1990s
· Debut release
Debut release: Concerto da Camera / Little Gidding / A Little Chamber Music
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
2000s
2010s
2020s
· Album
Album: Chamber And Instrumental Music, Volume One: Works With Wind Instruments
Album
source: musicbrainz
Biography
English biography982 words · 6 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1376530010
Biography
Artur Sergeyevich Lurye (Russian: Артур Серге́евич Лурье; born Naum Izrailevich Lurya; Russian: Наум Израилевич Лурья; 14 May 1892 – 12 October 1966), better known as Arthur-Vincent Lourié, was a Russian composer, writer, administrator, and musical agent. Lourié played an important role in the earliest stages of the organization of Soviet music after the 1917 Revolution but later went into exile. His music reflects his close connections with contemporary writers and artists, and also his close relationship with Igor Stravinsky.
Russian career
Born into a prosperous Jewish family in Propoysk, he converted to Catholicism while still in Russia. An admirer of van Gogh, from whom he derived the name 'Vincent', Lourié was partly self-taught, but also studied piano with Maria Barinova and composition with Glazunov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, graduating in 1913. He became friendly with the Futurist poets and particularly Anna Akhmatova, whose poetry he was among the first to set. He was also acquainted with Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolai Kulbin, Fyodor Sologub and Alexander Blok; and was deeply influenced by contemporary art. His early piano pieces, from 1908 onward, take on from the late works of Scriabin but evolve new kinds of discourse, arriving in 1914 at an early form of dodecaphony (the Synthèses) and in 1915 at the Formes en l'air, dedicated to Picasso, a rather Cubist conception using an innovative form of notation in which different systems are placed spatially on the page in independent blocks, with blanks instead of bars' rest. At this stage of his career, he seems a parallel figure to Nikolai Roslavets, though Lourié's aesthetic appears more 'decadent'. Essentially, he was the first Russian Futurist in music, and in 1914 was the co-signatory, with the painter Georgy Yakulov and the poet Benedikt Livshits, of the Petersburg Futurist Manifesto, 'We and the West', proclaiming principles common to all three arts.
Revolutionary Russia
After the October Revolution of 1917, Lourié served under Anatoly Lunacharsky as head of the music division (Muzo) of the Commissariat of Popular Enlightenment (Narkompros). Lourié held this position until January 1921. Then he took up the position of teacher. For a while, he shared a house with Serge Sudeikin and his wife Vera Sudeikina. His tenure proved to be contentious. When he suggested renaming his music department "The People's Tribune for Civil Music", and styling himself the "People's Tribune", Lunacharsky allegedly replied: "No, Artur Sergeevich, this does not suit us." Aleksandr Goldenweiser and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov complained to Lenin himself about him. Though his sympathies were Leftist, he became increasingly disenchanted with the Bolshevik order in Russia.
Into exile
In 1921 he went on an official visit to Berlin, where he befriended Ferruccio Busoni, and from which he failed to return. His works were thereafter proscribed in the USSR. In 1922 he settled in Paris, where he became friends with the philosopher Jacques Maritain and was introduced to Igor Stravinsky by Vera Sudeykina. Maritain championed his work early on, viewing the young Lourié not only as an important composer, but as a composer with an important capacity to express Catholic theology and philosophy in music. Lourié dedicated a number of his works to Maritain, including the Gigue from 4 Pièces Pour Piano (1928). From 1924 to 1931, he was one of Stravinsky's most important champions, often becoming part of the Stravinsky household as he wrote articles about his fellow composer and made piano reductions of his works. He and the Stravinskys eventually parted company over a feud with Vera, and Stravinsky seldom afterwards mentioned his existence. In his works of the Paris years Lourié's early radicalism turns to an astringent form of neoclassicism and Russophile nostalgia; a dialogue with Stravinsky's works of the same period is evident, even to the extent that Stravinsky may have taken ideas from the younger composer: Lourié's A Little Chamber Music (1924) seems to prophesy Stravinsky's Apollon musagète (1927), his Concerto spirituale for chorus, piano and orchestra (1929) the latter's Symphony of Psalms (1930). Certainly, in his later works, Stravinsky adopted Lourié's style of notation with blank space instead of empty bars. Lourié also composed two symphonies (No. 1 subtitled Sinfonia dialectica) and an opera, The Feast in a Time of Plague. A man of very wide culture, who cultivated the image of a dandy and aesthete, he set poems of Sappho, Pushkin, Heine, Verlaine, Blok, Mayakovsky, Dante, classical Latin and medieval French poets. He was also a talented painter.
