VLADIMIR MAGAR: LITERARY AND DIRECTOR'S TOPIC
E.A. Smirnova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-4.2-125-133
Abstract:

The author considers creative work of Vladimir Magar, who was a director of the Sevastopol theatre named after A. V. Lunacharsky for fifteen years, and this creative work hasn't been studied yet and the study is continued in the series of publications about him. The study of his manner of directing may be indicative for identifying the patterns specific to regional theatrical life and may restore some pages of the history of Russian theatre, which have been out of the scope of research so far. The activities of the director can be divided into several periods – from light comedies to romantic works involving basic questions of human existence. His performances have always been characterized by complex and multi-literary foundation. The article examines such performances as “Empire of the Sun and the Moon”, “Talants and Admirers”, “Don Giovanni”, “Othello”, “The Cabal of Hypocrites”. They are based on substantial principles of Magar's directing such as multi-piece basis, montage construction, complexity, transmission of the main lyrical expressions of the director. The role of scenographic solutions, plastic, music and other components of dramatic action are also examined in the article. The article is based on using of the comparative-historical method, personal audience experience of the author, analysis of different literary sources, revised by the director, and reviews which are not numerous. The principles of creation which are studied in the paper testify about the successful application by the director V. Magar of a great variety of expressive means of modern theatre and lead to the development of theatre art in the Russian province.

THE ORIGINS OF PERSIANA IN RUSSIAN MUSIC: ONCE AGAIN ABOUT THE PERSIAN CHORUS FROM OPERA "RUSLAN AND LYUDMILA"
M.N. Drozhzhina
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-4.2-113-124
Abstract:

This article presents an attempt of retrospective excursus done through analyzing the causality between events and artifacts concentrated around the known fact – i.e. using the authentic Eastern (Oriental) melody in the Persian chorus from "Ruslan and Lyudmila" opera by M.I. Glinka. Their blending in a single chain contributed to identifying and comprehending the circumstances and historical-cultural context that predefined emergence of domestic musical Persiana - the phenomenon almost unexplored hitherto. Diaries analysis of the composer's contemporaries, as well as that of memoirs literature, revealed that "interest group" of M. I. Glinka included both Russians who were visiting Iran (Ambassador A. S. Griboyedov; traveler and the author of "Journey to Persia" treatise, prince A. Saltykov etc.) and direct representatives of Persian culture. Among them was the university professor M. J. Topchibashev (who formerly taught him the Persian language) and participants of the Apology mission of the crown prince Hosrov-Mirza sent by the Iranian Shah in connection with murder of the Russian ambassador Alexander Griboyedov. Archival documents showed that the mission included such highly educated people as the poet Fahil-khan Sheida who later adopted Russian citizenship, and Mustafa Afshar - a connoisseur of Russian culture, fluent in the language. Study of documents and researches dedicated to this mission enabled to assume the name of the prince’s secretary who initiated M. I. Glinka in the chorus’s melody and, accordingly, in the national origin of this tune. However, it requires confirmation with the aid of further research. As a result, on different levels – the personal one (the composer’s success in studying Persian language, communication with its native speakers and connoisseurs of culture), the social one (conditioned by mutual relations of Russia and Persia/Iran), the advantage of the "Persian version" (marching melody) is cleared out in defining the original source, along with identity of the person who has sung this melody to the composer. The article shows that additional argument in favor of this march version might be the relatively similar marching theme in "Persian March" by Johann Strauss. A great many details drawn from non-musicological sources made it possible to grasp the idea of "Persian context" presence in Glinka’s life, thus aiding to form interest to the Persian culture. Thus, the "Persian chorus" can be described as a reference point in establishing the domestic musical Persiana– the phenomenon having in its basis the respective socio-cultural context augmented by competence of its initiator.

