DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.33987

Abstract: This article explores the musical component and artistic activity of the Russian diaspora's outstanding choreographer Leonide Massine (1895–1979), whose 125th birthday was celebrated by the theatrical world in 2020. The main milestones of the choreographer's musical education are noted, the spectrum of his musical interests is revealed, and his techniques of working with the music of the created ballets are studied. The purpose of this research, carried out using historical and typological methods, is to study the stages of the formation of the choreographer's musical maturity and style. The circumstances of Massine's collaboration with contemporary composers Manuel de Falla, Eric Satie, Sergei Prokofiev, and Paul Hindemith are also considered. Special attention is paid to the formation of a system of artistic methods of working with music in the choreographer’s joint work with Igor Stravinsky on the implementation of the ballets Pulcinella and Sacred Spring. The questions of Massine's attitude to such spheres of musical expressiveness, including rhythm, dynamics, and timbre, are highlighted. The methods of the choreographer's work with works of symphonic music are studied, and the ways of achieving musical and plastic synthesis in the stage solutions of Massine's choreographic symphonies are analyzed, including Omens (1933) to the music of the Fifth Symphony by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Choreartium (1933) to the music of the 4th Symphony by Johannes Brahms, Fantastic Symphony (1936) to the music of the symphony by the same name by Hector Berlioz, etc. It is concluded that the laws of musical composition and dramaturgy were a source of artistic renewal and enrichment for the choreographer’s style, marking the development of his choreography's intellectual beginning.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.33162

Abstract: The research object is the vocal-instrumental music of a well-known Saratov composer Elena Gokhman (1935 - 2010) as one of the crucial parts of her creative work. The research subject is the musical drama of the lyrical verses “What the wind is singing about” (2009) considered in the context of the vocal-instrumental works of the composer which is analyzed in order to reveal the plotline and the essence of the author’s poetic and musical-instrumental “moves” and preferences and to understand the genre identity of the composition. The researchers analyze the reasons of Gokhman’s turn to the poetry of A.Blok, the idea of the author’s preferences in relation to the performers collective, the presence of the plotline of the verses, the genre identity of the composition, thematic and intonational links with the first lyrical musical cycle of the composer based on Blok’s poetry of the 1970s. The vocal and instrumental music of Gokhman is considered through the lens of specific analysis of one of the late works of the composer, the complete musical score of the verses “What the wind is singing about” is introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time. The authors use the methods of overt observation, hermeneutical practices of subtext detection, and comparative studies. They help to find out what creative conclusions in the field of “small” forms Gokhman had arrived at, and to what extent they draw the details of the dynamics of the author’s way and comply with the modern music genres. The research shows that the composer builds a single, thin and subtle plotline out of various Blok’s poems of different periods of time, which is drawn by means of special musical means (bell tolls and the sound of the chorus as the leading timbre of the heroine) and intonations (the leading idea of the girl and her song) piercing the composition. The parts of musical instruments, especially the violin, help the composer to fill the composition with new senses and give the key to its interpretation and genre identification as a suite.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.32839

Abstract:   The article studies the problem of cultural tradition in the late period of the creative work of a Moscow composer Vladimir Rubin. The aim of the research is to reveal the tendency to the restoration of links with the historical past in Rubin’s spiritual compositions using the example of the oratorial tetralogy (the oratorios “The Song of Ascension”, “The Songs of Love and Death”, the vocal-symphonical cycle “The Guardian Angel”, and the oratory “Be Gracious”). The author detects Rubin’s artistic principles which are based on the traditions of the European music of the classicism and romanticism periods, Russian liturgical chant and Russian composing school. The research methods include the system-complex method, theoretical, historical-cultural, empirical, logical, and the method of extrapolation. The scientific novelty consists in the study of Vladimir Rubin’s oratorial work in the context of him inheriting the cultural and historical traditions. The author is the first to disclose the neo-mythological mind of the composer and the dialogics of the musical language and hypothesizes about the peculiarities of tessitura and register usage for the purpose of spatio-temporal organization of music fabric. The author concludes about the inclusion of Rubin’s large vocal-symphonical works into the framework of Russian spiritual music in general and spiritual oratorio in particular.   