American years
When the Germans occupied Paris in 1940, Lourié, with assistance from Serge Koussevitzky, emigrated to the United States. He settled in New York. In 1946, he became an American citizen and joined the staff of Voice of America's Russian division. He was recorded in the 1950 United States census as living in Manhattan with Elizabeth.
He wrote some film scores but gained almost no performances for his more serious works, though he continued to compose. He spent over ten years writing an opera after Pushkin's The Moor of Peter the Great called The Blackamoor of Peter the Great, so far unperformed, though an orchestral suite has been recorded. He also composed a setting of sections from T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding for tenor and instruments (1959).
Lourié died in Princeton, New Jersey.
Selected recordings
Arthur Lourié Songs & Choruses: The Rosary, Voice of the Muse, on poems of Anna Akhmatova. Cantata In the Sanctuary of a Golden Dream on collected texts of Alexander Blok, Natalia Gerassimova, Vladimir Skanavy et al., rec. 1994, reissued by Brilliant Classics (2010)
Futurpiano: Synthèses (Op. 16), Formes en l'air (for Pablo Picasso). Daniele Lombardi, piano. Rec. 1995. Issued by LTM (2009)
12 Greek Songs to Texts from Sappho, translated by Viacheslav Ivanov (1914) on: Viacheslav Ivanov in Music of Miaskovsky, Lourié, Shebalin, Gretchaninov Ludmila Shkirtil (mezzo-soprano), Northern Flowers (2010)
Solo Piano Works, plus Der Irrtum der Frau Tod/Death's Mistake for speaker and piano; 3-CD set, Moritz Ernst (piano), Oskar Ansull (speaker), Capriccio (2016)
Complete Piano Works, Giorgio Koukl (piano), Naxos ( 2016)
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 14 | 70.2th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 10 | 82.3th |
| Studio albums | 10 | 91.1th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 13 | 89.7th |
| Recording span (years) | -27 | 7.7th |
| Genres | 6 | 91th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (10 release groups · 10 studio albums)
Albums · 10
Concerto da Camera / Little Gidding / A Little Chamber Music
1993 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 11 tracks · 54:14
1A Little Chamber Music: Allegro moderato8:172Little Gidding: I. Prelude. Tempo di recitativo2:023Little Gidding: II. Ash. Tempo di ballota (Allegro moderato) "Ash on an old man's sleeve"5:054Little Gidding: III. The Dove. Allegro appassionata ma dolcissimo "The dove descending breaks the air"2:245Little Gidding: IV. With the Drawing of this Love and the Voice of this Calling. Lento "We shall not cease from exploration"4:316Concerto da Camera: I. Entrata. Allegro capriccioso, ma non rubato - attacca:3:317Concerto da Camera: II. Aria. Lento, ma non troppo7:168Concerto da Camera: III. Intermezzo. Languido, quasi adagio5:119Concerto da Camera: IV. Fantasia. Allegro molto appassionata, ma sempre dolcissimo - attacca:4:2310Concerto da Camera: V. Serenata. Moderato - attacca:5:2411Concerto da Camera: VI. Epilogo. Tempo di Elegia6:10The 3 String Quartets / Duo for Viola & Violin
1997 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 11 tracks · 1:01:57
1String Quartet no. 1: I. Très lent19:112String Quartet no. 1: II. Grave11:323String Quartet no. 2: Allegro moderato7:484String Quartet no. 3: I. Prélude1:435String Quartet no. 3: II. Choral3:186String Quartet no. 3: III. Hymne5:097String Quartet no. 3: IV. Marche funèbre4:418Duo for Violin and Viola: I2:159Duo for Violin and Viola: II1:0010Duo for Violin and Viola: III2:3911Duo for Violin and Viola: IV2:412009 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 38 tracks · 1:14:06
1Lullaby (Sung in Russian)2:322Violent Storm3:163Mandolin (Sung in Russian)3:334My Light … (Sung in Russian)3:045The Lazybones and the Tomcat (Sung in Russian)2:316Victoria regia (Sung in Russian)1:247Chinese Bagatelle (Sung in Russian)2:588Fortune-Telling (Sung in Russian)4:219One Tenth (Sung in Russian)2:56102 Kolibeln'ya (2 Berceuses): No. 1. Pussy-cat, don't go there …1:27112 Kolibeln'ya (2 Berceuses): No. 2. Lullaby3:3112Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Lament for Adonis1:3213Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Erotic Fragment0:3314Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Hymnic Fragment0:3815Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): The Garden of the Nymphs1:1516Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): From the Wedding songs0:5617Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Plea to Aphrodite1:0618Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): From the Wedding