ABOUT MARGARET P. OZHIGOVA
Nadezhda Pokrovskaya
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-4.2-98-112
Abstract:

  In the article the author makes an attempt to close one of the "white spots" in the history of Novosibirsk Opera Theatre. Materials gathered for this purpose were the documents from the archives of the Novosibirsk Region and the Novosibirsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Using rare publications, memoirs of the People's Artist of Russia Zinaida Didenko as well as personal memoirs the author managed to recreate several scenes from the life of the outstanding figure of musical culture of the XX century, Honored Artist of Russia, laureate of the Stalin Prize, Chief Director of NSATOB Margaret Ozhigova. The years of her studies at the Petrograd Conservatory are associated with the names of A. Glazunov, D. Shostakovich, G. Rimsky-Korsakov, N. Malakhovski, I. Musin, N. Amosova and the forgotten history of the Society of quarter-tone music. After graduating from the Conservatory in three specialties as a harpist, a composer and a director of a musical theatre M. P. Ozhigova (from 1941 to 1945) served as a soldier of the Red Army during the Leningrad blockade. She introduced Stanislavsky principles into the system of work with the actors being a director at the Opera theatres of Saratov, Novosibirsk, Ivanovo. The same principles of work according to the Stanislavsky system she applied working with young singers of the Opera Studios at the music universities of Kazan, Gorky and Rostov-on-Don. The article presents documentary evidence of obstruction towards M. P. Ozhigova, which she experienced at that time at the Novosibirsk Opera Theatre and which forced her to leave the theatre.

THE KNIGHTLY IDEAL OF N.A. BERDYAEV IN HIS BOOK "NEW RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS AND SOCIETY"
Vladimir Boyko
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-3.2-94-107
Abstract:

In the publications of 1904-1907 N. Berdyaev traced two lines of knighthood’s idealization: the embodiment of medieval mystical Christianity’s depth and the noble human type. In his book “New Religious Consciousness and Society” (1907) he added the third line, which is formed on the basis of the first two and it portrays the knight as an attractive example of overcoming a self-sufficing, depersonalized, godless state. The main theme of the book is the necessity to update Christianity and all parts of public life. Religious revival, according to Berdyaev, can be connected only with the development of a person. In the modern world the false hierarchy of values is dominating: subjective interests, relative willpower of a person forces out the higher unconditional values connected with the universal objective God’s will. The state serves as an expression of subjective human will, a product of the boundless enslaving power of one person over another. N.A. Berdyaev recognizes free theocracy as an ideal, the only morally justified form of the state. He sees an alternative to the modern false theocracy in the system of values of medieval culture - anarchical principles of feudalism and the personal knightly honor. The Russian philosopher correlates the knightly ideal of the Middle Ages with the modern epoch and convinces a reader of the necessity of its actualization. New forms of organization of public life assume a knightly war for the liberation of a person, including the liberation from violence of the state. Speaking about the mutual relationship between the individual and the state, Berdyaev joins the internal polemic with Slavophiles. He formulated his position on this question earlier, in the articles of 1903-1904. Berdyaev rejects the Slavophile idyll of the former Russia. Greatness and individuality of the nation presupposes freedom of a human being, the national spirit manifests itself not in the solution of the state problems, but in creative realization of universal tasks, common to the whole mankind.

THE PROBLEMS OF FORMING ENGINEER’S PERSONALITY CULTURE AS THE BASIS OF HIS PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
I.A. Fedoseeva,  Yu.V. Veselova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-3.2-108-116
Abstract:

