Finds in the Library of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (To the 185th Anniversary of Mily A. Balakirev)

В статье рассмотрены выявленные в Научной музыкальной библиотеке Санкт-Петербургской государственной консерватории имени Н. А. РимскогоКорсакова партитуры симфонических произведений Милия Алексеевича Балакирева, входившие в состав его личного собрания. Таковы поэма «В Чехии», Увертюра на тему испанского марша, где особый интерес представляют пометы автора, проанализированные в статье. Их изучение вносит вклад в подготовку полного собрания сочинений Балакирева. Наряду с этими раритетами были подвергнуты описанию прижизненные издания балакиревской Симфонии C-dur, поэмы «Тамара» с маргиналиями выдающихся музыкантов — современников композитора: Э. Ф. Направника, А. К. Глазунова. Эти четыре партитуры, две из которых входили в балакиревскую библиотеку, — бесценный материал к темам, раскрывающим проблемы интерпретации симфонической музыки мастера, истории ее жизни на концертной эстраде. The article presents the scores of Balakirev’s symphonic works identified in the library of the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory, which were part of his personal library. These are the poem In the Czechia and an Overture on the theme of the Spanish march with the author’s notes being on a special interest and analyzed in the article. This study becomes a good investment in the preparation of the complete works of Balakirev. Along with these rarities, the article also describes life editions of the Balakirev’s Symphony in C-dur, the poem Tamara with marginalia of outstanding musicians — contemporaries of the composer: Eduard F. Napravnik, Alexander K. Glazunov. This is an invaluable material for topics that reveal the problems of interpretation of the master’s symphonic music, the history of its life on the concert stage.

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The contribution of NAS RA Institute of Arts to the formation and development of academic Spendiaryan Studies is outstanding. It includes publication and research of the creative legacy of the prominent representative of Armenian classical music, the founder of Armenian symphonic music, the composer, conductor and musical-and-public figure Alexander Spendiaryan (1871-1928). In the field of Spendiaryan Studies, NAS RA Institute of Arts carried out its works in the following directions: academic publication of complete “Collected Works of Alexander Spendiaryan” in 11 volumes (1951-1988); scholarly research: Knarik Grigoryan’s “Alexander Spendiarov. Life and Ouevre” (1952), Georgi Tigranov’s “Alexander Spendiarov. Based on Letters and Recollections” (in Rus., 1953), collected scholarly papers “Alexander Spendiarov. Articles and Researches” (in Rus., compiled by Gevorg Geodakian, 1973), and many other scholarly papers; publication of the composer’s literary legacy: “Collection of Letters” (compiled by Knarik Grigoryan, 1962); compilation and publication of the chronicle of the composer’s life and oeuvre (compiled by Maria Spendiarova, 1975); organization of anniversary academic conferences (1951, 1971, 2021); compilation and publication of the collection “Contemporaries about Al. Spendiaryan” (compiled by Alexander Tadevosyan, 1960), etc.

Dmitry Smirnov as William Blake’s translator and biographer

The article discusses the versatile talent of Dmitry Smirnov (Sadovsky), a composer and translator, who lived in the UK and died there in 2020. The article addresses the following topics: analysis of Smirnov’s work as William Blake’s translator; examination of the guiding principles behind D. Smirnov’s biography of Blake the artist; and analysis of Smirnov’s part in the adaptation of Blake’s oeuvre to symphonic music. In his lifetime, Smirnov completed and partially published his unique collection of William Blake’s translations into Russian; he authored and published the first scholarly biography of Blake in Russian; and composed a great many musical pieces, In a variety of genres, on Blake’s verse. A notable accomplishment of Smirnov’s as a co-creator of a ‘Russian Blake’ is his translation of two monumental prophecies penned by the poet of English Romanticism: Jerusalem and Milton. Regrettably, Smirnov’s work as a translator and biographer is little known in Russia — undeservedly so — although it merits serious attention; therefore, the article seems more than timely.

Symphonic music in contemporary theatre

The transformation of symphonic music is an understudied subject for research. It has changed since the beginning of the 20th century and it can even be said that symphonic music has lost its popularity. An important feature of contemporary symphonic music is its transformation and acquiring a different form. Still, it remains in demand for the theatrical world. The authors aimed to investigate modern trends in symphonic music and works of contemporary composers. For studying examples of contemporary symphonic music and its performance on theatrical stages the authors used the following methods: historical research methods which formed the methodological framework of the study; methods of analysis and synthesis which were used to study information about contemporary symphonic music, contemporary composers, as well as their musical works. Contemporary pieces of symphonic music presented on the theatre stage were considered.

