Ideas and Ideals

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.

  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 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 article is devoted to the phenomenon of political power as it is depicted in the artistic world of Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov”. The concept of Tzar Boris is analyzed in the context of contemporary view on the nature of power elaborated by Eugen Fink. The author of the article focuses on the dialogue of historical truth and artistic credibility. The article shows that the complexity of Godunov’s character gives way to a wide range of interpretations in nowadays theatre and movies. Boris Godunov is comprehended by stage directors as the “actor” (acting subject) of modernity capable to struggle through the problematic current reality. In addition to the problems of the relationship between power and an individual, the authorities and the people in Boris Godunov, the author raises the most important topic of relations between Russia and the West. The author draws attention to the most famous performance of "Boris Godunov" in new Russia, the play, staged in 2000 by the British producer of Irish descent, Declan Donnellan, and expresses the opinion that this very performance solves the problem in the context of the "unhealed present" at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The study is addressed to theatre professionals, philologists, specialists in cultural studies and aesthetics, cultural scientists and educators.

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.

How to express inexpressibly complicated things in a simple way? In order to find the answer to this question, Art always comes up with the only solution, which means modifying its own expressional vocabulary, to alter and renew the language. As a rule, the reaction of the perceptive audience, rigidly philistine in the most cases, was stigma of the new art principles, its apologists and creators. In the 19th century, there was an opposing reciprocal reaction on the part of the artists, which manifested in the image of the unappreciated genius and his proclamation of the Art of future whereas sublimation of the genius phenomenon transformed from the concrete personality into abstract principles. They are often expressed in the characters’ names, and even through the names of mythological Gods which seemed to be so symbolic and collective that the process of their complete transformation is hidden behind each of them. This process has already become common practice in art, for instance, as it was in Franz Liszt’s demonic imagery.

The current article says that transference and entrenchment of information in the space and time is possible due to the appearance of a written language. A text is characterized by the function of memory, because it is not only a generator of new meanings, but it is also a guide of cultural memory. A written language can store and accumulate reminiscences about preceding contexts. Speaking about reminiscences of a text we should note that a text becomes meaningful. Such meaningful text enters into relations with cultural tradition (or cultural remembrance), which is born in mind of addressees. Texts which store cultural activity include the ability to condense the information, formulated differently; the ability of storing historical and cultural remembrances appear in such texts. Hence texts, which are transferred from one generation to another through centuries, don’t lose the information.  This paper is devoted to the principles of replication of cultural information. In culture this task is performed by units of cultural information – memes. Mutations of memes are presented as transformation formulae. The current article deals with aspects of preserving non-genetic data. The subject of analysis is formulae and clichés of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Bible. The development of linguistic formulae is under scrutiny. The main types of transformation of formulae and clichés are defined. Different variants of formulae are given; they are registered on the basis of the Bible. The author describes four main types of transformations of formulae phrases, which demonstrate development of relations in the culture. These four main types are: type “A” which is reframing of conventional formulae; type “Б” which is lexical substitution of a key-term; type “B” which is production of new combinations and forms with new semantic structure, type “Г” is a description with substitution of a lexeme in the context of a formula, which denotes different events. The author demonstrates that formulae deal with innovative descriptions which are characterized with more detalization. Consequently, growth of information is described.

This is the first attempt ever made when the author investigates the culture of bell-ringing in orthodox Greece. The purpose of the work is to define the features of this tradition. The article considers the following issues: the types of the Greek bell architectural constructions, their bell arsenal, national specifics of bell-ringing, and the characteristics of the orthodox bell ringing. The Greek tradition was developing under the strong influence of the Byzantine empire with its periods of blossom and decline and then Greece was invaded by crusaders (and later by the Turks) and those invasions resulted in the great influence of the Catholic church. These events defined its national peculiarity. Turning to the post-Byzantine region broadens the geography of research to the new to the Russian campanology direction. The facts which had been earlier unknown were collected by the author of the article in his expeditions to Greece. The publication of these facts is a contribution into the research database. In the long run it will help to trace the signs of influence of the Byzantium culture on the art of the Russian bell-ringing.

The author considers spatial forms of everyday culture of Siberian merchants. The aim of the article is to show the possibility of applying research tools of environmental approach in cultural studies. The article is based on the materials of investigations of the Russian urbanists, historians of architecture and design, art and cultural studies, as well as photographs, which preserved the image of Siberian trade arcades. The author analyzes the shopping passages in Siberia from the point of view of urban interior categories. Passages vertically stood out from the surrounding buildings of commercial organizations. They dominated other buildings in size and architectural design. The formation of the visual image of the passage as a special space contributed to the architecture of the building, and the angular accents of the main entrance, and substantive design of urban parterre. The interior method was used to create the atmosphere of homelike place. The size of the windows corresponded to the size of the flight of the building, that created the image of arcades. Different signs in the form of labels, names and emblems of small shops shaped the perception of a definite business establishment in its integrity. Thus, shopping arcades of Siberian merchants in the context of cultural studies are treated not just as a professional space, but also as an open space for buyers, their everyday interactions in the structure of everyday routine of the Siberian merchants, where there was space for a merchant city, merchant's house etc.

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.