The Idea of Russian Symbolism about the Synthesis of Cultural Forms in the Context of Postmodern Culture

The relevance of the topic is due to the attention to trends in the development of culture. The synthesis of cultural forms is one of the important factors in the dynamics of culture. The teaching of Russian symbolism about the synthesis of cultures was analyzed in the scientifi c literature of the entire twentieth century. The novelty of the research is to compare the idea of art synthesis in the early twentieth and twenty-fi rst centuries. Two aspects of the idea of synthesis are considered: 1) the relevance of the idea of art synthesis in the postmodern era; 2) music and the visual series as organizing centers of art synthesis in the era of information technology. The purpose of this article is to examine the teaching of Russian symbolism about the integration of various forms of art and the features of synthesis in the postmodern era. The idea of integrating cultural forms was one of the key elements in Russian symbolism at the beginning of the twentieth century and was interpreted as a real prospect for the development of culture. In a broad sense, synthesis in symbolism meant the integrity of life, the integration of all spheres of human activity, the “organic connection” of cultures of the past and present. The synthesis can be realized on the basis of the art of symbolism, which can create a new culture. The synthesis of arts was understood as the beginning of the formation of a new culture. The core of the synthesis of arts, the symbolists saw music. Postmodern art is characterized by synthetism. Computer and information technologies create new forms of synthetic media art. The video series becomes the center of integration construction of postmodern audiovisual culture forms. The symbolist idea of the synthesis of arts as the beginning of cultural change in the postmodern era remains a utopian project. But the creation of new art forms in postmodern culture i s based on integration. New technologies are becoming a factor that determines the specifi cs of the synthesis of arts and infl uences the dynamics of culture. Both in Russian symbolism and in modern art, the goal of art synthesis is to present an integral image of the world, to form a system of worldview attitudes.

The Ballet “Les Noces de Pelée et de Thetis” (1653) Preserved in Visual Images

The article is devoted to the ballet “Les Noces de Pelée et de Thetis” which was produced in 1693 in the Petit Bourbon Palace in Paris (according to the rules of the French theater of that time period) in order to complement the opera with the same name composed by Carlo Caproli. The basis for the plot of the production was the myth widely disseminated in art works about the mortal Peleus and the Nereid Thetis, transformed in correspondence with the aesthetics of that time. The Dance entrées followed each scene of the Italian opera and were connected with its each content, in its turn, forming a consistent, logically delineated narration. The published libretto conveys the plot, and at times the outer form of the action quite vividly and fi guratively. A description of the decorations and machines used in the ballet has also been preserved, as the result of which in our time it becomes possible to create a visual impression from the production. In addition, important defi ning details capable of providing a perception not only of the protagonists’ outward appearances, but also of a concrete distribution of roles between the performers are the sketches for numerous costumes preserved up to our time. Thereby, it turns out that in 17th century musical performance a considerable role is played by its visual solution, which, having been preserved in iconographic materials, is capable of helping create an impression from the overall conception of the production a few centuries after it happened.

The Musical Oeuvres of Rodion Shchedrin

The previous issues of the journal featured publications of lectures about such outstanding 20th century Russian composers as Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofi ev, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian and Georgy Sviridov. This series is continued with a lecture about the music of Rodion Shchedrin. Following the portions of the lecture which deal with the early and middle periods of the composer’s music, the drama and even the tragic quality of his world perception and their overcoming. the present situation acquired maximal tension upon Shchedrin’s turning to the most acute problem for the romantic consciousness — the problem of interactions of personality and its surroundings, especially in the event of their confrontation. During the lecture’s exposition fragments of musical compositions are offered with their recommended performances, in their sum providing a perception of the most substantial sides of Shchedrin’s musical legacy.

Aesthetics of Expediency, Identity and Chaos in Design

The article touches on various areas through which the concept of design, its theoretical and practical components can be examined, what is the designer’s thinking from the point of view of philosophy and aesthetics by the example of the real creative life of famous artistic and aesthetic fi gures. Identity, chaos, expediency — those are the defi ning terms, whose subtleties are based on the scholarly works of Vladimir F. Sidorenko (Professor of the Moscow Textile Academy, member of the Artists’ Union, member of the Designers’ Union, Doctor of Art History, Laureate of the State Prize in Literature and Art). The article discloses the features of the aesthetics of expediency, the application of the abbreviation of this term. The time period from the 1920 to the 1880 of the last century suffi ces for explaining the foundations of the aesthetics of expediency, since it is during this time period that we can observe a surge of the most striking movements in art which infl uenced the design style. The world of design and the people of the design culture in it, imitation of nature and retreating from it — all of this is, undoubtedly, relevant for our time. In the decade of the 2020s, when many trends in art are arriving at a dead end, and sometimes even to their logical conclusion, it is important to go one century back, to the sources, to learn from the experience of our predecessors in the artistic fi eld. It is useful for contemporary artists to study what the contemporaries of the past years arrived at earlier in order to achieve their artistic success and remain in the history of design for all times.

