К читателю

To the Reader

This issue is devoted to imitation and canon. Each of these terms has been in use in music theory for a very long time, and their meaning has changed considerably over the centuries. Moreover, the definition given to a specific kind of ancient canon in the twentieth century — a form with the voices deriving from one another, — corresponds both to the widespread past practice of “reading the unnotated voice(-s) using the part of the notated voice(-s)”1, and to the modern canon construction by means of continuous imitation.

There is still no agreement about the concept of imitation and canon, for example, according to the teachings of Sergey I. Taneyev, which are fundamental to all Russian polyphonist musicologists. Divergences in the theory are inevitably followed by divergences in the analysis and methodology.

Different perspectives and approaches create many issues. However, such differences are the real source and back up for the productive scientific progress, for new achievements and even for creation of new paradigms. We speak the same language, but we put different meanings on a large number of words, concepts and terms. It is the desire for mutual understanding, bonding and creative communication — not for achieving or imposing uniform views that led to organization of an interacademic research and a methodological workshop in Saint Petersburg in 2008. Over the last ten years, this seminar was attended by polyphonist music teachers and post-graduate students from various higher education institutions — including Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Petrozavodsk, Kyiv, Kharkov, Rostov, Kazan Conservatories, as well as Gnesins Russian Academy of Music and Moscow Region State Pedagogical University.

The first years of the seminar resulted in the publication of a collection of works “Teoriya polifonii i metodika eyo prepodavaniya. Vypusk 1: Obshchiye printsipy i normy polifonii strogogo pis’ma” [“The Theory of Polyphony and its Teaching Methodology. Vol. 1: General Principles and Norms of Strict Style Polyphony”.] Some results of the following scientific sessions are published in the special issue of “Opera musicologica” provided hereafter. Kyra Yuzhak, scientific editor of the special issue of “Opera musicologica” provided hereafter.

Kyra Yuzhak,
scientific editor of the special issue