Review: The life of Dmitri Shostakovich was disputable and full of, on the one hand, various patriotic explosions, on the other hand, different tragic concepts, full of bitterness of witnessing of global developments. The latter ones become more perceptible in the last years of the composer’s creative work. The article focuses on these developments which characterise the composer as a philosopher, doomed but reconciling reality with dignity. The research subject is determined by the fact that these compositions have been studied poorly in the context of historic events and particular developments in Shostakovich’s life. The author uses a comprehensive approach to study the latest works of the composer. The historical method helps to understand the specificity of writing the author’s works, the peculiarities of their especially tragic figurativeness, their definite structural and conceptual plans. The scientific novelty also consists in the use of literary observations of the composer himself and his personal friends and opponents, which helps to express the context of existence of artistic works in the world of Shostakovich more clearly.   

Keywords: Shostakovich, philosopher's philosophy, the content of art, musical art, theory of music, philosophy of music, musicology, art history, 20th century music, modern composition

Review: The purpose of the study is to reveal the meaning-making impetuses of one of mysterious works of Cesar Franck “Three chorales for Organ”. The key problem in the cycle interpretation is connected with the absence of the reference to genuine melodies of ancient temple singings. Traditionally, their presence in music works forms a conceptual core due to the connotation of a choral verbal text. The author of the article gives attention to Franck’s pioneer approach to the creation of the “Chorales” in the vein of choral fantasies, the principles of his composer’s thinking and the revelations of the inner conceptual structure of the composition. To reveal the content of the music of the “Chorales”, the author uses the complex approach taking into account the cultural and historical context, the influence of scientific concepts in the field of iconography and iconology, which had been popular in France since the 1830s, the peculiarities of Franck’s creative thinking with the signs of synaesthetic nature. The music-hermeneutical and semiotic analysis helped to consider the elements of the music language , such as music symbolism, music-rhetorical figures, semantics of modes and other representatives of the inner conceptual structure. Based on the research, the author makes an assumption that Franck’s chorales are the basic doctrinal images of Christ in terms of their spatial location in a Catholic church according to the iconic scenario developed as far back as in medieval theology. Correlations with iconographic and iconological principles in the composition of music images helped to design the following conceptual structure of the cycle: Chorale #1 - “The Nativity of Christ”, Chorale #2 - “The Passion of Christ”, Chorale #3 - “The Resurrection of Christ”. In terms of temple space, these images correspond to the entrance, the central part and the altar.   

Keywords: musical semiotics, musical rhetoric, musical symbolism, iconology, iconography, gothic art, choral, Cesar Frank, musical content, musical romanticism

Review: The specific German term “Zwölftonreihe” appeared in the first third of the 20th century because of dodecaphony. It significantly developed and experienced meaning extension during the following years. To represent this notion in evolution dynamics, it was necessary to consider it from different perspectives.  The article describes the existence and the adaptation of the term “series” in different linguistic traditions; raises the issues of differentiating the meanings “row”, “series” and “set” in the English-language environment, and the terms “series” and “row” in the Russian musicology. The author gives special attention to the problems of defining; points at the difficulties of the first definitions caused by the rootedness of the composer’s thinking in traditions of the classic-romantic system; describes the factors under which the definitions were transformed and corrected. Yet another important aspect of consideration is the difference in understanding a series by the two avant-gardes. The “ultra-thematic” concept of the twelve-tone series (Boulez) with its fundamentally horizontal character was substituted by the “generating” series (without preferrable number of elements), which generated all the derived objects, served as a basis for other parameters and created a structural hierarchy and embraced the composition as a whole.  

Keywords: total serialism, serial music, twelve-tone technique, set, row, series, music of 20th century, pitch class, interval class, generating series

Review: One of the sources of reflection of Shostakovich’s world view of the early period was futurism, which not only embraced all forms of art, but also defined the manner of thinking and the behavioral pattern. Probably, that was futurism where Shostakovich found the proof for his ideas and the possibility to express the atmosphere of the developments of that time, full of manifestations, rallies and demonstrations. Like an artist working with a model, the composer doesn’t copy the object, but somewhat creates a new reality, reproducing it off the top of his head, via imagination. An endless word association game resembles a laboratory of “sound metaphors”, in which, looking for a new substance, parts of an accord first decompose, and then compose themselves again, creating the image of the transformed space - discrete and fragmented, like in the pictures built according to the laws of Cubism. Unlike the variations of the accords of the early compositions, where everything gleams and multiplies, in the latest compositions, “shots” slow down and halt. Close-up views prevail over general views, and, though assemblability doesn’t disappear, it becomes smoother, in contrast with abrupt consolidation of various elements. The dodecaphonic theme itself gains the meaning of a macro-theme consisting of micro-themes. The specificity of Shostakovich’s manner to assemble sounds is directly dependent on the domination of particular types of cultural codes the composer orients towards. The shift of the cultural and artistic model of cinematography towards coding serial music indicates the transition from synthetic creativity, externally oriented, to the internally oriented culture focusing on the music realia as such. The transition from one artistic model to another is connected with the strengthening of semiotic traits of a music text.

