B. Tishchenko’s music to the ballet “Yaroslavna” in the context of the revival of Russian symphonic style in the 1960s–1970s

This article analyzes the music to the ballet “Yaroslavna” by the prominent Russian composer of the late XX century B. Tishchenko (1939–2010). The written and staged in 1974 ballet has become one of the most remarkable musical achievements of that time. Emphasis is palced on the fact that Tishchenko composed “Yaroslavna” using all available modern orchestral means of expression on the basis of the Old Russian text “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”. Tishchenko did not seek stylization of his work, but brought the word of the nameless chronicler closer to modern era. He introduces choir to the ballet music to augment its power. The author features Tishchenko's outstanding work with orchestral texture and various instrumental timbres and colors. The novelty of this research lies in studying the music to the ballet “Yaroslavna” in the context of general vector of the revival of Russian symphonic style in the 1960s–1970s. The author notes the leading role of Boris Tishchenko in this remarkable process. The conclusion is made that the composition turned out to be multigenre, consisting of multiple parts; and that Tishchenko has broadened musical lexicon of the Russian music culture to the maximum. The music to the ballet was saturated with truly symphonic content, opened new artistic paths, and enriched modern orchestral palette.

THE FORM OF THE SUITE IN BALLET AND ITS METRORHYTHMIC ORGANIZATION

The article reveals the peculiarities of metrorhythmic organization of the classical dance cycle (suite), typical for Russian ballet of the XIXth century and its evolution in the early XXth century under the influence of innovations in the field of rhythm in the ballets by Igor Stravinsky. The purpose of this article is to find mechanisms of interaction between dance and music based on coordination of their temporal parameters. The material of analysis is the classical dance cycle that performs both compositional and dramaturgical functions in the ballet. Apart from the metrorhythmic and compositional system of organizing time in ballet music, other types of time can be distinguished: real, psychological (subjective) and conceptual, artistic time organizing the processes of the characters' life cycle and the development of action in the virtual time of the artwork. In a classical dance cycle in each number, real time predominates, but when the numbers alternate, subject to the principle of contrast, the conceptual time has a corrective effect. The alternation of musical and choreographic numbers in a ballet determines the rhythm of the form or "compositional rhythm" (according to V. P. Bobrovsky). The correlation of temporal proportions of numbers is considered on the example of ballets "Swan Lake" by P. Tchaikovsky and "Petrushka" by I. Stravinsky. The compositional unit is the duration of the stage segment of the musical form, the change of which creates the rhythm of the form.

Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber for Orchestra: A Historical and Analytical Perspective

A now standard component of orchestral and wind band repertoire, Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber was originally intended to be ballet music. This study examines the history and background surrounding Paul Hindemith's orchestral piece and demonstrates how Hindemith crafted each movement based off Weber's original piano duets and incidental orchestral music. The study was undertaken as limited information exists about the piece in its entirety, and much of what has been written primarily concerns itself with grammatical and contextual aspects of Hindemith's title. Existing analyses either only focus on a singular movement, or are limited; presumably, due to a prevailing notion that Hindemith simply orchestrated the piano pieces. Potentially exacerbating the issue may be the fact that it was not known for nearly twenty years after Symphonic Metamorphosis was premiered which Weber duets Hindemith reworked. This analysis, coupled with the background information provided, shows that Hindemith's settings transcend mere orchestrations and, in some cases, exhibit qualities of original composition. The analysis thoroughly delineates Weber's Turandot overture and three piano duets, part by part and hand by hand, to show exactly where and how Hindemith altered the original writings. The differences in overall form, measure numbers, tempi, meter, and harmony are listed. In addition, it is revealed which thematic additions, alterations, and omissions Hindemith includes.

Tanztheater und filmische Ästhetik. Cineastische Einflüsse und Gestaltungsweisen in den Kompositionen für die Ballets Suédois 1920–1925

The central role that avant-garde music and dance theatre played in the interplay and synthesis of the arts and media in the 1920s, particularly in Paris, is well known. However, the creative potential of ballet has hardly been recognized in its manifold relationships with film and cinematic-inspired expression. The extent to which especially ballet music interacted with the latest cinematographic principles and techniques and referred to cinematic aesthetics in a variety of ways can instructively be seen regarding the productions of the Ballets Suédois. This is discussed in this article with an exemplary look at Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel (1921), Within the Quota (1923), Skating Rink (1922) and Relâche (1924). By that it becomes clear that the transmedia inclusion of cinematographic ideas not only inspired the vocabulary of avant-garde dance and modern choreography, but was also distinctively reflected in the conception and composition of film-affected music.

