“Ecco la marcia, andiamo...” Mozart and the March

Surprisingly little work has been dedicated to Mozart and the march genre. The literature has explored only the 17 marches which feature as introductory movements in his cassations and serenades (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, Günter Hauswald, Wolfgang Plath). However, marches have important functions in Mozart’s operas – in his seria works as celebratory and greeting intermezzos, and at expressly key instances in his Da Ponte operas (“Non più andrai,” “Ecco la marcia, andiamo,” “È aperto a tutti quanti, viva la libertà!”, and “Bella vita militar”). The same applies to Idomeneo and The Magic Flute, where the priestly rituals are accompanied by marches, albeit of a slow variety, as is Tamino and Pamina’s trial by fire and water. Studying the marches reveals a formulaic recurring rhythmic model (a succession of eighth notes in the following pattern: 4:3:1:2:2) that acts as a thematic introduction to many works which do not conspicuously belong to the march genre – notably his piano concertos and symphonies. This model appears already in his juvenile pieces, reoccurring throughout his œuvre as a means of expressing the beginning of a purposeful action.

European musical context in the works of Sukhbat Aflatuni

The object of this research is two works of Sukhbat Aflatuni: “Tashkent Novel” and “Balthazar”, as well as the last part of the trilogy “Adoration of the Magi”. The subject of the research is the authorial interpretation of music theme, revealing the uniqueness of musical images in the indicated novels. Special attention is given to the European musical context with emphasis on most significant musical pieces that not just create a background sound in the novels, but also affect their structure. The author examines the functions of musical references, and proves that mentioning of the composers’ names and composition in works of the writer fulfills the function of “other storyline”. The conclusion is made that musical context in works of the writer is diverse and multifunctional. The structure of “Tashkent Novel” directly correlates with the Opera “The Magic Flute” by Mozart. Another significant musical text in the novel is “For Elise” by Beethoven. In the trilogy “Adoration of the Magi”, of special interests from musical perspective is the last novel of the writer “Balthazar”. The protagonist is the avant-garde composer, who seeks for the new forms that allow presenting the entire history of music; from his perspective, music is the highest manifestation of spirit. By this, Sukhbat Aflatuni brings to life Plato's idea of the celestial meaning of musical harmony.

ORIENT В. А. МОЦАРТА: ВІД АЛЮЗІЇ ДО ЕТИКО- ЕСТЕТИЧНОЇ СТИЛЬОВОЇ МОДЕЛІ

Throughout the history of music, the dialogue of cultures in the West- East discourse has produced various Orientalism models. Introducing a fashion for oriental decorations in Europe, using new instruments, borrowing modes of musical expression, as well as alluding to signs and symbols of oriental religions and philosophies gave rise to reshaping European musical aesthetics as early as the 18th century. At that time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his work were undoubtedly pivotal for the art. One can retrospectively observe that Turkish Janissary musical traditions significantly freshened and enriched the composer's instrumental thinking. This can be seen most in the orchestration of Mozart's oriental operas – namely, his singspiels Zaide and The Abduction from the Seraglio. Being a synthetic genre by its nature, opera is primarily related to literary activity; therefore, its oriental colour and imagery need to be immersed in the philosophical world of oriental narratives and storylines that were very popular in baroque and classicism art. Moreover, on the example of The Magic Flute, Mozart's last opera, we can observe how the semiosis of Sufi texts explicitly present in this singspiel libretto gives the work new – Romantic – features. These new characteristics are not limited to the surface aesthetic level of decorations. As an opera reformer, Mozart reshapes the aesthetics of musical language, concurrently refining the ethical component of the genre. Thus, when analysing some instrumental, especially opera pieces by Mozart – namely, Zaide, The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute singspiels, one can affirm that the synergy between all orientalism features in the composer’s works and established traditions of the European musical art resulted in the Viennese master creating a new ethical and aesthetic style model, which became seminal for the upcoming epochs.