songs1:3019Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): From the Wedding songs0:5220Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Erotic Fragment0:5921Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Erotic Fragment2:0322Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Erotic Fragment, "Expectation"1:1923Grecheskiye pesni na teksti iz Safo (Greek Songs on Texts by Sappho): Erotic Fragment1:1924Chyotki (Rosary): I. Jesting Song0:5525Chyotki (Rosary): II. Lament3:1626Chyotki (Rosary): III. Ocarina2:0327Chyotki (Rosary): IV. Protyazhnaya2:0628Chyotki (Rosary): V. Chastushka1:3229Suite japonaise: I. The Cicada Sings2:0130Suite japonaise: II. Cherry Blossom0:4931Suite japonaise: III. Love1:0932Suite japonaise: IV. Spring1:19336 Romances, Op. 21: No. 1. Love2:55346 Romances, Op. 21: No. 2. Before the Suicide1:41356 Romances, Op. 21: No. 3. An Immodest Glance1:00366 Romances, Op. 21: No. 4. The First and the Last Time3:04376 Romances, Op. 21: No. 5. Hopeless Love2:28386 Romances, Op. 21: No. 6. Death2:132010 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 16 tracks · 1:04:53
1Le Chapelet: Plaisanterie1:072Le Chapelet: Commémoration4:113Le Chapelet: Ocarina2:274Le Chapelet: Langueur1:515Le Chapelet: Tchastouchka1:296La voix de la muse: Tu es pesant, souvenir d'amour2:447La voix de la muse: On m'a jeté tant de pierres?3:078Quasi valse2:579Deux Mazurkas pour Piano, Op. 7: Mazurka No. 12:2410Deux Mazurkas pour Piano, Op. 7: Mazurka No. 23:0111Incantations, extraits du "poème sans héros": Deus conservat omnia - Un miroir - Comme l'avenir - Un petit être - Une fume verte4:1912Lamentations de la vierge13:2913Trois rois mages1:5714Dans le sanctuaire d'un rêve doré: Dans les champs tu t'éloignas7:1715Dans le sanctuaire d'un rêve doré: Une vie qui se consume dans le choeur5:1616Dans le sanctuaire d'un rêve doré: Du royaume du sommeil7:172016 · studio album
2016 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 29 tracks · 1:04:40
15 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 1, Lento1:4825 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 2, Calme, pas vite1:5835 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 3, Tendre, pensif1:5945 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 4, Affabile1:2655 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 5, Modéré2:5362 Estampes, Op. 2: No. 1, Crépuscule d’un faune4:2172 Estampes, Op. 2: No. 2, Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent3:4182 Mazurkas, Op. 7: No. 1, Lent, languide1:5792 Mazurkas, Op. 7: No. 2, Essoré3:04104 Poèmes, Op. 10: No. 1, Spleen3:27114 Poèmes, Op. 10: No. 2, Caprices2:31124 Poèmes, Op. 10: No. 3, Autoportrait2:36134 Poèmes, Op. 10: No. 4, Ironies1:4714Formes en l'air: No. 1,1:5515Formes en l'air: No. 2,2:1316Formes en l'air: No. 3,2:3717Masques, Op. 13 (Tentations): No. 1, Nuagè, suave3:1818Masques, Op. 13 (Tentations): No. 2, Caché, avec une ironie suave1:0619Masques, Op. 13 (Tentations): No. 3, Avec une grâce fragile2:1620Masques, Op. 13 (Tentations): No. 4, Dans une mystère profonde et calme1:3921Masques, Op. 13 (Tentations): No. 5, Etrange, charmé1:2522Masques, Op. 13 (Tentations): No. 6, Très lent, calme [Mouvement d'une marche funèbre]2:5523Masques, Op. 13 (Tentations): No. 7, Pâmé, avec désir croissant1:3124Upmann (Smoking Sketch)3:1225Petite Suite in F Major: No. 1,0:3726Petite Suite in F Major: No. 2,1:0827Petite Suite in F Major: No. 3,0:3428Petite Suite in F Major: No. 4,0:5729Dialogue3:492017 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 30 tracks · 1:21:09
12 Poèmes, Op. 8: No. 1, Essor2:0222 Poèmes, Op. 8: No. 2, Ivresse5:163Menuett nach Gluck3:204Synthèses, Op. 16: No. 1, Lent1:305Synthèses, Op. 16: No. 2, Modérément animé1:366Synthèses, Op. 16: No. 3, Vite (Aigu)1:477Synthèses, Op. 16: No. 4, Assez vite, mais toujours mesuré1:158Synthèses, Op. 16: No. 5, Mesuré0:589Daytime Routine: No. 1, Study1:1010Daytime Routine: No. 2, Walk3:1811Daytime Routine: No. 3, Shadows2:5112Daytime Routine: No. 4, Sorcery2:2113Daytime Routine: No. 5, Mischievousness1:50148 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 1, The Porcelain Shepherd & His Flock0:59158 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 2, Little Trepak1:22168 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 3, A Good Boy0:58178 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 4, A Naughty Boy1:04188 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 5, Bogey Man1:07198 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 6, Lullaby2:03208 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 7, Sun & Shower1:53218 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 8, Children's Song "The Kitten Climbed on the Fence"1:0822Piano Sonatina No. 33:2323Toccata5:0824Valse4:1025Gigue5:0126Marche2:3027Nocturne6:5628Intermezzo5:5229Berceuse de la chevrette3:2030Phoenix Park Nocturne5:012018 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 13 tracks · 54:12
