Abstract: The article is dedicated to the history of the Department of Folk Singing and Ethnomusicology of the Saratov State Conservatory named after L.V. Sobinov. The role of the pedagogical, methodological and scientific activities of L.L. Christiansen as the founder of folk singing education at the Saratov Conservatory is described. The article also draws attention to the founder of the department of solo folk singing, People's Artist of Russia E.A. Sapogova and the basic principles of teaching folk vocals in her class. A special section is dedicated to the multifaceted activities of A.S. Yareshko as head of the Department until 2018. His name is associated with the modern period of the Department’s development, which included many practical and scientific publishing projects. The article reveals the role of the Department of Folk Singing and Ethnomusicology of the Saratov Conservatory in the establishing of folk singing education in Russia, as well as the preservation of folk heritage through the professional learning process. The main creative and educational achievements, the uniqueness of the structure of the department are described, the multi-vector orientation in teaching students (folk singing and ethnomusicology) is emphasized, which makes it possible to determine of a complex concept - the Saratov school of musical folkloristics.

Abstract: The research of music of the XX century from the point of view of its connection with folklore is of great interest. The article is devoted to one of the prioritized directions in musicology – to the “composer and folklore” problem. Though this is one of the most important problems of native musicology touched upon in publications by G. Golovinskiy, I. Zemtsovskiy, L. Christiansen, G. Grigoryeva, L. Ivanova, etc., some of its aspects are still not studied enough. Among them is the choral compositions of native composers who create the Russian wedding music. The synthesis of different stylistic tendencies and rite wedding songs leads to the new quality of art thinking and describes a topically special folk genre as an essential field of art marked with genre, style and structural variety, variability of primary sources, as well as originality of methods of their realization.

Abstract: The study of music in its relation to folklore is of indisputable interest. The present article considers one of the priority directions in musicology - the composer/folklore problem. However, some aspects of this problem haven’t been studied thoroughly enough yet, the more so since the choral pieces of Russian composers, embodying the Russian wedding music, have outlined a new level of composer/folklore relations. The synthesis of various style tendencies with ceremonial wedding songs leads to the new quality of artistic thinking and characterizes a thematically specific folklore direction as an essential field of creativity marked with genre-style and structural diversity, variability of sources and originality of the methods of their performing. This problem, being one of the key problems of Russian musicology, had been studied in detail in the publications of G. Golovinsky, I. Zemtsovsky, L. Christiansen, G. Grigorieva, L. Ivanova, etc., whose fundamental works were used for the study of the specificity of the modern composer art. The performance of Russian wedding folklore in choral works of modern Russian composers is a poorly studied field of musicology which forms the scientific novelty of this work. Thus, the author states that the latitude of style quest along with adherence to traditions is typical for modern composers. These features are connected with the graphic structure - the circle of the wedding subject, moods, and favourite statement forms.