DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2016.2.20123

Abstract: The second issue of our journal is devoted to various aspect of the contemporary foreign music. The authors were mostly interested in the problems of aesthetics and styles, as well as study of specificity of the contemporary means of expressiveness. Thus, the Doctor of Philosophy E. I. Shapinskaya in her article presents an extensive culturological analysis of the work of the medieval German painter Bernt Notke “Danse Macabre” (Dance of Death) alongside the cantata of the contemporary British composer Thomas Adès within the contexts of Medieval Times and Postmodernism, based on the descriptive method; an attempt is made to perform a hermeneutic analysis of both cultural texts. However, this issue focuses attention on the analysis of the works of the three renowned Brazilian composers – Heitor Villa-Lobos, José Antônio de Almeida Prado, and Marlos Nobre. Such peculiar attention to Brazilian music is explained by the fact that at the end of February of 2016 the State Institute for Art Studies held an the international conference titled “Brazilian Academic Music”. This event is remarkable because the music of Brazilian composers for the first time became the topic of the scientific discourse in Moscow: for majority of the Russian music lovers this area of contemporary art is yet quite exotic. The conference was held at high level; Brazilian guests and music culture experts, as well as audience from different scientific institutes were welcomed by the Brazilian Ambassador to Russia Antonio Jose Vallim Guerreiro, Director of the Institute for Art Studies Natalia Vladimirovna Sipovskaya, Deputy Director on scientific work Elena Ivanovna Strutinskaya, and First Secretary of the Embassy, attaché on culture Igor Zhermano. The initiator of this conference was the Department of Theory of Music, while the performance of Brazilian guests along with the concert program were organized with the support of the Brazilian Embassy in Moscow. Choosing the topics for the discourse, organizers were trying to illustrate a wide panorama of Brazilian music, especially considering that there are very few experts in this area of contemporary music. The materials from several reports prepared specifically for this conference, are presented in the main content of the issue of our journal. The conference was opened by the report of Doctor of Art Studies and Senior Researcher at the State Institute for Art Studies Valeria Nikolayevna Fedotova “Villa-Lobos and the European Music”. At a certain point, the works by Villa-Lobos became the subject of dissertation of the musicologist; in her publications she also described the music of other Latin American countries. In her report, V. N. Fedotova re-learned multiple materials from the French archives and underlined that the artistic synthesis in the works of Villa-Lobos was performed on the highest artistic level; thus, his oeuvres were able to attract attention of the wide European audience and renowned creative communities in the 1920’s. Special interest sparked the report on the works by composer Marlos Nobre and “magical realism” by Vitaliy Romanovich Dotsenko (Post-Doctoral Degree in Art Studies, Leading Researcher at the Center of Culturological Research attached to the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences, author of the monograph “History of Latin American Music of the XVI–XX centuries”, 2010). Marlos Nobre (born in 1939) is one of the brightest representatives of Brazilian Composer’s School; his music was the conduit for individualized reflection of the main music directions of the XX century – neofolklorism, neoclassicism, and various trends of avant-garde. The report of Natalia Sergeevna Renyova (Doctor of Art Studies, Docent at the department of Theory and History of Music, the Maimonid State Classical Academy) was dedicated to the analysis of the Third Sonata for Violin and Piano by José de Almeida Prado (1991). This composer’s music also aroused interest of another researcher Olga Valerievna Sobakina (Post-Doctoral Degree in Art Studies, Leading Researcher at the State Institute for Art Studies). We hope that becoming familiar with the presented in this issue scientific material will be a continuation of the dialogue between the Russian and Brazilian musicians, contribute into the scientific and cultural collaboration, as well as spark interest of the performers and listeners to the expressive and remarkable music of the contemporary Brazilian composers.   

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2016.2.19845

Abstract: The Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1956) became one of the very first representatives of the New World, whose oeuvres attracted the attention of European artistic community. The composer is known for the extremely extensive range of his creative interests, as well as diverse circle of the images of his music. Villa-Lobos was among the first to study Brazilian folk music; at the beginning of the XX century he visited the remote parts of the country with preserved traditions of the natives and migrants from the African Continent. It was especially interesting to find out how the creative work of the composer was perceived, and how it correlated with European cultural context. The goal of this publication is to present the work of this Brazilian composer in the context of European art. Among many compositions by Villa-Lobos, the most diverse in its artistic images and musical material is the cycle Bachianas Brasileiras. It is also evident that through the prime examples of European art, the composer tended to make Brazilian music a part of the world culture. In this regard, his Bachianas is one of the manifestations of neoclassicism. For Europe, the interest to the works of Villa-Lobos was mostly due to the fact that at the edge of the centuries there was a spike in the interest towards the forgotten types of music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and deep antiquity, as well as the ancient folklore of African-Brazilian and Indigenous People have been assimilated.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2016.2.19624

