Architectural image of the Motherland: Saint Petersburg and Budapest

The article compares the prerequisites of “national renaissance” in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. It analyzes the similarity and difference in the development of the Russian style and the “Magyar Renaissance” are analyzed. The authors come to the conclusion that despite the different intensions of the emergence of national romanticism, in both cases the national style evolved from an overdecorated facade architecture to the most laconic “severe” style, which was more appropriate in the context of the beginning of the First World War. By 1914, integral ensembles appeared, which opened up the city-forming prospects of national romanticism.

Mūzikas nacionālā rakstura un 20. gadsimta modernisma attiecību problemātika. Pēckara latviešu trimdas komponistu jaunrades piemērs

The Latvian composers who arrived in post-war West Europe (Jānis Mediņš, Tālivaldis Ķeniņš, Alberts Jērums, Volfgangs Dārziņš, and others) encountered the musical stylings and aesthetics of the respective lands. These stylings and aesthetics varied considerably from the national romanticism dominant in Latvia in the interwar period. Those who wanted to show their creativity outside the Latvian refugee society had to adapt to West European music innovations. The aim of the article is to explore this process. The mentioned adaptation also quickly raised the question of whether the peculiarities of the Latvian national music and the modernism of the 20th century could be combined. This issue was widely debated in periodicals, and each of the mentioned Latvian composers encountered it in their creative practice. The compositions of the mentioned composers show different variants of combining musical style innovations and national peculiarities, which attracted the attention of Western society and are also an inspiration nowadays.

Latviešu komponistu adaptācijas varianti pēckara Eiropā

Keywords: classical music, style, national romanticism, transformation of creative works, modernism, avant-garde This article discusses the stylistic and aesthetic transformation of the work of the most prominent Latvian composers, who, as refugees of the Second World War, arrived in Western Europe in 1944 and encountered a different, innovative musical environment there. For those whose creative work in Latvia had been focused on traditional national romanticism, the encounter with musical expressionism and the avant-garde caused a certain shock. The stark differences in style were not only a matter of compositional technique; they also revealed the contradiction between a positivistic worldview and a more adequate musical reflection of the common man during the era. Longīns Apkalns learned from the ideas and style of expressionism most radically, but Alberts Jērums was much more moderate in this respect—he had already approached expressionism during his studies at the Latvian Conservatory. In his studies at the Paris Conservatory (1945-1950), Tālivaldis Ķeniņš studied the traditions of French neoclassicism and constructivism. Volfgangs Dārziņš adapted neoclassical trends in combination with Béla Bartók’s interpretation of folklore. Jānis Mediņš radicalized his traditional language of music, but did not abandon the paradigm of the music of romanticism. Similarly, Jānis Kalniņš’ music, even in the pre-war period, was not unfamiliar with the border between romanticism and expressionism. The composers who, with their creative work, chose to serve only Latvian society in exile continued in the romantic style.

Scottish Romanticism

What is a national Romanticism, and what in particular is Scottish Romanticism? In answering these questions, this essay identifies five of the central underpinning features of national cultures. It then goes on to explain how the strength of a national Romanticism in Scotland derives from them, before assessing the importance of the key writers of the Romantic movement in Scotland in terms of this framework and in the context of their relationship to Romanticism in its wider context.

Sacred Sites Reinterpreted: New Age Phenomena at a Hungarian Marian Shrine

Marian shrines were always the sites of miraculous healings and spectacular apparitions. Nowadays, they have also become the crystallisation points of the New Age phenomena. Several studies have already pointed out this trend with regard to popular pilgrimage destinations. As far as the Hungarian Marian shrines are concerned, none of them have been systematically examined from this perspective. This chapter aims to provide a deeper in- sight of how a Marian shrine is being re-orchestrated as a specific ‘power place’ in the context of alternative spiritualities, such as New Age religiosity or ethno-paganism at one Marian shrine at Máriagyűd. From the wide-ranging New Age phenomena and religious practices that the author observed during the past decades at Máriagyűd, she chose the prominent example of an esoteric group called Magyar MAGok [Hungarian Seeds], which deals with diverse religious and healing activities. Their programmes include sha- manic drumming sessions, tours to ‘sacred sites’ in Hungary and the Carpathian Basin (mostly Romania), weekend meditations, esoteric workshops, readings on the history and culture of the ancient Hungarians, such as direct kinship between the Hungarians and the Huns, or the identification of the Ancient Hungarians with the Scythians, or the Hungarian origins of the Christian Father God. In accordance with the millennial narrative, they use the elements of the alternative history of the Hungarians as well as other motifs which recall UFO-religions and ET-spiritualities, and last but not least, the idea of healing and cleansing as the basic means leading to universal well-being. The description of their unique rituals and other religious practices is followed by an analysis of the discourse on the contested authority of the shrine. The author of the chapter focuses on the role of the Virgin Mary within their discourse. She found it interesting that Mary is connected with the so-called Boldogasszony (literally [Blessed Woman]), which is a special Hungarian denomination of the Virgin Mary and, at the same time, the alleged goddess of the ancient Hungarians. ‘Boldogasszony’ has been used as a synonym for the Blessed Virgin Mary since the Middle Ages (cf. Madas 2002). The quest for a lost epic and a missing mythology of the Hungarians, which was inspired by national romanticism, resulted in the term gaining an ethnic taste by the end of the 19th century. ‘Boldogasszony’ was the most emblematic female figure of the pantheon in the re-invented Ancient Hungarian religion – the Mother Goddess (Kálmány 1885). With regard to its contemporary use, ‘Boldogasszony’ is also interpreted as the Hungarian equivalent of the Goddess (Bowman 2009), and is also considered Mother Earth (Gaia) and the galactic patroness of all Hungarians par excellence. The author put the manifold interpretations of the Virgin Mary's figure in the centre of attention, highlighting the Catholic Church's standpoint on the emergence of New Age spirituality at Catholic devotional places.