Post Scriptum. A Few More Composers’ Names

In the previous lectures, which made up the cycle “Classics of Russian Music of the 20th Century”, the works of Sergei Rachmaninov, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Georgy Sviridov, Rodion Shchedrin and Alfred Schnittke were examined. Let us supplement this panorama with two final lectures: the first is intended to extend the range of composers’ names, the second will be devoted to an overview of 20th century music with an outlet into the universal space. As it is well-known, since the time of Peter the Great, who established St. Petersburg, two capitals coexisted in Russia, each of which possessed its own face and style, among other things, in the creation of music. By the end of the 19th century, two compositional schools had developed: the St. Petersburg school, the core of which was the “Mighty Handful”, and the Moscow school, headed by Piotr Tchaikovsky. During the 20th century, these schools continued their fruitful interaction. Among the names presented in the main sections of my lectures, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Myaskovsky, Shostakovich, Sviridov began their activities in St. Petersburg- Petrograd-Leningrad, and later they became Muscovites (except for Stravinsky, who lived abroad from the early 1910s). In the second half of the 20th century, the leaders of the musical process in Russia were the Moscow composers Rodion Shchedrin and Alfred Schnittke, along with whom many other names can be mentioned, including Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina and Vladimir Martynov. Representatives of the Leningrad school continued to make a significant contribution to the treasury of Russian music. The following short overviews of the works of Sergei Slonimsky and Valery Gavrilin will testify to this. In addition to the two capitals, composers from a number of other cities in Russia, primarily, those with conservatories, have worked tirelessly in the field of the art of music, which has significantly expanded the scale of the panorama of the musical art in our country — the creative heritage of Elena Gokhman is cited as a characteristic example.

The Vasnetsov Dynasty: Small Details of the Great Heritage

The article is devoted to the study of the cultural trace of the Vasnetsov family on the Kuban land, represented by artists (Yury A. Vasnetsov, Elizaveta Yu. Vasnetsova), career soldiers (Nikolai A. Kuznetsov) and teachers (Elena N. Shcherbakova). Based on publications, archival materials stored in the fund of the Krasnodar F. Kovalenko Regional Art Museum, as well as their own findings, the authors restore the once-forgotten connections of the famous name with the city of Yekaterinodar (presently Krasnodar).

Scriabin’s Synesthesia, Demystified

This article examines the latest materials related to Scriabin’s synesthesia, that is, his associations between sounds (tonal areas) and colors. This is often referred to as color-hearing, sound-color and tone-color associations in the literature. Scriabin’s biographer Leonid Sabaneyev was the first to discuss the matter, in his publication “O zvuko-tsvetovom sootvetstvii” [On sound-color correlation] (1911, Moscow). Since then, other more reliable sources have emerged, including Scriabin’s own color indications penned directly on the score of his Prometheus Op. 60, housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and not widely-accessible. This article also attempts to debunk some of the myths related to Scriabin’s sound-color associations and presents the emerging scholarly perspective on the subject.

Stage Interpretation and Inner Transformations of the Image of the Hero in Baroque Art

The image of the Baroque hero — the martyr or righteous man — is of scholarly interest as an object of self-knowledge and a guide of the idea of inner transformations. The object of the research has been served to a great degree by Pedro Calderon’s play “The Constant Prince” and its stage manifestation, to a lesser degree Andreas Grifi us’ play “Catharina von Georgien.” The duplicity of inner nation typical of the baroque hero and the aspiration towards acquiring immortality are clearly refl ected in the mental scheme of the transition from death to resurrection. The protagonist’s outward suffering and death are perceived in this context as a symbolic refl ection of the inner sufferings of the soul capable of enlightenment and a mystical unifi cation with God. The scenic image of Don Fernando (“The Constant Prince”) is presented in the directorial images of Vsevolod Meyerhold (1915), Jerzy Grotowski (1965) and Boris Yukhananov (2013). This makes it possible to trace on various temporal stages the baroque hero’s change of perception from a positive to a negative scenario. Whereas the positive scenario of the image’s transformation asserts the process of attaining God, the negative scenario denies the possibility of spiritual reawakening and displaces God beyond the scope of the hero’s inner space, turning the hero from a savior into a victim.

The Characteristic Features of Vassily Titov’s Choral Music

Among the Russian composers of the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries a special position is held by the sacred choral works of Vassily Titov (ca. 1650 — ca. 1715), one of the bright representatives of the polyphonic part singing, in which the originality of the Russian Baroque musical culture. The music of Vassily Titov, an outstanding master of choral writing, is diverse in terms of its genres, it comprises nearly two hundred compositions, many of which predominated in the church music repertoire of Russian churches during the course of the 18th century. A study of Vassily Titov’s choral works has made it possible to disclose the characteristic features of the composer’s polyphonic style. The latter include the multi-choral presentation with its bright spatial effects, the antiphonic juxtapositions of large choral masses, the principles of concertizing based on the succession of solo voices and tutti, on the juxtaposition of the chordal-harmonic and the polyphonic exposition, as well as the skillful mastery of imitational counterpoint, up to polyphonic variation. Features of national originality reveal themselves most vividly in the musical thematicism of the compositions, where along with the ornamental design of the intertwining melodic lines and turns of an instrumental type, use is made of intonations of folk songs, cants and church chants. In his musical oeuvres Vassily Titov revised and reevaluated the basic characteristic traits and forms of Western European Baroque music in correspondence with the particularities of Russian musical culture, thereby preserving and enriching the traditions of the Russian national style.

My Development as a Composer

In this article author recounts how he became a composer, who were his teachers, what educational institutions he studied in, where he worked, how he developed his individual musical style and his ideas about music, and also describes what these ideas are. He also describes the context of living and working in New York City and the musical organizations he has worked with and for from the late 1960s to the present.