2023 №28

This is the first attempt to present in full the announcements and chronicles related to music culture that appeared in the newspaper Moskovskie Vedomosti (‘Moscow Gazette’) during the year 1785. The repertoire of the Petrovsky Theatre is listed, performances of virtuosi in Moscow are advertised and reviewed, announcements on the employment of musicians and dancing masters, on their private lessons, on sales of music instruments, on the opening of new music shops, and on new music editions and books are published. The descriptions of musical events in Vienna, Berlin, London, and less important European cities form a prominent part of the newspaper chronicle: this information was of great interest for the Muscovites of the late 18th century. The readers got to know interesting details concerning the performances of Handel’s Messiah in London and Paris, the visits to Russia of such celebrities as singer Luigi Marchesi, singer and harpsichord player Antonio Sartori, Portuguese singer Luisa Todi, German clarinetist Johann Joseph Behr, etc. The publication of the newspaper materials is accompanied by scholarly comments and illustrations.

Key Words 

Moskovskie vedomosti, 1785, Petrovsky Theatre, repertoire of performances, concerts, sale of musical instruments, announcements of musicians and dancing masters, reports of the escapes of serf musicians.

The article considers one of the aspects of mutual influence between music and fiction on the example of Nikolay Leskov’s prose. The writer rarely spoke about music, but it is a key or significant component of a number of his works. This is evidenced by many examples of appeal to musical phenomena in the oeuvre of Leskov. An important role in Leskov’s prose is played by elements and genres of folk music: from nursery songs (pribautki) and ditties (chastushki) to calendar and ritual songs. This is especially visible in the narrative The Life of a Peasant Woman and the tale Lefty.

Commenting on and analyzing the role of musical episodes and devices in the imagery and dramaturgy of Leskov’s works, the author highlights the external and internal manifestations of musicality. Those of the former kind include the musical episodes, genres and terms mentioned in Leskov’s texts, as well as the implied sound of musical instruments, etc. The manifestations of the latter kind include techniques echoing the musical ones: differentiation of speech in terms of intonation and rhythm, elements of polyphony and variation technique, and so on.

The role of music in Leskov’s oeuvre is closely related to the musical nature of the writer himself, which is a significant component of his unique literary style.

Key Words

Leskov, music, literature, musicality of prose, Lefty, folklore, song.

The article examines Strauss’s early work for music theatre on the example of his opera Feuersnot (Need for Fire, 1901). During the years preceding the opera Salome, the composer’s main task was to gradually free himself from the all-encompassing influence of Wagner. In Feuersnot, he succeeded in resolving this problem in the genre of comic opera, saturated with ironic allusions and references to Wagnerian topoi. The Wagnerian stylistics becomes here an important means of characterizing the protagonist. Feuersnot is interpreted as Strauss’s first mature score for music theatre. It demonstrates his talent for comedy, his formal preferences (one-act opera), his free use of miscellaneous stylistic materials, his special predilection for the genre of waltz, and his elaborated tonal dramaturgy.

Key Words

Richard Strauss, operatic legacy, Feuersnot, Wagner, parody, Märchenoper, one-act opera.

The article is devoted to the life and creative path of the Jewish musician Morteza Ney-­Davud (1900/01—1990) — an outstanding representative of the classical tradition of Iranian music. The bright figure of the performer and composer, author of the famous song ‘Morġ-e saḥar’ (‘Bird of Dawn’) is described in the context of the process of modernization of culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the state of the Jewish community after the constitutional revolution of 1905—11. The analysis of the content of the ‘Bird of Dawn’ has revealed a stable concept of classical Persian poetry associated with the motif of the sun depicted in ancient cultures as a winged disk. The figurative-­verbal concept is supported by the mode ‘māhūr’, the etymological meanings of which — ‘sold’ (Hebrew) and ‘deep ravine’ (Persian) — presumably point at Joseph, rescued from a deep ditch or darkness of a well (Genesis 37:26—28), as well as at a liminal state of consciousness between complete despair and boundless joy. It is suggested that the labyrinth of metaphors linking the ancient symbolism with the Biblical narrative into the integrity of the ‘Bird of Dawn’ reflects the deep essence of Jewish identity of Persia at the turn of the the 19th and 20th centuries. The inclusion of the ‘Bird of Dawn’ into the final section of Fikret Amirov’s ‘Azerbaijani Capriccio’ (1961) enhances the melody’s symbolism by means of symphony orchestra.

Key Words

Morteza Ney-­Davud, ‘Bird of Dawn’, traditional music of Iran, dastgāh, history of Jewish music, Western Asia, Fikret Amirov, ‘Azerbaijani Capriccio’.

The present text is an excerpt from the work in progress, provisionally entitled The Third Quarter of the Century: The Flowering and Fading of the New Music. The general idea is to draw a large-­scale panorama of music and musical life of the third quarter of the 20th century — a period that can be defined as the ‘axis time’ in the recent history of Western art music. One of the parts of the future monograph will be structured as a collection of case studies dealing with aspects of music, musical life and cultural politics in the countries that were especially productive in terms of art music. This issue contains the first half of the chapter on the USA, which is dedicated to one part of the wide spectrum of tendencies and currents that determined the image of American music in the period under study: from the so-called Americanism and belated romanticism represented by such masters as A. Copland, S. Barber, G. Menotti, N. Rorem, and some others, to the oeuvre of ‘difficult’ ‘university composers’ inclined especially towards serialism — R. Sessions, M. Babbitt, and their followers. Thereafter follow essays on E. Carter, G. Rochberg, and G. Crumb. The achievements of the most important composers of the period are examined and characterized in the context of contemporary social and cultural realities. The text contains music examples and links to audio and video recordings of the key works. The second half of the chapter on the USA will be published in the next issue of our journal.

Key Words

177 American music, ‘Americanism’, Aaron Copland,
Samuel Barber, Giancarlo Menotti, Ned Rorem, ‘university composers’, Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, George Rochberg, George Crumb.