Some Remarks on Musical Symbolism of Philo’s Hermeneutics in “De Posteritate Caini”

Philo of Alexandria can hardly be called a philosopher, especially given a certain speculative or systematic philosophy. But also, contrary to the prevailing opinion in contemporary research, it could hardly be defined as an exegete, especially given the modern content of the term. At the same time, the impression remains that the most often associated concept with his name – allegory (allegorical interpretation) is usually perceived too narrowly, and not enough attention is paid to the actual literary and hermeneutical skills of the author. Modern translations of his works often do not reflect the symbolism used by Philo at all, as is the case with music imagery in the opening paragraph of De Posteritate Caini. The musical theme and symbolism in Philo's work undoubtedly deserve a special and thorough study, which would go far beyond the scope of this article.

AZERBAYCAN AŞIK SANATINDA ŞİRVAN AŞIK ORTAMININ ROLÜ THE ROLE OF THE SHIRVAN ASHİK ART IN AZERBAIJAN ASHİK ART

The art of minstrel, whose etymological meaning is "ash", "light", "love", is common in all Turkic peoples, including Azerbaijan, Göyçe, Borchali, Nakhchivan, Yerevan, Ağbaba, Çıldır, Derbent, Karabakh, Ganja, Tovuz, Gazakh, Shamkir, Shamahhi, It was developed in Ismayilli, Agsu, Goychay, Khizi, Guba, Tabriz, Urmia, Khorasan regions. Although the Shirvan minstrel environment has been included in the research of philologists, it has been little studied in musicology. From this point of view, the works of K. Akhundova (Dadaşzade), Ahliman Rahimov, Aliyeva Hanim devoted to examining the Shirvan ash circle are quite remarkable. Shirvan ashik environs have spread over a wide area, including Shamakhi, Ismayilli, Agsu, Goycay, Hızi, Ujar, Gobustan, Mugan region, Salyan, Sabirabad and Belasuvar regions. Shirvan minstrels always responded to cultural events with their art, and took an active role in minstrel congresses and other important state events that played an important role in the development of this art. Shirvan ashik’s have always come to the fore with their musical creations. In Shirvan's minstrel environment, air is played in the accompaniment of various instruments, unlike other regions. It included two balabans, a percussion instrument (double drum) and a ashik singer, including a ashik. In this respect, the group of Shirvan ashik’s can be called a community. One of the characteristic features of the representatives of the environment is that the mugham is performed at the beginning of the air, sometimes between the second and third lines, which shows the skill of the minstrel. Balaban performers also have other responsibilities within the group. It adds color to the general sound of the air accompanied by two bitterns. While one of the balaban players plays a musical theme, the other has a kind of "helper" structure and takes exemplary notes in accordance with the mood and melody of the air. The inclusion of the percussion instrument in the backing demonstrates the uniqueness of this setting not seen in other regions. Although they can be found in other environments such as Güzell?, sikeste, keremi, muhammes, gerayli, they are completely different from Shirvan airs in terms of melody. Peşrov and Shesangi melodies belong only to Shirvan ashik’s and are not performed in other settings. Shirvan ash tunes are also very rich in terms of musical style and contain developed moments, melodies and rhythms.

SINGING METAL (FANTASIES ON THE MUSICAL THEME OF MANABA MAGOMEDOVA)

The article is dedicated to the famous master, the first Kubachi woman who took up a graver, Manaba Omarovna Magomedova. Several works of the artist related to the musical art are considered.

Childhood as a musical theme – affectivity and instrumental expressiveness in the works of Schumann, Debussy and Enescu

Childhood is a theme that music does not avoid, and through works such as Kinderszenen by Robert Schumann, Children’s Corner by Claude Debussy or Impressions d’enfance (Childhood Impressions) by George Enescu, is illustrated by various compositional means, determined by epochs or trends with which the creators identify, but also by their personal experiences and their expressive intentions. The affectivity of childhood is the key to decipher the musical message, pursuing the connection between the universe and the way in which the composers chose to lead the sound discourse through instruments, exploring so diversily the possibilities presented by them. The image, the symbol or the instrumental timbre, understood as processes of transmitting the expression, are the elements that the study seeks to define in correlation with the programmatism and the musical specificity of each previously mentioned work. This analytical incursion belongs to the contemporary performer, who, in order to understand and render this theme, uses not only the knowledge in the field, but also the extra-musical insight, belonging to literature or psychology.

