OPERA MUSICOLOGICA № 2 [40], 2019

Contents

ARTICLES

  • Tatyana Bershadskaya The New Term of the Theory of Polyphony 

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.001

The article proposes to introduce a new term — Polyton into scientific use. The term is intended to denote a non-chordal consonance that does not form a single logical entity and functions in polyphonic tissue. The logical disunity of tones is reflected in the term itself. The use of the term Polyton intentionally creates associations with such concepts as polytonality or polyaccord.

Keywords: musical fabric, consonance, chord, Polyton, theory, polyphony, warehouse, harmony.

  • Natalia Degtyareva History of Music as a System Object: View from the Nineteenth Century (Based on the Works of Alexander Nikolaevich Serov)

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.002

Music as an art, going “in parallel with the highest destinies of civilization”, musicology as a system of disciplines, historicism as a fundamental category and as the basis of music education — these ideas form the core of Serov’s musical, pedagogical and scientific views. As a whole they reflect the prognostic nature of methodological guidelines of the outstanding musician, which is the main subject of discussion in this article.

Keywords: Alexander N. Serov, cultural aspects in the study of the musical-historical process, music as a language, “organic laws” of music development.

  • Marina Pereverzeva Alèa Technique of Pierre Boulez: between Order and Chaos

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.003

The article is devoted to compositional technique of Pierre Boulez, to limited aleatory music in which the composer tried to combine chance with the constructive idea connected with a serial method of the composition. The article considers the esthetic, compositional and technical aspects of aleatory music of Boulez, its relation with the similar phenomena in other arts and also analyzes aleatory compositions of the French avant-gardist with detailed analysis of the material and principles of its development, form and degree of its mobility and structure. Whatever mobile were the musical text and the form in Boulez’s scores, they are admissible subject to the strict art concept and the structural organization of the work. Despite plurality of the forms options of compositions, the listener recognizes them in each performance by means of unique author’s material and art concept which is reflected in each “version” of the form.

Keywords: music, chance music, Pierre Boulez, accident, order, composition, mobile form, structure.

  • Larisa Kuzmenko In the Mirror of Intertext (“The Knot Garden” by Michael Tippett)

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.004

The article is devoted to the opera The Knot Garden by the English composer Michael Tippett (1905–1998). The article explores the influence on the content of the libretto and music of the opera quotes from various works (from classical literature, academic music, blues songs). The article explores the autobiographical references in the opera.

Keywords: English Opera, Michael Tippett, libretto, William Shakespeare, psychoanalysis, the intertext.

  • Natalia Vlasova New Documents on Anton Rubinstein from Foreign Archives

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.005

This paper presents new documentary materials on Anton Rubinstein from Austrian and U.S. archives. The documents from the Archive of Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien are related to his engagement as the artistic director of this organization in the 1871/72 season. Two newly discovered letters by Rubinstein to J. Brahms are published and the two composers’ complicated relationship is discussed. Five Rubinstein’s letters to the Austrian writer M. Hartmann from Vienna City Library shed light on their collaboration on “Roswitha”, an unfinished opera (1864–1865). Rubinstein’s two contracts for the American concert tour in the 1872/73 season date from his stay in Vienna in 1871–1872. These documents, discovered by the American scholars, have remained unnoticed by Russian researchers up to the present time.

Keywords: Anton G. Rubinstein, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, 1871/72 concert season, letters, J. Brahms, M. Hartmann, contracts, American concert tour.

REVIEWS

  • O. V. Zubova and T. S. Kuregian.The Medieval and Renaissance Dances: Music in Motion Kira Yuzhak, Alla Yankus

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.006

Critique of the O. V. Zubova and T. S. Kuregian’ monograph allows to highly appreciate it’s contents and aesthetic value. Their work “The Medieval and Renaissance Dances: Music in Motion” is an encyclopedic work which exceeds by far the genre of just an educational aid, being highly didactically useful and rich of various scientific, lexical and musical content.

Keywords: music genres, medieval dances, renaissance dances, dance music, dance-music form.

  • Dmitri Braginsky. Shostakovich and Football: Escape to Freedom Olga Skorbyashchenskaya

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.007

The review deals with the monograph of Dmitri Yu. Braginsky “Shostakovich and Football: Escape to Freedom”, published in 2018, during the days of the World Cup and named by the national newspaper “Muzykal’noye obozreniye” [“Musical Review”] the book of the year. The main idea of the book is expressed in the title suggested by Irina Antonovna Shostakovich. The author of the review concludes that the success of the book is determined by a combination of several roles in the personality of Braginsky: a professional archivist, a talented musicologist and a gifted writer. The high quality of printing and the uniqueness of the selected illustrative material are noted.

Keywords: Shostakovich, football, ballet, archives, music of Leningrad of 1920–40s.

  • Dmitri Braginsky. Shostakovich and Football: Escape to Freedom. Stephen Walsh,
    translated by Vladimir Khavrov

DOI: 10.26156/OM.2019.40.2.008

The review deals with the English translation of the Dmitri Braginsky monograph, published in 2018 in Moscow and entitled “Shostakovich and Football: Escape to Freedom”. The author of the review concludes that the uniqueness of the book main idea is determined by a combination of a design depth with a singularity and fascination of presentation, in which an archive precision of all the facts had put up pretty entertaining and dynamic. The high value of the selected illustrative material is noted.

Keywords: Shostakovich, football, “The Golden Age” ballet, Ensemble of Song and Dance of the NKVD, the year 1936.

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