Abstract: The subject of this research is the mechanisms of semantization of the music in "Boris Godunov", principally the "passionate" rhetorical figures (katabasis, passus duriusculus) and the genre models of lament and glory that have a long history of intertextual existence – and for that reason bear the most consistent information in relation to the opera’s semantic program. The article investigates the culminating zones of “Godunov” associated with the formation of the prosodic paradigm fall–crucifixion–death of the tsar. The author finds that many important points voicing the idea of the doomed nature of Boris are based on downward movement in overt or latent content (diatonic and modal-distorted, often with alteration of the descent or a chromatic variant similar to the rhetorical figure passus duriusculus).The nature of this work has occasioned a need to adapt the methodological principles of various fields of scholarship, chief among them semiotic, hermeneutic, comparative and systematic research methods as well as a holistic intonational analysis.The study of the semantic aspects of "Boris Godunov" reveals the specifics of the directorial work by Mussorgsky. It emerges that the main characters of the opera, Tsar Boris and the Simpleton (Yurodivy), are linked by a common intonational program based on the musical symbols of suffering and death. The semantically opposite glorification genres correlate with real characters (Boris, the Imposter and the boyar Khrushchov), a crowning-debunking. These are anti-glorifications, which lead to a "disruption" of the glorification semantics (the glorification of Khrushchov and the chorus "Glory to the beauty of the sky" with its katabasic "Live and prosper, our King and Father"). An important exception is the Praise to the Heavenly King performed by the kaliki chorus, which is the only true glorification. The author demonstrates that the semantic dynamics of the genre-intonational symbolism under examination unfolds in the coordinates of two systems: latent inverse (Prolog) and direct (the Kroma scene). The given semantic accents, reinforced in the second edition of the opera, make up an important directorial move by Mussorgsky and offer evidence of the consistent concept aimed at the formation of deep semantic intentions.

Keywords: lament, genre, passus duriusculus, catabasis, rhetorical figures, hermeneutics, intonational semantics, glory, directing, dramaturgy

Abstract: This article focuses on the creative parallels between the heritage of M.P. Mussorgsky and M.A. Bulgakov. Using the example of Mussorgsky’s opera "Boris Godunov" and Bulgakov’s novel "The White Guard", the author shows that the historicism of creative thinking was inherent in both the composer and the writer. The patterns and problems of two Russian "Time of Troubles" periods – in the early 17th century and early 20th centuries – are demonstrated through a sustained system of historical and psychological archetypes. Of particular interest is the undoubted dramatic parallelism of the scenes of the coronations of Boris Godunov in the earlier period and of Semyon Petliura in the latter.The methodology of the article is based on a set of key concepts falling within the scope of the philosophy of history, including the nature of the relationship between the past, present and future; the understanding of historical events and the regularities of the historical process; and the correlation between micro- and macro-history in works of fiction.The scholarly innovation of the article lies in the fact that neither in philology nor musicology has an attempt been made before now to find the common features typical of the recreation of history in the works of Mussorgsky and Bulgakov. A detailed study of the musical associations in the work of the writer has a very solid basis in literary studies today. It is possible that the absence of Mussorgsky’s name and semantic references to his writings in the works of Bulgakov may be the reason for this significant lacuna in the numerous works devoted to the world of music in Bulgakov’s oeuvre.

Keywords: the historicism of creative thinking, lyre players, wandering kaliki balladeers, Semyon Petliura, "The White Guard", "Boris Godunov", M.A. Bulgakov, M.P. Mussorgsky, dramatic archetypes, interaction of literature and music

Abstract: The paper is a research on impressionistic features of «Russian» works by N.N. Cherepnin at the example of his sketches to the fairy tale on firebird «The Charmed Kingdom». Themes of the miniature being born out of one core, timbre and harmony with their picturesque atmosphere are the natural ground for the impressionistic landscape created by the music.

Keywords: impressionism, Russian music, N.N. Cherepnin, «Charmed Kingdom».

Abstract: The multilayered singing practice of Ancient Russia is analyzed in the article. This practice had been based on establishing laws and strengthening monasterial traditions of church singing. Music books dating back to 11—14th centuries and carrying deep rooted verbal traditions and Greek written influences are being described. The experience of singing based on new hymnographic texts in the course of broadening Slavic cultural heritage is also considered.

Keywords: Ancient Russian liturgical singing; Russian Orthodox music books.