S. PROKOFIEV'S "FLEETING MOMENTS": CHOREOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION OF THE PIANO MASTERPIECE

The article analyzes two versions of choreographic interpretation of S. Prokofiev's piano cycle "Fleeting Moments". The first one belongs to the outstanding Russian ballet master K. Ya. Goleizovsky, the second — to the German choreographer of American origin J. Neumeier. Both compositions are considered in the context of such a trend as "plastic interpretation of non-ballet music". There is a special demand for S. Prokofiev's works (not only ballet scores, but also "non-ballet" opuses) among choreographers, who are attracted by the theatrical nature of the composer's talent: brightness and sharpness of musical characteristics, reliance on "sound gesture", ability to reproduce rhythmic intonation of mood. The "Fleeting Moments" cycle as a whole and in terms of individual pieces is analyzed from the standpoint of openness to choreographic embodiment and compliance with canonical ballet forms and situations. It is underlined that in Goleizovsky's ballet a deeply felt emotion is brought to the fore. Due to the precise adherence to the logic of musical development, conceived as chamber-like this composition embodies the prototype of choreographic symphonism. In Neumeier's ballet, on the contrary, the dramatic plot is emphasized. The choreographer achieves an extraordinary impact by combining classical and modern elements in choreographic vocabulary, supplementing them with movements of free plasticity.

VАRIABILITY, APHORISTIC PHRASE AND PLAYING AS AESTHETIC AND STRUCTURE-FORMING PRINCIPLES IN "MOVEMENTS FOR 13 STRINGS INSTRUMENTS" BY SIMEON PIRONKOV

The composition “Movements for 13 string instruments” was completed in 1967 and belongs to the group of works by Simeon Pironkov whose titles include the word “music” – “Night music”, which is written the year before, “Ballet music in memory of Igor Stravinsky”, created at the beginning of the ‘70s of the last century, and “Music for two pianos and orchestra”. The external connection is the genre uncertainty of their names, which is equally characteristic of the notion “movements” which emphasizes the continuity of the musical process over time without suggesting a connection to a particular genre. At the same time, unlike the three “music”-s, the plural form used in the title – “movements” – draws attention to the plurality of the musical impulses that make up the whole musical thought. The strength of the 13 string instruments indicates the belonging of the work to the chamber orchestral music and fits it into the objective European tendency towards chamberhood, which was established in the first decades of the twentieth century. Listeners are unexpectedly involved in “Movements for 13 string instruments” to hear about eight minutes 37 of micro-episodes – movements that resemble fast-moving movie frames or short theatrical scenes – before the colorful kaleidoscope of parallel-moving melodic lines, clusters, peculiar rhythmic formulas and characteristic strokes to be abruptly cut off by the “guillotine of the four-bars final” (according to the exact expression of the musicologist Rosalia Bix). The versatility of the used vehicles of expression and the masterful handing of them are important prerequisites for the artistic impact of the work, recreating with a laconic expression part of the ever flowing life stream in the form of a series of changing movements. At the same time, it is also a way of the composers playing with its own creation, an expression of the typical for the 20th century tendency for the art to entertain with its means. In any case, “Movements for 13 string instruments” express the youthful spirit of their creator, because, according to the extremely inventive maxim of the theater producer Nicolay Georgiev, “man has stopped playing not because he is old but he is old because he has stopped playing”.

The Vsevolozhsky Reforms

This chapter describes the arrival of Ivan Vsevolozhsky as director of the Imperial Theatres; Alexander III was a conservative and yet it was under his reign that the monopoly of the Imperial Theatres was dissolved. This brought about the emergence of commercial theatres, and with them, middlebrow entertainments, featuring virtuoso Italian ballet dancers. They also promulgated the féerie: a spectacular genre, emphasizing visual effects. The influence of the féerie and of Italian dancers on the Imperial Ballet and Petipa’s work is discussed, as are Vsevolozhsky’s reforms and his drive to elevate ballet music by introducing concert-hall composers, notably Tchaikovsky and Glazunov.

Court Spectacle and Entertainment

In the global history of spectacles, the baroque era constitutes an acme not only because it encompasses the most influential corpus of Western drama but also because of the unprecedented use of stagecraft in the pursuit of political goals. At a time when the world-as-theater metaphor reached the apex of its relevance, nowhere was it more aptly enacted than in the royal, imperial, ducal, and princely courts of Europe. Spectacle events were an integral part of life at court; although on the surface their purpose was providing entertainment, in the modern sense of gratuitous distraction, their function was almost always more complex as it pertained to diplomacy, propaganda, or governance. Moreover, the unfettered pursuit of distinction and the need for the extraordinary in all of its forms made the baroque court a creative laboratory in which all disciplines (drama, ballet, music, gardening, cuisine) could be practiced at the highest possible levels of excellence, and in which myriad influential artistic forms were first developed.