Vococentrism and Sound in Ingmar Bergman’s The Magic Flute

Bergman’s Magic Flute (1975) is one of the highlights of opera-film. It represents a splendid example of Bergman’s mastery of image and film technique, and a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s late opera. Except for chapters by Jeongwon Joe (1998) and Jeremy Tambling (1987), it has been underrepresented in research on opera-film. There is much more to be said, especially with respect to sound. Not only are Flute’s sound practices critical to the film, but its emphasis on vococentrism is unusual for an opera-film and also connects Flute to Bergman’s cinema as a whole. Many elements in the soundscape contribute to Bergman’s highly personal interpretation. One is the dry environment in the passages of spoken dialogue, recorded live and its contrast with the warmer environment in the musical numbers, which were prerecorded. The spoken sections impart a sense of intimacy and interiority, qualities found in other Bergman films, such as Persona, The Seventh Seal, and The Hour of the Wolf. Ambient noise occurs in some places, its use linked to certain moods and situations. Variations in the resonance of the vocal music add another element to the mix. This chapter focuses on three places in Flute. The second tableau, numbers 1-5, uses sound to delineate the juxtaposition of theater and cinema and establish a link between dry speech and interioirity. In the scene of Tamino’s crisis at “O ew’ge Nacht,” an expanded array of effects, including the acousmêtre and reverberation in addition to dryness, limn Tamino’s psyche and underscore a key moment of the opera. And at Pamina’s parental crisis in the first half of Act II, silence as well as sound plays an integral role. The striking sound design of Bergman and his team is crucial to the film’s aesthetic style, in which “less is more,” and its reputation as a landmark of opera-film.

LIBRETTO OF THE OPERA THE MAGIC FLUTE BY W. A. MOZART IN THE GENRE OF FAIRY-TALE

The Magic Flute by W. A. Mozart occupies a special place in the treasury of the world musical art. The article for the first time explores the specifics of the embodiment of the genre model of the fairy-tale underlying the libretto. The reconstruction of its basic, static and dynamic elements is based on methodological approaches developed in the study of folk and literary fairy-tales. The analysis of the verbal text of the opera demonstrates: canonized set of personages that possess the definite semantic functions in the plot-syntagmatic line, invariant fairytale situations, typical parameters of the fairy-tale space-time continuum. In the semantics of the fairy-tale by W. A. Mozart the categories of paths (wanderings), trials, value indicators and the totemic rite of initiation acquire conceptual meaning. The plot line of the libretto, as well as of the fairy-tale, reflects the theme of marriage and family relations but in the cosmic foreshortening. The deep symbolic paradigm witnesses the mythical, cosmogonic gist of the fairy-tale plot. The semiotic model of the artistic world of the fairy-tale singspiel is organized by the binary oppositions of Light and Darkness. Darkness is metaphorically personified in the anthropomorphic image of the fundamental constant of being — Queen of the Night. The world of the sage Zarastro personifies Light. In the verbal artistic text of the opera the composer and the librettist exhibit deep and bright knowledge of the genre canons of the classical folk and literary fairy-tale and reflect the idea of the spiritual search of perfection in the world.

TRANSFORMATION OF AN OPERA PERFORMANCE INTO A BALLET (BY RUSSIAN AND WEST EUROPEAN CHOREOGRAPHERS)

The article describes the appearance of such a phenomenon as the transformation of an opera performance into a ballet. The author pays particular attention to the most outstanding performances of this direction. The characteristic of the musical and choreographic basis of the mentioned performances is given. Particular emphasis was placed on the operas The Magic Flute by W. A. Mozart and Carmen by G. Bizet. The appeal to the opera performance makes it possible to replenish and to enrich the ballet repertoire. Meanwhile many ballet masters use to adopt the musical text of the opera for their performances. The exception is The Magic Flute by Maurice Bejart, who tried to present the full-length version of the opera in choreographic expression without any changes on its part. Not every opera is equally possible to use for ballet interpretation, a lot depends on the content of the opera and the specifics of the musical material. At the same time any choreographer has the opportunity to display his creative potential in this area. Almost all choreographers apply modern innovations in their performances in addition to the classical basis, thereby expanding the horizons of their choreographic language.