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.33227

Abstract: This article focuses on the initial stage of the formation of popular music culture in the first half of the 19th century. It analyzes the historical, social, and cultural context of the emergence of one of the earliest genres of popular culture—operetta—in France and Great Britain. In these countries, popular public entertainment (cafe-chantant, public concerts, music halls, burlesque theatres) created the prerequisites for the emergence of not only a new genre but also a new type of culture. Jacques Offenbach, William Schwenck Gilbert, and Arthur Sullivan became the founders of the original versions of this genre, which were based on national music and theatre traditions. The scientific novelty of the research is determined by the fact that the emergence of the operetta is described as a natural result of cultural and historical development; the author outlines the similar factors that spawned a different and, at the same time, internally close phenomena. Operetta, as a popular music phenomenon, filled the gap between opera and the genres of folk theatre, soaking up the merits of both. The novelty of the genre manifested itself both in the peculiarities of the content and the music forms and the new social function, an appeal to a fundamentally new audience that united different social classes and directly influenced the final artistic result.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.33248

Abstract: The research subject is the genre and symbolical specificity of the poetry cycle by Wilhelm Mueller “The Fair Maid of the Mill” which became the basis of the vocal cycle by F. Schubert. The circumstances of the cycle creation predetermine the presence of poetics of play which is determined by the fact that the plot was created as a party play (Liederspiel), and an objective orientation of authors of Mueller’s milieu towards the stylization of folk and knight poetry of the Middle Ages. The poetic cycle by Mueller is considered in the context of the traditions of romantic poetry dating back to minnesong and meistersong and reflected both in the theme and the images of the cycle, and its structure. The author analyzes the genre solution of Mueller’s cycle, connected with the presence of the plot itself and the composition framework formed by the prologue and the epilogue. The analysis of the parts out of the music concept of Schubert gives the possibility to look at the genesis of the common theme of the two cycles from a new viewpoint thus explaining the scientific novelty of the research. The author outlines additional drama and symbolical connections in the cycle which form a particular poetry-play space. The author studies esthetic and stylistic reasons which made the composer refuse some parts of the poetry cycle. It turns out that Mueller’s idea is connected with a multilayer system of “play” foundations in the development of the text, and Schubert’s solution - with the elimination of this drama range which ensures additional interconnections between “The Fair Maid of the Mill” and the later tragic cycle “The Winter Journey”. 

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.33903

Abstract: The key research object is a piano duet of the 20th century, and the research object is the main features of the genre which had transformed by the beginning of the 20th century and in its course. The author proves that, compared with home music-playing, within which it emerged, and party music-playing, within which it had been during the 19th century, the piano duet of the 20th century is an all-sufficient phenomenon with its own genre features and having its place on the concert stage. Besides, the author enumerates the main achievements of the piano duet in the 20th century: Ultimate transition from an “everyday” genre to a “supra-popular” one The evolution from a necessary substitution of one piano with two for the purpose of achieving certain goals in the 18th century, to complete equality of the instruments in the 20th century; The change of the semantic and stylistic thesaurus of the piano duet in contents, forms and language of duet compositions embodiment; Clear division of guidelines, functions and duties of the composer, the performers and the audience; The change in social tendencies and the social orientation of the genre: the centripetal function (performer -- performer) typical for the 18th century duet, transformed into the centrifugal one (performer + performer - listener). 

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.33343

Abstract: The research subject is the evolution of the modern understanding of an academic subject of folfa connected with the increase of the role of timbre origin in the 20th century music, the diversification of instruments, the formation of the sonorant type of thematic invention and the development of timbre thinking of not only composers, but also performers and listeners. The research object is the experience of theoretical and practical development of the idea of timbre solfa in the author’s methods of two academics - N.G. Khlebnikova (Saratov) and T.A, Litvinova (St. Petersburg). The author considers the features of the both compared techniques of, correspondingly, the late 20th and the early 21st century. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the study of a topical and actively developing direction in solfa teaching, which is at the same time still on the periphery of the attention of most teachers. A special author’s contribution to the study of this topic is the selection of the compared objects (the experience of teachers novators) and the detection of features and significant characteristics of each of the techniques under consideration. The author concludes that the development of timbre solfa in the late 20th century was not accidental and had its prerequisites, such as the increase of the role of timbre in the music of the 20th century and its interpretation in the works of Russian musicologists from S. Maikapar to A. Schnittke.   

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.5.32211

Abstract: The article studies Russian accordion in the context of socio-historical events in the Soviet Union in the 20th century. The authors focus on the regional type of accordion - a Saratov accordion, which has a specific timbre and compass and is widespread in the realm of the Middle and the Lower Volga regions. The authors analyze the historical context of the origin of the instrument, the peculiarities of its existence, artistic and expressive capabilities, and the directions of practical usage. Special attention is given to the social role of an accordion as an instrument of leisure time organization and a conductor of the government ideology. The analysis is based on the historical data, the materials of Mass Media, personal conversations, author’s archives, stories of witnesses, articles, and published materials. The article reveals socio-historical significance of an accordion and its social role in Russia in the 20s - 50s of the 20th century when an accordion was in the vanguard of popular music culture. The authors detect the main directions of realization of an artistic potential of an accordion as a popular instrument, which became widespread during the Great Patriotic War. The authors analyze various opinions on the existence of the instrument, its origin, expressive and coloristic potential. The research reveals an in depth connection between an accordion and the song genres of the late 20th century, particularly, a chastushka, and the elements of urban folklore.