The Contexts of Osip Mandelstam’s Works in Tomas Venclova’s Diptych “Two Poems about Love”

The article analyzes a diptych “Two Poems about Love” written by Tomas Venclova in 1973 and its contexts. The article refers to the archived manuscript and the translation of Mandelstam’s poem “Za to, chto ia ruki tvoi ne sumel uderzhat‘…” (“For I failed to keep your hands…”) that Venclova first released in 1967. In this case, Mandelstam’s poem is important to Venclova both as a text about a city doomed for collapse, and as a work about love. It is noted that in the diptych this is not the only important poem by Mandelstam (although it was noted in the comments); images from the other poems (“Swallow,” “Leningrad”) were also quoted and reinterpreted by Venclova. Just like Mandelstam, Venclova was also opposed to totalitarianism. For Mandelstam, the post-revolutionary St. Petersburg, and for Venclova the Soviet Vilnius, represent a dying city – in the first poem of the diptych it is moved to the ocean, in such a way highlighting the threatening situation. In the first poem, the source of life is love disguised with a musical theme; the second one already talks about passing lovers – their bodies now “like stones lay next to each other.” Some poetic images are modified in Venclova’s later works. Mandelstam is still as important and will appear next to Ovid, who is only mentioned in the manuscript, in the poem “Tristia” from 1997.

The Semantic Explicitization of the Musical Text in Work with Beginner Guitarists

The procedure of interpreting the content of the musical composition studied in a performance class is often reduced to reconstituting the version created by the instructor. The foundation of the joint interpretation with the pupil of the compositions may be served by the process of functioning of semantic fi gures in the context of the musical theme. Its semantic organization is impossible without turning to the foundational concept of semantic analysis — the intonational lexis, which summate the perceptions of the intonational vocabulary of the composer and the musical work he created. Thereby, the semantic explicitization must be the basis for objective analysis of the musical composition’s fi gurative-content aspect. The article examines the performers’ interpretations of musical compositions in beginners’ guitar classes on the basis of analyzing the musical text’s semantic structures in classical and contemporary music. For the beginner musician application of technique of semantic analysis will become a reliable source for a joint search for performance solution together with the instructor.

MUSICALISATION OF J. BUNYAN’S AND H. SKOVORODA’S LITERARY DISCOURSE

The article deals with the musical space of the artistic heritage of J. Bunyan and H. Skovoroda that has many common features. The general place in the heritage of both writers is reference to solemn church or angelic singing, accompanying the scenes of triumph of the heroes. There are numerous quotations from the Bible psalms, that both writers mastered perfectly. Outplaying of the mythologemes “a man as a musical instrument” and “a world as a musical instrument” became common for both authors. Musical code is expressed in comparison with man’s features and musical sounds; assimilation of the world with a musical instrument, desire to hear “the music of spheres”. The comparison of a man’s emotional impulse with the sounds of musical instruments reveals willingness of the man of the Baroque age for the search of correspondence and for the synthesis of arts in a broad sense. Music as an art differs in the ability to reveal symbols by means of a sound, having a significant influence on the recipient. The analysis of musical component of H. Skovoroda and J. Bunyan’s work demonstrates its precise orientation on musicalisation of writers’ discourse. In the meantime musical theme is represented much wider in Skovoroda’s work than in the work of the English writer. The article introduces J. Bunyan and H. Skovoroda as bright representatives of national variants of baroque aesthetics.

Leitmotif

A leitmotif (from the German Leitmotiv: ‘guiding motif’) in its original sense is a musical theme that appears multiple times over the course of a dramatic composition and thereby gives a person, object, place or concept both a symbolic form and coherence over time. It is primarily associated with the mature works of Richard Wagner, who disliked the term, however. A leitmotif differs from earlier examples of recurring musical themes by virtue of the fact that it can change over time and develop additional significance through its relationship to other musical themes. Thus, the ascending ‘nature motif’ that opens Wagner’s operatic cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) finds a descending counterpart in the later ‘contract motif’. Taken together, the two themes thus spell out a fundamental contrast between the natural and the social world that runs throughout the cycle. Because of the huge influence of Wagner’s art on all aspects of Modernism, leitmotifs can be found not only in musical compositions, but also in literature, particularly in the novels of Thomas Mann and James Joyce.