DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2018.2.25788

Abstract: The subject of the study is aleatoric forms (including indeterminacy in the process of musical thought writing and development) which, in spite of individual author's development, are based on traditional principles of organization, such as repetition, variation, presentation of thematism and its development, main body and development, sonata form, etc. The object of the study are the works by composers of the twentieth century that are based on the aleatoric principle and at the same time inherit the tradition of classical-romantic forms. Mobile aleatoric forms, as a rule, have a clear material disposition (sequence of themes, sections, fragments or episodes), and the order of presentation of thought through them does not change considerably despite the uncertainty of some parameters. The study is based on the method of analysis of modern musical forms developed by the “Kholopov” school of musicology, the work’s text analysis of which starts from the material and methods of its development end ends up with the principles of texture and development of musical thought in general. The main conclusions of the study are the following theses: mobility of the aleatoric form at the text level (not the order of its writing) represents the measure of mobility that is acceptable for composition on the basis of traditional principles of organization. Thus such incongruous categories as aleatoric music and traditional forms can also be combined: composers of the twentieth century turned to classical forms as stability of the works’ structure allowed them to preserve traditional forms even in a mobile text.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2018.2.26252

Abstract: The article considers one of the most influential music approaches of analytical philosophy to the problem of emotional expressiveness of music – arousalism or evocationism according to which the constitutive moment of music expression of emotions is an affective response generated by music.  The article is focused on the two most vulnerable points of this approach: justification of (1) the link between the audience response generated by music through causal means and the emotion attributed to music and (2) the identity of the emotion evoked/expressed by music. The author analyses the attempts to resolve these issues which are based on the postulation of intentional affective reactions generated by music (Mew, Greenspan, Madell), and the alternative Matravers concept (based on an analogy with the perception of colour) consistently supporting the causal principle. The main method of study is the analysis of concepts and argumentative strategies, reconstruction of positions of individual authors. The article also applies a comparative method. The author introduces and analyzes a collection of writings in the analytical philosophy of music of the last two decades into scientific parlance in the Russian-language literature, which deal with the problem of emotional expressiveness of music in the context of arousalism. The article reveals the explicative potential of alternative versions of this approach with the involvement of modern (mainly English) empirical studies.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2018.2.26544

Abstract: The article illustrates the factors that determine the use of travesti with due regard to historical and cultural standards of the era, as well as the factors determined by specific artistic tasks of the author. The second case includes situations of representation of certain age characteristics of the hero/heroine, parody-grotesque and infernal images. The author marks a connection of the last two situations with carnival aesthetics. It is the first time in musicology that this problem is addressed. As examples, the article uses  operas by S. Landi, D. Vinci, F. Cavalli, G. Handel, W. Mozart, L. Rossi, J.Rameau. The methodology of the work is based on complex consideration of the phenomenon under study. In conclusion the author notes that it represents an integral quality of musical theatre of the era under study that exists according to its laws, paradoxical and motivated by its own artistic logic at the same time. The article is intended for a wide range of readers - from professionals studying the opera art of the past and the present days to readers interested in general issues of theatre and opera.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2018.2.26574

Abstract: The subject of the study is difference in the timbre characteristics of sonoristics and electro-acoustic music – musical texture often combined on the basis of colourfulness inherent in both of them. The article shows that it differs not only in nature (in the first case, the music is performed with traditional musical instruments and/or voices, in the second case it is synthesized or consists of transformed natural notes recorded on an electronic medium), but  it also suggests a different type of listening. In sonoristics the music consists of quite large structures, and the listener when mastering the musical language of the work can build the drama of the form, as it is done in relation to classical music. In electro-acoustic music musical events follow each other very quickly and usually differ from each other in timbre, and the listener perceives the work as a "stream of consciousness" without dividing it into structures, as he does not divide the sounds of nature or the environment. The article shows the difference between timbres and the ensuing types of music perception primarily through the analysis of the formal structure of works of various textures. The novelty of the approach lies in interpretation of the timbre of sonoblock as a developing phenomenon. The author shows that timbre is not a single static integral unit, it acquires its specific form depending on the type of music work. The author also indirectly demonstrates the common perception of music and the sounds of wildlife.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2018.2.26971

Abstract: Instrumental theatre is one of the main genres of musical art of the second half of the twentieth century. It allows to accumulate features of different types of art in one piece of art – music, theatre, literature, painting, and so on. Due to the synthesis of arts, it is very  popular with the public. This article discusses one of the striking examples of the genre — The Second Concerto for Trombone with Orchestra ("don Quixote") by the modern Swedish avant-garde composer Jan Sandström. The author tries to make a complex analysis of the work, the main aspect of which is the interaction of arts, their synthesis and indivisibility. This synthesis is manifested in the change of the status of performers who play musical instruments — now they perform the function of actors, which is illustrated by their movements on the stage, costumes, props, demonstration of voice abilities. Jan Sandström created a unique example of instrumental theatre based on the plot and text of the legendary work by Cervantes.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2018.2.26728

Abstract: The article describes different variants of the song folklore functioning and its relation to various genre groups. So, many researchers mark the need to take into account all the components of a particular example under study (in this case –  songs). The article discusses the approaches to the study of folklore of such scientists as V.E. Gusev, I.I. Zemtsovskiy, E.V. Gippius and Z.V. Evald, Z.Y. Mozheyko, G.Ya. Sysoev, Yu. G. Kruglov.  The main direction of the study of song folklore is a comprehensive analysis of the material, as the song contains not only a text and melody, it may include other elements of folklore, such as choreography, instruments, etc. The other mandatory element of the tradition is functional application of folk art, namely the existence of sound design in the ritual or outside it. Such elements are fundamental for the analysis of the song material. For it is unacceptable to consider the rhythmic formula without taking into account the performer’s interpretation, intonation and structural specifics of the song, and vice versa. In addition, each sample of folk music should be confirmed with a multiple performance, in the repertoire of both an ensemble of the studied tradition and a solo artist. All of that contributes to formation of more accurate conclusions of the work, on the basis of which it is possible to identify typical formulas which characterize a song culture of the local tradition. On the basis of the considered approaches to the study of the song samples of folk music, the article proposes a classification of the round dance genre of Russian villages of the Volga Delta depending on the ways of their implementation.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2018.2.26973

Abstract: The article deals with musical opuses created in the conditions of synthesis of jazz and academic idioms. The authors analyze the positions of domestic and foreign researchers connected with the definition of style attributes of two unorthodox directions of contemporary music art — the Third Stream and the Progressive.  A number of researchers uphold the positions, according to which the Third Stream is an independent artistic phenomenon. The development of its aesthetic features is associated with the emergence of a new type of composers whose professional skills are closely connected with both ideological bases of academic music and the artistic palette of jazz music. In numerous studies devoted to jazz culture, the style definitions of the Progressive and the Third Stream are in a state of mutual competition. Depending on the context used by the researcher, the phenomena can intersect, displace or replace each other. Ethnic elements were included in the integration process in the course of further development of the ideas of the Third Stream, by reference to artistic practice. The artistic peculiarities of the Third Stream and the Progressive were analysed by some researchers through the prism of more general musical issues, so that the boundaries of these phenomena are constantly shifting. In opposition to the dominant paradigm there are musicologists who strongly criticize the idea of mixing different levels of artistic layers, levelling the deep differences of the synthesized musical cultures. In the current situation, there is a need for an in-depth approach to the specific features of the Progressive and the Third Stream which should be understood as independent phenomena that can be successfully distinguished.