The aim of the work is to identify the problems of the formation of engineer's culture in the system of higher education. Proceeding from the key role of social education in the development of culture, the authors analyze the state of contemporary Russian education, relying on the opinions of many academic educators. Basing on the conducted analysis, the authors draw a conclusion about the need for social and moral education of students, in particular, future engineers, in the process of their professional training. The authors substantiate the proposition that the basis of the professional ethics of an engineer is high culture of an individual, which must be formed at all levels of education. The concepts of the general culture of an individual and the professional culture of an engineer are correlated. The authors present the characteristic of the engineer's personality culture in the context of the new standard of education. It is indicated that the competence approach is fundamental in the formation of a technical college of engineering specialties graduate. The article also reveals the shortcomings of this approach; the main ones are the narrow specialization of a modern graduate of a higher education institution and one-sidedness of his education. It is pointed out that it is necessary to form such qualities of the future engineer as initiative and responsibility. The article analyzes the students opinions about the ethics of an engineer, the most part of students agree that the ethics of an engineer assumes responsibility to the society for the results of their activities. The article analyzes two main approaches to modern education. At the heart of the first is the formation of professional competencies, the basis of the second is the primacy in the formation of the person’s spiritual values. Moreover, the latter implies an organic integration of the competence approach and the traditional cognitive approach to the culture-centricity of vocational education, in the process of which spiritual, aesthetic, social, ecological and political development of the personality takes place. The basis of this approach should be a set of fundamental concepts of general and professional culture, based on national culture. Cultural-centric approach allows you to approach professional training in a comprehensive, systematic, holistic manner, which is a necessary condition for the formation of a future engineer's culture.

AESTHETICS OF ADAMISM: THE LYRICS OF M. ZENKEVICH, 1910
Elena Tyryshkina,  P.A. Chesnyalis
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-3.2-117-131
Abstract:

The article examines how the program of acmeism, proclaimed in the manifestos of N. Gumilev, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, finds its practical embodiment in the early lyrics of M. Zenkevich, the representative of Adamism - the "left wing" of this poetic school. Adamism is characterized by a radical follow-up to the manifestos of N. Gumilev, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, which emphasizes the need for aesthetic mastering of the earthly, material, objective world as opposed to the symbolist slogans of theurgy. M. Zenkevich "brings to the scene" a new hero, reflecting on his place in the universe, his nature - in the unity of the carnal / animal and spiritual. The task of "making peace in the whole aggregate of beauties and disgraces" set by the Acmeists in the work of M. Zenkevich does not receive practical implementation. In the collection "Wild Porphyry" nature appears as a unity of "earthly and mystical", unknowable and beyond the control of man. But to adopt its laws, where "equilibrium" is achieved through the rotation of infinite destruction and creation, would mean for the lyrical subject "dissolution in matter", the loss of subjectivity. In the second book "Under the Meat Purple" nature as the creative absolute is almost not paid attention. The same problem of natural and super-natural gets an aesthetic embodiment at the level of the microcosm, where man and woman are dual beings: "animal" nature is manifested in the erotic instincts of the first and - the physical perfection and cruelty of the second. In this case, the woman is a sacred creature (like nature in the «Wild Porphyry»), the earthly and mystical in it are merged together, and the man is sacrificed under the sign of death, sacrificing himself. But even in these "personified" models there is obviously a disequilibrium of "earthly and mystical": a woman is partly defective as a natural being (she is barren), and a man is doomed to die in the name of Eternal Femininity. At the same time, in the lyrics of M. Zenkevich, in the 1910s, the appearance of a new hero, "the coming Apollo," a human machine civilization free from natural determinism, begins to form. Thus, there is a rapprochement with the aesthetics of the avant-garde, where the subject challenges both nature and God, usurping the right of creation.

AESTHETIC ASPECT OF THE TRANSFORMING FUNCTION OF MUSIC
Mikhail Karpychev
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-1.2-133-145
Abstract:

The article continues the earlier begun research in «Ideas and Ideals» (№ 19, 21, 23, 27). Now the author examines the aesthetic aspect of the function. The particularity of its study is to define the object of the transforming process, not the logic mechanism of action (like in other aspects). The object is music taste. Transforming of music taste implies the development of abilities to understand and to value the beauty in music. It is absolutely possible, Russian scientists have proved this thesis. Transforming goes either individually or with the help of more effective social means (enlightenment, education and mass media). The aesthetic aspect includes two subaspects – aesthetic (referring to music itself) and aesthetizing, which means “working” for the final purpose – to lead people to the world of Beauty through music taste development. Understanding of beauty in music morally transforms a man, who is perfecting the surrounding life. “Beauty will save the world” (Dostoyevsky). Aesthetizing subaspect is close to the ethical one – vectors of their functioning are parallel. Aesthetic subaspect represents the unity of means and purpose. The actions of two subaspects may be simultaneous and separate. In the final part of the article the author sums up the results of the research of the music transforming functions.

