History of Music
Reference:
SHibinskaya, A.A. (2025). The eternal theme of the seasons in the dialogue of the past and the present in the music of the late XX-early XXI century. PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal, 1, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.7256/2453-613X.2024.5.72622
Abstract:
The article is devoted to musical works on the theme of the seasons, created in the late XX – early XXI century on the basis of already existing well-known masterpieces on this eternal theme. The purpose of the study is to analyze the writings of previous years in comparison with new, updated works on the theme of the seasons. The subject of the study is the musical and stylistic features of the interaction of the original source and the new composition. The object of the research is the compositions on the theme of the seasons by modern composers, written on the basis of masterpieces of past eras: A. Raskatova «The Seasons. Digest», M. Bronner's «The Seasons. A wreath to Tchaikovsky», M. Richter «The seasons. Recomposed», transcription of A. Piazzolla's tango cycle «The Seasons in Buenos Aires», created by L. Desyatnikov, ballet «The Seasons» by V. Martynov, which traces the technique of stylization and quoting. The study used a comparative analytical, historical and theoretical methods. The main conclusions of the study are: the appeal to musical masterpieces of past eras in the context of postmodernism is not a rare phenomenon. Composers recreate ancient genres, music-making practices. A musical masterpiece preserves the enduring values inherent in its idea. He becomes a kind of standard for creating new, relevant works for his time. In this context, the eternal theme of the seasons harmoniously fit into the new cultural paradigm of the late XX – early XXI century. The immortal masterpieces of A. Vivaldi, P. Tchaikovsky, A. Piazzolla have received a new life in the conditions of modern composing and performing arts. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that some of these works are analyzed for the first time in the context of a dialogue between different centuries.
Keywords:
musical reflection, musical masterpiece, postmodernism, stylization, transcription, recomposition, reinterpretation, The seasons, eternal theme, dialogue of the epochs
A history of musical culture
Reference:
Luo, J., Chernova , A.V. (2025). The Synthesis of Chinese and Western European Musical Traditions in Xian Xinghai’s Opera “March of the Army and the People”. PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal, 1, 9–27. https://doi.org/10.7256/2453-613X.2024.5.73070
Abstract:
This study is based on a detailed analysis of the opera March of the Army and the People, composed by the prominent Chinese composer Xian Xinghai (1900–1945), which serves as an important example of the synthesis of Chinese and Western musical traditions. Written in 1938, the opera marked the composer’s first attempt to integrate elements of Chinese national art into the Western operatic form. The study examines the unique features of the opera’s musical language, structure, and stylistic content, which reflect the cultural and political realities of China at that time. It also explores the influence of this opera on the development of Chinese national operatic art. The research employs a comprehensive approach, including historical and cultural analysis, structural music analysis, orchestration, as well as contextual analysis of the libretto and accompaniment. Special attention is given to the techniques of incorporating Chinese melodic structures and their adaptation within a polyphonic texture. Key elements analyzed include the use of pentatonic scales and the interaction of timbres between Chinese and Western musical instruments. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the analysis of the opera March of the Army and the People, which holds groundbreaking significance in the history of Chinese music. The article highlights how Xian Xinghai innovatively combined Western compositional techniques with elements of Chinese folk music, paving the way for the creation of a new type of national opera in 20th-century China. The findings demonstrate how this work reflects a cross-cultural process, where elements of Eastern and Western musical traditions are harmoniously integrated. Additionally, the study offers a new perspective on the transformation of Chinese opera in the 20th century, providing valuable material for interpreting and studying Chinese musical culture in Russian and international academic contexts.
Keywords:
harmony, XX century, melody, national uniform, traditional culture, New National Opera, hike, opera, Chinese music, Xian Xinghai
History and Theory of Musical Performance
Reference:
Kalitzky, V.V. (2025). The peculiarities of the keyboard accompaniment ad libitum and General Bass in the light of the formation of the German-Austrian concertmaster school. PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal, 1, 28–41. https://doi.org/10.7256/2453-613X.2024.5.73620
Abstract:
The relevance of the proposed research lies in the process of formation, development and specification of concertmaster schools in different countries, which has not yet been disclosed in Russian and foreign musicology. In the proposed article, the author refers to the initial stage of crystallization of German-Austrian concertmaster art. The object of research is the concertmaster school in Germany and Austria. The subject of the research is the practical forms of the existence of keyboard accompaniment ad libitum and General Bass. The objectives of the research are to reveal the specifics of keyboard accompaniment ad libitum and General Bache in connection with the formation of German-Austrian concertmaster art; to analyze the manuscripts of master clavists available in open sources who specifically studied this type of performance; to introduce new information from German-language treatises, tablatures and archival sources about the creative and pedagogical activities of keyboard players into Russian musicology. The main research methods were: anthropological, historical-archival, comparative-analytical, a set of methods of performing analysis in their interaction according to the objectives of the study. For the first time in Russian musicology, a number of names of German and Austrian musicians who made a significant contribution to the development of concertmaster art at the initial stage of its formation are being introduced into scientific circulation. The author has found and analyzed a number of treatises and tablatures that reveal the specifics of keyboard accompaniment ad libitum and General Bass. It is proved that ad libitum accompaniment, which is based on an improvisational character, imposed a number of additional "conditions" on the keyboard player for its successful implementation: such a musician had to be able to skillfully build a polyphonic texture in the process of making music together, master the means of dynamics, depending on which voices and/or instruments he was playing music with; be able to transpose and read fluently from a sheet. The specifics of General-Bass accompaniment and its differences from basso continuo and basso numerato are determined. The conclusions of the study make it possible to better understand the essence, content and national characteristics of the German-Austrian concertmaster school, the foundation of which was laid in the XV-XVII centuries.