Keywords: editing combinatorics, the semantics of harmony, the semantic field of melody, Shostakovich, modern music, semantica, music art, transcoding, the original object,, the replacement object

Review: The research object is the tradition to hold Russian folk instruments players contests in Saratov, to mark the work of one of the first Russian bayan players - I.Ya. Panitskii. The authors analyze the context in which these contests emerged, and their significance for the cultural life of the Volga region and the music life of Saratov. Special attention is given to the music and performance contests as one of the most popular types of modern artistic practices contributing to early professionalization of young musicians and development of creative talents of students at various stages of studying. The authors use the historical and culturological approaches based on systematization of facts and their assessment in the context of the regional music culture development. Contests, organized to mark the work of I.Ya.Panitskii, are a bright and authentic phenomenon of the music culture of Saratov and the Volga region. They are the most important factor of preservation of the Russian national academic art. The analysis demonstrates the presence of deep-rooted traditions of folk instrumental art and their high professional status in Saratov.   

Keywords: accordion, bayan, Panitsky, Volga, Saratov, competition, musical performance, harmonic, domra, balalayka

Review: The research object is the North Caucasian polyvocality studied on the basis of the bourdon component of solo and group singing of various genres in the music culture of the Adygea, Karachays and Balkars. In the context of phonology, musical and verbal texts, bourdon serves as a supra-ethnic music dialect, which has determined the occurrence of the structural community of ethnic singing models in the North Caucasus region. At the same time, bourdon is a bright marker of an individual-ethnic interpretation of a common singing model. Thus, bourdon as ostinato prevails in the tradition of the Adygea; bourdon as a pedal - in the tradition of the Karachai and Balkar. The author uses the comparative research method. The North Caucasian bourdon is studied on the basis of a broader (compared to the encyclopaedia) interpretation of the term “bourdon” as the most ancient form of accompaniment in folk and temple polyvocality. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the fact that the North Caucasian polyvocality is for the first time being studied in the context of music traditions of different peoples and religious confessions. The author is the first to substantiate the ancient “age” of the North Caucasian polyvocality, which is the culture of a diffuse type, emerged as a result of historical correlation of its archaic autochthonous, East Asian and European roots, on the basis of bourdon.   

Keywords: pedal, ison, drone, Balkars, Karachays, Adyghes, vocal polyphony, North Caucasus, ostinato, diaphonia basilica

Review: Saratov Volga region in the late 18th - 20th century had the largest centers of Old Belief, and the most significant for Old Believers was Samodurovka village (today - Belogornoye village of Volsk district of Saratov region). The research is based on the vast range of archive and handwritten materials and field study conducted by the authors in the 2000s.  The research subject is the history and church-chant traditions of the Old Believers of Samodurovka village.  The research object is the church-chant culture of the Old Believers of Saratov Volga region in the historical context. The research methodology is based on the comprehensive approach which includes the analysis of historical sources, chant manuscripts and printed books related to the Old Believers of Samodurovka, and the results of field studies. Such a comprehensive study helps to consider the tradition both in its synchronous state and its development in diachronic context. Finally, the analysis of the local tradition is based on the broad contextual approach. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the fact that it is based on the unique materials of field studies collected by the authors during their expeditions to the village. The research focuses on the analysis of handwritten chant heritage; the authors introduce several handwritten monuments into scientific discourse, including a unique “Hooked notation chant…”. The scientific novelty of the study consists in collection and classification of archive documents helping to trace the history of Old Belief development in Saratov Volga region. The research shows that church-chant practice of the Old Believers of Samodurovka retains relevant features of the stable culture of Old Believers and is still some sort of a standard for the Old Believers of Saratov.   

Keywords: chorister, abbot, Samodurovka, manuscript, history, church singing, Saratov, Oldbelive, worship, education