DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.33543

Abstract: The article considers one of the most important topics of Russian discourse - the issue of St.Petersburg, particularly the understanding of the phenomenon of Petersburg in the works of composers. The purpose of the research is to trace back the process of formation of Russian musical “Petersburgiana”. The main task is to reconstruct segmentary materials related to the aspects of manifestation of Petersburg in the works of Russian composers. The research methods are determined by the interdisciplinary nature which synthesizes the approaches of comparative history, culturology, and music theory. As the key works, the author chooses the works related to the “Petersburg text”, particularly the work by V.Toporov who was the first to introduce this term into the literature studies. It serves as a basis for the understanding of the phenomenon of Petersburg in other forms of art. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that it is the first to study the evolution of Russian musical “Petersburgiana”, which started in the 18th century and during its 300-year history produced more than 800 opuses. The author outlines the key topics and images of Petersburg embodiment using the examples of the works of the composers of the 18th - 21st centuries, organized according to their genre and chronologically. These materials are the result of the research work; they outline promising concepts and aspects for the further comprehensive analysis of Petersburg in Russian music culture in terms of the works of its creators.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.33705

Abstract: The subject of this study is the interpretation of Boris Godunov's part in the opera of the same name by M.P. Mussorgsky by two Bulgarian opera stars: B. Hristov and N. Giaurov, as well as their approach to working on this role. Aiming to reveal the main semantic accents of the interpretation of the title part of the opera "Boris Godunov", the author analyzed reviews and essays of opera critics, biographical works of researchers of the singers' creativity, as well as memoirs of their contemporaries and interviews with the artists themselves as research material. The relevance of the presented work is seen in the need to carefully study the world performing heritage of the opera scene, which will create the basis for new, worthy interpretations. According to the results of the research, the author came to the conclusion that Christ's main semantic emphasis in the interpretation of the party is placed on the lofty, worthy aspirations of the tsar, who, being a dreamer and a knight, sought to exalt and strengthen his state, but fell victim to boyar resistance and the inexorable course of Russian history. Giaurov does not justify Godunov at all, although he forms the image of an awe-inspiring and admiring sovereign - monumental, domineering and proud. If Hristov, following Mussorgsky, saw in Tsar Boris a man crushed by power, then for Giaurov, as for Pushkin, the image of a tsar who subordinated everything human in himself to his main goal - power is closer.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.32903

Abstract: The article considers the problem of textual borrowings from his own compositions as a way of author’s self-understanding and self-interpreting, in the style formation of the latest period of Tchaikovsky’s work (1890-1893). The research is based on the last vocal cycle of the composer - Six Romances, op. 73 (1893). The problem field of the research also covers a range of compositions related to the last four years of the composer’s life: “The Queen of Spades” opera, Sixth Symphony, “The Nutcracker” ballet, and an opera “Iolanta”. Special attention is given to the integral stylistic substantiation of such specific techniques of “self-hermeneutics” as anagrammatizing, self-citing, tonal reminiscences, and composition-drama correlations. The author considers the declared problem in the intertextual context, classifying it as “self-intertextuality”, and uses the intertext methodology of the French structuralist school (F. Saussure, Ju. Kristeva), and the Russian researchers of the phenomenon of self-intertextuality (V. Toporov, T. Fateeva). An additional methodological direction is a mythopoetic substantiation of anagrammatizing (the detection of an author’s monogram), for which the author uses the instruments of onomastic concepts of myth (A. Losev, Yu. Lotman). As a result of such an integrative (intertextual and mythopoetic) approach, very “unexpected” (at least at first sight) manifestations of self-intertextuality (the presence of a monogram “SNA”, citations from various compositions, non-conventional tone plan and “anti-final” cyclic composition in the music cycle) are comprehensively semantically substantiated by the author’s myth about “Name acquisition”. Thus, the discovered methodological strategy can be used for studying particular opuses and corpus-based text forms.   

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.32872

Abstract: This article focuses on transforming a musical language and the correlation between the esthetic guideline, invention, compositional technique, and language. The author describes Pierre Boulez’s two strategies in life and work, which allowed him to gain significant cultural authority, and sets out the people who influenced Boulez’s esthetics. In a broad esthetic and philosophical context, the author shows the turn from the technique to the language in Boulez's esthetical and theoretical texts, describes the three concepts of the language, the period of synthesis following the period of rejection, and Boulez’s concerns about the problems of music perception. In the context of Boulez’s thesis about the unity of an invention, a technique, and a language, the author considers Boulez’s supporter Heinz Holliger's piece for viola, Trema(1981). The author uses a comprehensive approach as a combination of elements of comparative analysis, musical phenomenology (focusing the mind on music structures), and hermeneutics (the process of understanding and interpreting). The research material is of methodical importance for modern educational courses in the theory and history of music. The author arrives at the conclusion that Boulez, as well as Kant, directs the concept of art towards Aristotle's category of “poiesis” as “craft and creation” and focuses on overcoming the esthetics of rejection (preceding the classic-romantic tradition) in Boulez’s turn to the period of “synthesis,” which includes not only the turn from a technique to a language but also electroacoustic “sound manufacturing.” The following aspects of Hollinger’s Trema are considered for the first time: the idea, the principles of new solo music, and the new technique. The author arrives at the conclusion that Trema belongs to the “multilayered music epoch” and that radical rethinking of a musical language sharpens communication.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.32170