Dragestil in Russian architecture early in the 20th century

The article discusses the architecture of buildings erected in Russia early in the 20th century, which are associated with the dragestil common to Western European architecture of the modern era. The general dragestil concept in cultures of different countries is given on the examples of folk and cult architecture. The article considers the activities of Holm Hansen Munthe, the founder and leader of the dragestil in Norway who developed the national program of this style. For the first time, a general overview is given for buildings that reflect the dragestil national romanticism in the Russian Empire. The article analyzes the well-known dragestil projects and buildings in the cities of Omsk, Tomsk, Vyritsa station in the Tsarskoye Selo Railway and the Circum-Baikal Railway early in the 29th century.

Doctrinal grounds of ideology of Slavophiles: European intellectual tradition and its Russian modification

The subject of this research is the conceptual grounds of Slavophilic ideology that formed under the influence of European sociopolitical thought of the late XVIII – early XIX centuries, and undergone substantial transformation in the process of adaptation to the Russian sociocultural reality. The article analyzes such concepts as nation, collective subject, national spirit (Volksgeist), special path (Sonderweg), etc., which were partially borrowed by Slavophiles from intellectual production of the German national romanticism, and gained further development having become the theoretical framework for studying different problems of Russian society and the state. Methodology is based on the comparative and historical-genetic methods, which allowed determining and examining the elements of similarity between the ideas of European and sociopolitical thought and Slavophilic conceptual ground, as well as their modification within the Russian intellectual environment. The main conclusion consists in the thesis that Slavophilism cannot be unequivocally attributed to liberal or conservative ideology. It combined the principles and postulates of both philosophical systems that acquired new synthesized content within the framework of Russian intellectual space. Slavophilic attitude toward Russian society, which marked the defining meaning of spiritual beginning of social life, also drastically differed from the national patriotism in the context of the theory of official nationalism, with its vividly expressed statist principle.

The influence of the natural environment on the transformation of architectural style

The article explores the phenomenon of the architecture style transformation with a radical change in the natural environment. By the example of two pairs of objects of the same style – objects of Northern National Romanticism in Finland and China and objects of the “Moscow pattern work” in Russia and France, the non-identity of the their architecture perception is argued with the general preservation of the defining signs of style – severe stone forms of northern national romanticism in dense Helsinki's urban development is perceived differently than similar forms of northern national romanticism among the exotic greenery of the coastal city of Qingdao, just as finely detailed forms of the Moscow Orthodox churches are perceived differently than similar forms among the palms of Nice. Another aspect is associated with a change in the ideological perception of the style of architecture when it is transferred to the territory of another country. Thus, Northern National Romanticism was perceived by Finland and the Baltic countries as the style of their national identity, therefore, it clearly expressed those elements and plots that just expressed the national identity of the countries under the rule of the Russian Empire. The same style, embodied in the representative buildings of Qingdao, primarily the governor's residence, expressed a different ideology: Qingdao was the military base of the navy, therefore Northern National Romanticism in this case expressed the nationality and dominance of Germany. At the same time, as you move away from the center of origin, each style invariably transforms as a result of multiple local layers, therefore, with all the grandeur of the appearance of the residence, it does not look as monumental as similar buildings in Finland or the Baltic countries due to the influence of Chinese traditions in polychrome and decor and placement in a different natural environment.

Kaunas of 1919-1939: a temporary capital built by its citizens

W latach 1919-1939, wskutek sytuacji politycznej, Kowno zyskało status tymczasowej stolicy Litwy. Te dwie dekady, w czasie których miasto było centrum wielu ważkich wydarzeń politycznych, ekonomicznych i kulturalnych, znacznie przyczyniły się do stworzenia tożsamości Kowna. W tym okresie miał miejsce boom architektoniczny, który zaowocował pojawieniem się wyjątkowej grupy budynków, charakteryzujących się unikalnym połączeniem rozmaitych wpływów i interpretacji modernizmu oraz narodowego romantyzmu. Niniejszy artykuł przedstawia historyczny przegląd kulturalnych i ekonomicznych okoliczności, które wpłynęły na rozwój budownictwa w Kownie w okresie dwudziestolecia międzywojennego. Due to the political circumstances from 1919 to 1939 the city of Kaunas had a status of provisional capital of Lithuania. Two decades of being at the epicentre of political, economic and cultural events greatly contributed to the creation of the city‘s identity. Construction boom of these years left an exceptional collection of architecture behind, with a unique combination of different influences and interpretations of modernism and national romanticism. This article will give a historical overview of cultural and economic circumstances which influenced architectural development between two World Wars.

National romanticism of the early XX century in the two higher schools of architecture in Saint Petersburg

The article regards one of the aspects of the large theme associated with the study of romanticism in the Russian architecture of the end of the XIX - early XX centuries. The authors focus on the «national» branch of the romanticism trend in architecture embodied in two versions known as «Neo-Russian style» and «Northern Art-Nouveaux». As a result of study of some relevant publications and archive materials, it has been figured out to what extent these versions were used in the architectural study practice at the Academy of Fine Arts and at the Institute of Civil Engineers. It is shown, that at the Institute of Civil Engineers the «Northern Art-Nouveaux» aroused an enthusiastic interest, and at the Academy of Fine Arts the «Neo-Russian style» was regarded as more preferable for study. Some brief information regarding the methods typical for these two different versions of the «national» trend in the independent creative practice of the graduates of both schools is provided.