IMAGE OF AN ARTIST IN WEST EUROPEAN ROMANTIC ART: ON THE PROBLEM OF GENIUS
A.P. Aymakanova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2017-1.2-146-158
Abstract:

The XIX century is an era that gave birth to Genius not without a reason and praised him not without an intent. The article studies the phenomenon of Genius from the moment of formation and to the apotheosis point in Nietzsche’s works, he achieved in less than a hundred years.A starting point, is considered to be the aesthetic positions of Sturm and Drang era which signified artists’ interest to the human person and determined the difference of all 19-th century between ordinary people and chosen ones. The elite were seemed to be conducted by Christ’s prototype who was overestimated as a Genius living personification that is God’s and a person’s Oneness, or more precisely as a charismatic person. Finally, the Genius as the art creator and greatness as His representing point were “crowned” in Nietzsche’s philosophy, who raised up the Genius to the rank of a Superman. Christ’s prototype was rejected, God died and incarnated in the idea of a Superman. The Superman’s features which were endued by Nietzsche made Him just the idea which is incapable to exist in the real form of a specific person.
For this reason the Genius in Nietzsche’s philosophy transformed steadily into mythologem of his time.

ON NON-CLASSICAL VECTOR OF SERCHES IN MUSIC OF THE XX-XXI CENTURIES
G.A. Demeshko
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-3.2-127-136
Abstract:

  The article studies cultural processes of immense complexity at the turn of the millennium on the example of academic musical practice. In Western philosophy this period is specifically described as 'a farewell to the era of New time'. The author emphasizes the dominant character of shocks and losses in modern culture and scarceness of positive, creative tendencies. In artwork it has resulted into open rejection of the foregoing tradition, at the basis of which there is an understanding of discrepancy between the traditional conceptual and technical framework and the demands of the modern age. In the article the author attempts to single out, describe and evaluate a positive vector of searches in the sphere of musical art, confronting powerfully destructive tendencies of the era. It is shown that this vector appears at the intersection of mythological and reflective impulses of modern cultural self-consciousness. The author shows how close it is towards the phenomenon of 'non-classical rationalism' (M. Mamardashvili's term) and, basing on the concept of 'new mythologem', analyses the process of formation of adequate tools in art. Finally, on the example of different genre layers (symphony and 'new ritual') the non-classical patterns of the newest academic music are demonstrated. The article defines the essence of the 'new mythologem' as a special testing of classical rationalism by a new myth giving a new aesthetic result. The variants of its artistic repetition unfold in different genre conditions. Kancheli's Symphony No. 4 is a mythopoetic allegorical novel containing genetic memory of classical drama-symphony in its 'intonational consciousness'. A different algorithm of mythologem connected to the author's understanding of a ritual element is formed in the scores of the 'new ritual' dramas. As a result, two modes of mixing modernization and archaization become apparent; they are: archaic modern (symphony) and modern archaics ('new ritual').

MONGOLIAN DOCTRINE ARGA BILIG: CULTUROLOGICAL POTENTIAL AND THE FOUNDATION FOR THE WORKS OF ART ANALYSIS
S.M. Belokurova,  M.Yu. Shishin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-3.2-137-146
Abstract:

The authors present the main statements of the original Mongolian religious and philosophical doctrine – Аrga bilig, which means the unity of two opposites. This doctrine is considered as the culture constant. The authors analyse the Mongolian fine-art works on the basis of Arga bilig. The article substantiates the hypothesis of the universal character of the doctrine for the world view of Mongolians. The analysis and interpretations are made on the basis of works of art.