Abstract: This article analyzes the interaction between music and dance in Emilio de' Cavalieri’s ballo O Che Nuovo Miracolo (Oh What a New Miracle, Florence, 1589). The relevance of this research lies in the interest in the emergence and development of the theatre ballet genre during this period. The purpose of this research is to study the interplay between music and dance, exploring how they interact on multiple levels to create a complex, multi-sided performance. In this work, the author reveals traditional techniques of adjustment based on the commonness of the measured length of syllables/motives/steps and innovative forms of interaction that manifest themselves in the correlation between the expressive properties of dance with music fabric’s metrics, rhythm, texture, and timbres. The distinctive features of creative musical endeavors are analyzed based on historical, historical-typological, and intertextual research methods. The author analyzes the multilayered structure of the musical piece, which consists of interweaving complex visual and music-intonation transformations and the exposition of dance and music’s contrasting and symmetrically consistent entities. The author concludes with a special dramatic significance that arises from the fusion of music and choreography found by Cavalieri, symbolizing the process of acquiring “the gift of Harmony.” The multilayered intertextual crossings form a complex composition that can be referred to as one of the most unique artistic findings of the epoch.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.32910

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the musical The Sound of Music by the composer Richard Rodgers and the writer Oscar Hammerstein II—one of the brightest examples of classic Broadway musicals. The author describes the main genre and style, as well as the musical’s dramatic peculiarities, and attempts to address the following research objectives: to analyze the piece’s narrative and genre components, the main characters’ intonation complexes, the most significant groups of characters and their vocal techniques, and to trace the influence of Austrian genres in the musical’s musical fabric. The author uses the following methods: cultural-historical, comparative analysis, and music-style and music-history analysis. Despite the obvious significance of this piece of music and its thumping success, The Sound of Music hasn’t been given enough scholarly attention in scientific literature. The author arrives at the conclusion that the distinct dramatism, engaging plot, intricate music drama, and diverse blend of genre and style are the hallmark features of this musical, which has been instrumental in the musical’s enduring success over time.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.32769

Abstract: The subject of this research is Russia’s repertory heritage, including compositions for viola by twentieth-century composers. The works are considered from the viewpoint of their direct impact by the brightest representatives of the Russian viola school: Vadim Borisovsky, Fyodor Druzhinin, and Yuri Bashmet. The analysis is based on pieces devoted to Borisovsky (Sonata for Viola and Piano by V. Kryukov and S. Vasilenko, Songs of the Dead and Rhapsody for Viola and Piano by A. Veprik, A Suite for Viola and Piano by V. Gaigerova) and Bashmet (A Liturgy for a Large Orchestra and a Solo Viola, Bemoaned by the Wind, and Styx for Viola, Choir, and Orchestra by G. Kancheli), and the works by Druzhinin (Sonata for Solo Viola and Variations for Solo Viola). These pieces are considered from the position of a player’s influence on the composers’ interest in the solo manifestation of the viola and its gradual development. The author defines the term “character-performer” as corresponding with the image of a twentieth-century violist and denotes the new features of solo viola repertory as a result of the work of the above-mentioned violists, including the acknowledgment of the uniqueness of the viola’s sound, the establishment of the viola as a bright concert instrument, the expansion of a used range for the viola, the revelation of a mystic component of viola timbre, the definition of the unique unifying ability of viola timbre, the full technical liberation of an instrument, and the need for a co-author as a player.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.33070

Abstract: The research subject is Beethoven’s view of life of the late period - the topical issue for a performing musician: without understanding of the fundamental changes in his style, it is impossible to adequately interpret the late piano sonatas. The last of them - Sonata op.111 - has been an object of discussion not only among musicians, but also among writers for almost two centuries. The author detects the following types of dialogue in Sonate op.111: a) a dialogue with Beethoven’s previous compositions; b) a dialogue - within the latest period - with Ninth Symphony op.25 and Missa Solemnis op.123; c) a dialogue with the music of predecessors; d) an imaginary dialogue of Beethoven and Goethe (of the period of “Faust” completion); e) a dialogue op.111 with the world culture. The author arrives at the following conclusions: whilst the formation of the concept of interpretation is usually related to the performance activities of romanticists - Paganini and List, the prerequisites of the phenomenon of interpretation can be found already in the works and ideas of Beethoven - he is a precursor of romanticists of the 19th century. Each of his works is individualized, and doesn’t contain patterns or cliches. To play his compositions outside of the concept means to be not able to adequately convey the spirit of Beethoven’s music. With all their strict architectonics, Beethoven’s works appeal to spontaneity of self-expression - a pianist, as an actor, should experience this music “in the here and now”.