15 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 1, Lento2:3925 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 2, Calme, pas vite1:5835 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 3, Tendre, pensif2:4645 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 4, Affabile1:0455 Préludes fragiles, Op. 1: No. 5, Modéré3:196Valse4:0072 Estampes, Op. 2: No. 1, Crépuscule d'un faune5:3282 Estampes, Op. 2: No. 2, Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent4:429Intermezzo9:1010Petite suite in F Major3:0011Gigue4:3312Nocturne9:02138 Scenes of Russian Childhood: No. 6, Lullaby2:272018 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 11 tracks · 1:05:52
1Préludes fragiles, op. 1: I. Lento2:212Préludes fragiles, op. 1: II. Calme, pas vite1:593Préludes fragiles, op. 1: III. Tendre, pensif2:514Préludes fragiles, op. 1: IV. Affabile1:515Préludes fragiles, op. 1: V. Modéré2:596Sonata no. 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 11: I. Un poco adagio13:157Sonata no. 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 11: II. Aria3:428Sonata no. 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 11: III. Scherzo e intermezzo5:489Sonata no. 1 in F-sharp minor, op. 11: IV. Allegro con poco maestoso14:2610Two Elegies, op. 8b: I. Grave8:1711Two Elegies, op. 8b: II. Molto adagio, sempre rubato8:23Chamber And Instrumental Music, Volume One: Works With Wind Instruments
2022 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 14 tracks · 1:10:04
1Sunrise3:232Pastorale de la Volga: I.6:433Pastorale de la Volga: II.6:204Regina Coeli3:025La flûte à travers le violon: II. Allegretto4:166La flûte à travers le violon: II. Adagio3:147La flûte à travers le violon: III. Presto3:578Dithyrambes: I. Le sacrifice du miel2:319Dithyrambes: II. Plainte d'ariane2:3010Dithyrambes: III. Labyrinthe5:07112 Études sur un sonnet de Mallarmé: No. 1, Phrases6:2412The Mime7:2313The Flute of Pan5:0714Funeral Games in Honor of Chronos10:07
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Arthur Lourié head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 14 | 70.2th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 10 | 82.3th |
| Studio albums | 10 | 91.1th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 13 | 89.7th |
| Recording span (years) | -27 | 7.7th |
| Genres | 6 | 91th |
Awards & honours
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A._Lurie_by_anonymous_%281910s%2C_Akhmatova%27s_museum%29.jpgaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/9ba6db8c-9385-4eae-bcb2-ac5f3dae733fdiscography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/9ba6db8c-9385-4eae-bcb2-ac5f3dae733fcore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q710458genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q710458seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Louri%C3%A9biography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Louri%C3%A9
Why this artist is in the database
- List of composers by name
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: seefilename · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q710458 · MusicBrainz: 9ba6db8c-9385-4eae-bcb2-ac5f3dae733f
Similar artists
Browse every Tier 3 artist →Ranked from this record's own data: shared genre tags (rarer tags weigh more), era, home country and comparable fame. Every card lists the signals that placed it — no editorial picks.
Alexander Alyabyev
Russian Empire · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1991, 2 years apart · from Russian Empire
29 wikis
François Bazin
France · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1993, same year
14 wikis
Georges Aperghis
Greece · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1992, 1 year apart
14 wikis
Peter Ablinger
Austria · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1996, 3 years apart
14 wikis
Francisco António de Almeida
Kingdom of Portugal · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1992, 1 year apart
13 wikis
Franz Ignaz Beck
Germany · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1996, 3 years apart
13 wikis
Dominick Argento
United States · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1991, 2 years apart
16 wikis
Samuel Adler
Germany · Person
opera
1 shared genre tag · debut 1990, 3 years apart
16 wikis