Abstract: In the works of the Latin American composers we can notice a consistent trend towards the compositions reflecting the specificities of world perception of residents of the region, in which the autochthonous elements of the folk music of Indigenous and Afro-American People are being interpreted by the means of the most recent composer’s techniques. A similar phenomenon in literature was dubbed the “magical realism”. Marlos Nobre (born in 1939) is one of the brightest representatives of Brazilian composer’s school; his music is known for emotional saturation, explicitness of form, as well as testifies of composer’s virtuosic technique. Nobre’s oeuvres “Ukrinmakrinkrin”, “Yanomani”, and “Kabbalah” are inspired with the magic of “miraculous reality” of Latin America. In composer’s works we can observe a fusion of the three diverse components – avant-gardism, as synonym of the novelty and experiment; neoclassicism, as reliance upon the professional art of the past; and neofolklorism, as embodiment of the modern interpretation of the problems of folk character. However, we should underline Nobre’s Brazilian ethnicity, which is manifested in his ideological-conceptual, as well as technical aspects of his compositions.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2016.2.19664

Abstract: At the beginning of the XX century the piano music was very popular in Brazil, thus it held a significant part in the works by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri, and later, gained attention of the composers of the following generation. In the works by Almeida Prado (1943-2010), ten piano sonatas and large cycles attract attention; they are not only written by a renowned composer, but also a professional pianist, who was able to transmit the ideas that were typical for the music of the 60’s and 70’s, as well as the virtuosity in contemporary treatment of the instrument. The goal of this article is to form the perception of the evolution of the piano style of this composer. The piano works by Almeida Prado is being examined in the Russian musicology for the first time. The author highlights its significant place in the contemporary piano repertoire, limited transformation of modern trends, and dominance of the post-modernistic aesthetics. Many stylistic tactics, as well as the interest towards national themes allow us to characterize Almeida Prado as the follower of Villa-Lobos. At the same time, in the composing techniques of the first decades of his life we can see interest not only towards the works of Messiaen, but also Guarnieri, Ligeti, and Boulez.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2016.2.19711

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the Third Sonata for Violin and Piano by José Antônio de Almeida Prado – one of the brightest chamber works of his later years. As of today, the specificity, characteristic traits and logical origins of Prado’s works have only partially been interpreted and explained in separate articles of Brazilian musicologists. The author’s goal was to study the specificity of the stylistics of this sonata, particularly to analysis it's musical language and structure, including the specific complex of the tonal and modal harmonic means, mixed chords of a complicated structure, as well as the forms and methods of thematic development. The author utilized traditional musicological procedures, used in the field of modern harmony and analysis. Based on this analysis, the author makes the conclusions that the principles of the thematic development in this sonata are used as classical – various types of imitations, rearrangement of voices, variations of separate elements of the sound material, as well as specific – dictated by the individual peculiarities of the material. In the pitch organization of the sonata the special role is played by the modal expressive means; overall however, the sound texture of the sonata leans on the twelve-tone system, forming as the result of the overlaying of the diatonic scales, tonal alteration, and usage of polychords. Such analysis is conducted for the first time.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2016.2.19470

Abstract: The subject of this research is the artistic interpretation of the archetypal plot in various historical-cultural contexts. Based on the work of the medieval painter Bernt Notke “Danse Macabre” (Dance of Death) and oeuvre of the contemporary composer Thomas Adès, the author demonstrates the despite the restrictions imposed by the cultural codes of a specific era, a creative personality finds opportunities for self-expression, as well as revelation of the new essences of the archetypal plot. The author examines the peculiarities of artistic work in various historical-cultural contexts and forms of artistic expressivity. The material of this article is introduced into the academic discourse for the first time. Special attention is given to the problem of creative work during the “post-cultural” era, which is known for depletion of the creative impulse and exhaustion of culture. It is demonstrated that the creative beginning is an anthropologically universal category, which finds opportunities to express the eternal existential problems of a man, particularly perception of death, by means of artistic language. The conclusion is made that various types of interpretation of the archetypal plot contain the creative beginning, which in turn, represents the underlying human need.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2016.2.19472

Abstract: The paper examines the problem of creative interpretation of an archetypal plot in different historical and cultural contexts. Basing on the work by a Mideaval painter Bernt Notke “Danse macabre” and on the work “Totentaz” by a modern composer Thomas Ades the author shows that, despite the limitations imposed by cultural codes of a period, creative personality finds possibilities both for self-expression and for disclosing new meanings of an archetypal plot. Special attention is paid to the problem of creativity in “post-cultural” epoch, which is characterized by diminishing of creative impulse and insistence of exhaustion of culture. It is shown in the paper that creativity is a universal anthropological category which finds possibilities to express by a new artistic language existential problems of mankind, including the attitude to death.With the help of textual analysis, descriptive and comparative methods the author conducts research of the subject on the basis of the material of different cultural forms. The material of the article is new to Russian academic discourse. Special attention is given to the problem of creativity in “post-cultural” epoch which is characterized by diminishing of creative impulse and declaration of exhaustion of culture. It has been shown that creativity is a universal anthropological category which finds possibilities to express eternal existential problems of people, in particular the attitude to death, in a new artistic language. The conclusion is made that different interpretations of an archetypal plot contain creative impulse expressing the deepest necessities of human beings.