Keywords:
ablature, treatise, performance, music pedagogy, Austria, ad libitum, Germany, General-Baß, concertmaster, school
History and Theory of Musical Performance
Reference:
Stepanidina, O.D., Voinova, D. (2025). Piano culture in Russia at the end of the XVIII – first half of the XIX century: amateur music making, pre-professional and vocational education. PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal, 1, 42–64. https://doi.org/10.7256/2453-613X.2025.1.40472
Abstract:
The subject of the study is the development of Russian piano music education during the late XVIII – mid XIX centuries. The principles of training professional musicians in Europe and the specifics of Russia's path in this matter are determined. The authors of the article consider the initial stage of home education in an aristocratic environment, the goals and objectives of invited European musicians. The author analyzes the peculiarity of the appearance of the composer school in Russia from among amateur pianists, the role of European musicians in this phenomenon. The article examines the direction of music classes in general education institutions and their role in the education of the musical intelligentsia stratum. The author's contribution to the formulation and solution of the problem in a new perspective is a non-ideologized approach to considering the level of music lovers among aristocrats and "enlightened amateurs", comparing a set of skills that strikingly distinguish amateur pianists from professional pianists. It is revealed that the main purpose of home education in an aristocratic environment was to educate students in artistic taste and mastering piano playing skills sufficient to perform technically easy pieces and ensembles according to notes. It is established that the expansion of the circle of students at the expense of the noble stratum has not changed the goals and objectives of foreign teachers. The authors of the article determine that neither home schooling nor general education institutions educate professional pianists. It is revealed that pedagogical classes also pursue rather narrow goals of training home teachers for the training of amateur pianists. The necessity of the emergence in Russia of a special musical educational institution that trains professional pianists and the emergence of a national piano school is determined. The conclusion of the study is to identify the main criteria of a special musical educational institution that contribute to the education of a professional musician: temporarily limiting the study of the repertoire; showing quality work at open auditions in the presence of a commission; discipline and self-discipline as the basis of professional education.
Keywords:
music classes, professional pianists, amateur pianists, private music training, home music education, pre-professional training, domestic music education, invited European musicians, home teachers, fundamentals of professional training
Problems of Music Theory
Reference:
Zakharov, Y. (2025). Harmonic Analysis as a Method to Build a Musical Composition Model. PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal, 1, 65–85. https://doi.org/10.7256/2453-613X.2025.1.72713
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Abstract:
The article presents a new synthetic method for analyzing musical works using special musical examples that allow you to present the entire piece in a compressed form. Each analytical method allows you to describe a work in some special language, tell about it in symbols and graphs, and sometimes through notes. To present a work in a different form, which became the result of analytical procedures, means to build a model of the work. The objects of the study are: "Winter II" from the "Album for Youth" by Robert Schumann; "Et La Lune Descend Sur Le Temple Qui Fut" by Claude Debussy; the romance "Âûõîæó îäèí ÿ íà äîðîãó" by Nikolay Myaskovsky. The analysis methods used in this study are as follows: 1) reduction according to the Heinrich Schenker system; 2) functional harmonic analysis; 3) identification of the main mode and melodic polychords. Reducing the musical texture, it is not necessary to adhere to the H. Schenker method in everything. In this case, the reduction does not lead to the Ursatz, but to the scheme of the pitch lines, which emphasizes the horizontal aspect of the musical texture. Linear analysis makes visible the hidden lines traced behind the audible melodic pattern. The method of analysis based on the identification of the main and secondary melodic stable tones (melodic functions) is poorly developed in modern music theory, although its initial premises were indicated in the works of Boleslav Yavorsky, Lev Kulakovsky and Yurii Kholopov. In this article, all these methods are combined in order to display the work in a single analytical musical example, which becomes its model. By immersing this model in a verbal and conceptual environment, we get the opportunity to express the intramusical "plot" of each piece in several sentences.
Keywords:
musical form, tonality and modality, melodic stable tone, intramusical content, linear analysis, melody, Heinrich Schenker, model of musical piece, analysis of harmony, reductional method