Innovative trends in the symphonic works of Soviet composers of the 1960s and Symphony No.3 by B. Tishchenko. Part 2

The subject of this research is the period of Russian symphonic music of the 1960s. A new generation of composers – the “Sixtiers” – introduced a fresh modern musical language and remarkable artistic achievements. In first part of the article, the author dwell on several fundamental symphonic works by R. Shchedrin, S. Slonimsky, E. Denisov, Y. Falik, N. Karetnikov, as well gives general characteristics to this period. The second part of the article examines the compositions by A. Schnittke and L. Prigozhin. Special attention is turned to the Symphony No.3 by Boris Tishchenko, who opens new stylistic horizons and encompasses the key trends of modern music, including the avant-garde, into his stylistic orbit. This article is first to consider B. Tishchenko's outstanding Symphony No.3 in the context of stylistic and linguistic innovations of the 1960s, which defines the scientific novelty. Analysis is conducted on the role and place of the youngest composer of the “Sixtiers” B. Tishchenko in the struggle for the “new music”. The conclusion is made that Tishchenko was one of the leaders in revival of the Russian music of the late XX century, and his Symphony No.3 reflects the pursuits of the postwar generation of Soviet composers to the fullest.

Orquestra AfrosinfônicaThe Africanization of Erudite Music

Chapter 5 focuses on the Orquestra Afrosinfônica, a group led by Bira Marques that attempts to indigenize symphonic music in Bahia by drawing on Afro-Bahian genres such as Candomblé and carnival music. It discusses the problematic division between “erudite” and “popular” music in Brazil in relation with Marques’s rhetoric about rhythm, melody, and harmony. The analysis engages the director’s use of timelines, modal and tonal harmonies, lyrics in African languages, rhythms used by Brazilian nationalistic composers, Afro-Bahian and symphonic percussion, and black bodies. It demonstrates how and why the tropes of African rhythmicity and percussiveness are mainly hidden in discourse but become plain in practice. The director’s visit to Namibia and his collaboration with two Angolan musicians in Bahia are seen to clarify his position in regard to the relationship between Candomblé and Christianity and his view of Bahia as a hyperreal Africa.

BORIS TISHCHENKO. THE TWELVE. CREATION HISTORY AND BASIC COMPOSING PRINCIPLES

The article is devoted to the history of the creation and music score of the ballet Twelve based on the poem by A. Blok by the outstanding Russian composer of the second half of the twentieth century Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko. The ballet was staged by the famous Soviet choreographer Leonid Jacobson back in 1964 and became, in fact, the first avant-garde ballet in the Soviet Union. Critics noted Tishchenko’s bright modern symphonic music and Jacobson’s free plastics, which “became a breath of clean air in the rarefied atmosphere of classical epigonism”.

Music for the ballet “The Twelve” by Boris Tishchenko in the context of the revival of Russian symphonic style of the 1960s

The subject of this research is the symphonic works of the prominent Russian composer of the late XX century Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko (1939–2010). The article analyzes the composer's first major ballet based on the poem “The Twelve” by A. Blok, which was requested in 1963 by the outstanding Soviet choreographer L. Yakobson for production design in the Kirovsky Theater in Leningrad. The author examines such aspects of the topic as Tishchenko's innovative role in the revival of Russian symphonic style in the second half the XX century, interrelation between music and poetry in the orchestral compositions of B. Tishchenko, as well as strong influence of the literary concepts upon the development of his symphonic style. Special attention is given to the topic of B. Tishchenko's succession of the great Russian symphonic tradition. The main conclusion lies in the thought that B. Tishchenko's ballet “The Twelve” is the first truly contemporary ballet performance in the Soviet musical theater. The author’s special contribution to this research consists in comprehensive examination of the works of the prominent Russian composer that have not receive due attention of the musicologists. The novelty lies in demonstration of the important role of Boris Tishchenko in the overall process of the revival of the Russian symphonic music of the 1960s on the example of the ballet of his early period. Developing his original artistic concepts, Tishchenko symphonized the ballet performance, paving the way for many Soviet composers in this direction.

“Deeds of Music” in Bourgeois Opera (What the Listener Sees…)

The internalized visualization of symphonic music was validated by “New German School” programmaticism. Wagner’s mature music-dramas, with their symphonic “underscores,” were even theorized by him as “deeds of music made visible.” By locating dramatic agency in his concealed orchestra, Wagner problematized in advance his later disparagement by critics for whom the cinema downgraded music to the role of redundant accompaniment. Recent work on music in popular melodrama further complicates our understanding of critical battles fought over music and meaning in mass-entertainment theatre, where its melodramatic use seems initially to have served to repress socially disruptive “meaning.” Implications for film music-study of discoveries about melodramatic music are traced here with reference to a 1989 film realization of Delius’s opera A Village Romeo and Juliet (1901), whose last orchestral interlude (“The Walk to the Paradise Garden”) is turned there into a fully realized, “silent” cinematic narrative.