An aphorism (from the Greek ἀφορισμός, “definition”) is an original, self-contained thought, expressed and recorded in a concise, memorable form, and subsequently repeated many times by others. It is believed that an aphorism achieves the utmost concentration of the immediate message and the context in which the thought is perceived by listeners or readers.
Recently, aphorisms have been taking over the internet more and more. Social media users’ pages are sometimes literally flooded with all kinds of images featuring “quotes from the greats.”
All sorts of articles with titles like “Top 100 (50, 20, 15, 10) Great (Best, Most Meaningful) Aphorisms by Omar Khayyam (Stolypin, Umberto Eco, Shakira).”
In the summer, you can even see and read aphorisms on T-shirts. Our beautiful city stands apart from all this—or, more precisely, its native sons and daughters do (I’m not counting the lighthearted aphorisms of our contemporaries). Were there really no great thinkers in our beloved Kharkiv whose words would be worth knowing?
As we recall, the name of the brilliant composer Fedir Yakimenko was shamefully forgotten during the Soviet era. One could speak endlessly about the work and personality of this man, who—without exaggeration—was a genius. So profound and multifaceted is the man whose creations were described as nothing less than “music of exquisite taste”! However, Fedir Stepanovich not only composed remarkable works himself but was also a talented music writer.
The November 1909 issue of *The Russian Musical Gazette* featured his text titled “An Artist’s Aphorisms.” Thanks to this, we can fully understand the meaning our brilliant compatriot imbued in his musical masterpieces.
Right at the beginning, Fedir Yakimenko writes:
It is well known that art has always had an enormous influence on human character and spiritual faculties. The search for ever-new forms of beauty and the complete rapture they inspire have been inherent in the human soul since time immemorial.
To create beauty—and from it to fashion ever-new elements of life, which are indestructible if they are truly embodied in what is genuinely beautiful—is, it seems to me, the lot not only of the chosen few, but of every sensitive, every living soul. It is in the very nature of the human soul that, once it is capable of absorbing the beneficent rays emanating from great works of art, it cannot help but grow and be enriched with ever-new elements—if not creative ones, then at least others no less valuable, opening the way to a full perception of the great revelations of art, as well as elements that rebirth human souls into a new life. Although the genres of art are manifold and the forms of the Beautiful are infinite—all of them, like invisible radii of one and the same circle, lead to one and the same common center—Eternal Beauty, the Primary Source of all forms of the Beautiful. No matter how distant this Primary Source may be—we still sense it, and we are always drawn to It, just as the planets are drawn to the radiant Sun. The aphorisms I present below are merely a subjective elaboration on the lofty goals of Art—in particular, Music.
It is my personal conviction that none of the arts ennobles and elevates the entire human being to such an extent as the wondrous art of music. I am speaking of the highest form of music. Only pure music, embodying the lofty spirit of art, is the music of the highest poetry of sounds. The brief thoughts I have set forth in the form of aphorisms are not arbitrary—on the contrary, they follow logically from related ideas, which are expounded and developed in a separate, specialized work that I have not yet completed.
Next come 24 of the most beautiful aphorisms. What’s most interesting is that they were written during the so-called “Kharkiv period”—the very time when Fedir Stepanovich lived, worked, and gave his very first concerts in our city, which brought him fame and glory.
1. Art is always the highest point in the evolution of human mental faculties.
2. The highest purpose of art is to create beauty, expressing it in an infinitely diverse range of forms, so that it may be fully appreciated and enjoyed.
3. The enjoyment of art leads to the source of the highest, purest joys and to the infinite perfection of the human being.
4. The religion of the future is the religion of Art, based on astronomical principles.
5. The contemporary art of our planet is mere childish babbling—though of divine origin—when compared to the great Art of the Universe.
6. The Great Universal Art, which unites myriads of worlds in the infinity of space, is already perceptible and conscious to us, but it is enjoyed by beings higher than ourselves.
7. The true blossoming of the immortal creative soul will begin only when its thought is transformed into the highest poetry of sound—Music.
8. Often, words are nothing; music is everything.
9. Every manifestation of high art is one of the countless little windows through which the supreme vision directs its mighty gaze. Through them, ever-new perspectives of the Divine are revealed to it.
10. Art should be universal—it should speak to every soul.
11. Only his lightning-fast strikes can awaken slumbering souls—and then they will be reborn into a new and better life.
12. Creative ability lies within every soul, but not everyone strives to awaken it.
13. The Sun of Eternal Beauty, the Primordial Source of Life, fertilizes the souls of the world—and they, in turn, blossom into the wondrous, imperishable flowers of Art.
14. The true life of the soul will begin only when it comes to know its highest destiny. The soul’s growth is boundless, as are Art and the forms in which it manifests itself.
15. The desire to live burns even more intensely thanks to the revelations of Art.
16. Material contentment paralyzes people’s souls; their path leads to regression and decline.
17. Art is all the more perfect the more perfect the world and the beings that inhabit it are.
18. Art is a wonderful educator of the soul; it embodies all that is noble and powerful.
19. Suffering in the world may be eternal; its cause is the relative limitation of beings.
20. Human imperfection gives rise to the desire to rise ever higher—and in this lies humanity’s great consolation.
21. Art is a guiding star toward perfection.
22. If Science is great because it enlightens the intellect, Art is great because it creates ever-new elements in Eternal Life.
23. The paths of art are many and varied, but they all lead to the same goal—the Supreme Beauty, the Absolute Beauty, infinitely distant from us, yet always drawing our souls toward it.
Later, Fedir Stepanovich wrote a wonderful and profound book, which thus became the “separate special treatise” that had not yet been completed at the time of the 1909 publication of *The Artist’s Aphorisms*.
Between 1910 and 1913, individual chapters of the book were published in the pages of the aforementioned journal. It was titled *Life in Art*. In addition to this work, Akimenko authored articles on musical and philosophical topics, including “The Sphere of Music” (1911), “Art in the Universe” (1914), and “Art and War.” Akimenko wrote the latter article in 1914 in Petrograd, where he was working at the time.
To my great regret, the name of this creator of extraordinary music and beautiful aphorisms has been forgotten in his hometown. For this reason, I would like to conclude this text with the words of Fyodor Stepanovich himself, from his work *Art in the Universe*:
Should we be afraid of difficult achievements when we are timid and weak-willed at times? When, striving toward them, we stumble—with every new step—over the stones of our own failures?.. Is it really better for us—exhausted at times by unattainable dreams—to sink meekly and forever into the shadow of Nirvana? Yet the dreams of the Arts soar like light-winged birds across the worlds of the Universe! With tender, motherly affection, they awaken souls to the contemplation of Beauty, to the rapture of the Beautiful, in the Universe…
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