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.

EURASIAN MOTIVES IN THE NOVEL ‘WHAT IS TO BE DONE?’ BY N.G. CHERNYSHEVSKY
Igor Likhomanov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.2-51-65
Abstract:

Representatives of the Russian Neo-Eurasianism, trying to root this intellectual tradition, turned to the identification and analysis of the Eurasian motives in the Russian classical literature of XIX century. This research assumes the presence of the structural components in literary texts that correspond to the Eurasian vision of Russia as the "Middle World" in the East-West dichotomy. The author of the article, using the method of structural analysis, reveals the presence of such components in Nikolai Chernyshevsky novel "What Is to Be Done?" One of them is represented in the structural core of the novel in the form of clear anthropological oppositions using two narrative functions: appearance and character (temperament) of the heroes. Another component is Rakhmetov, one of the main characters of the novel. The author comes to the conclusion that Rakhmetov is the first image of a Eurasian in Russian literature. At the same time, the ideology of this image, imposed to the reader by the author, appears to be inconsistent with the art material used for its construction.This is due to the fact that Chernyshevsky himself was not a Eurasian, he was a typical Westerner, who believed that oriental components in Russian culture hinder the development of Russia and they have to be suppressed.

PRINCIPLES OF “AESTHETIC GAME” AND THE ARTEFACT IN THE TEXTS OF OSCAR WILDE
N.Yu. Bartosh
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-4.2-132-145
Abstract:

The main scope of this study is the metamorphosis of the set of objects into the set of symbols in fine arts and literature of Art Nouveau. This article overviews the use of artifacts in the literature of Art Nouveau, in particular, in critical essays and literary works by Oscar Wilde. The study intends to elucidate why the process of “sacralization” of beauty expressed in specific artifacts is reflected in the literature of Art Nouveau in the form of “aesthetic game.” The main objectives of this study are: to provide a brief background behind the emergence of “neomythological” aspirations in the culture of Art Nouveau, to show how the pursuit of aestheticizing life and turning it into art leads to destruction of traditional boundaries of the aesthetic space, since canons and rules of high creative art are being transferred to everyday objects, to identify the main principles of the “aesthetic game” in the literary texts of Art Nouveau, and to explain how the “destruction” of the artifact, that is, the transition from describing a real thing to the emblem-symbol which expands the semantic boundaries of artistic space, occurs in the literature of Art Nouveau. The article provides a brief overview of the aesthetic movement in England in the context of the general development of European “panaesteticism.” The author shows how the cult of beautiful things constitutes the basis of the worldview of Art Nouveau and results in the desire of writers and artists to endow everyday objects with aesthetic functions. The majority of the writers and artists, striving to rich “aesthetic autocracy,” created the space (of text, canvas, or real room), which was oversaturated with the description of beautiful things. Such space very quickly begins to be perceived as aestheticized banality. Objects of everyday life, perceived as the objects of art overwhelm not only the real space, but also the artistic space. Their ekphrasis becomes an important part of the literary text. The literature of Art Nouveau quickly came to exhaustion of the expressive capacities of such an ekphrasis which was based on the external quality of things. The example of J.-K. Huysmans can be a good illustration of this point. Oscar Wilde was one of the few writers of Art Nouveau who continued to provoke a continuous interest on the part of the following generations. Considering himself to be a disciple of Huysmans, Oscar Wilde also gave great importance to describing things, but at the same time he insisted on the fundamental importance of the symbolic (secret, profound) meaning, inherent in things. This is why the ekphrasis of Oscar Wilde does not lose its literary relevance, since in addition to aesthetic autocracy it is saturated with the interplay of various meanings of the thing, extending and deepening the artistic space of the text.

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.

THE ROLE OF M.V. VEREVKINA IN THE ARTISTIC LIFE OF ASCONA AND THE COLONY ‘MONTE VERITA’
Maria Oleynik
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-3.2-147-154
Abstract:

  A quiet town of Ascona, located on the shores of Lake Maggiore, became a place of concentration of public life in Switzerland in the late XIX-early XX centuries. The colony of vegetarians "Monte Verità" (“Hill of Truth”) studied and tested new philosophies, developing new special systems of dieting and physical exercises. Zurich artistic community concentrated in that very colony "Monte Verità" in Ascona at the end of the First World War. It was there in 1924, where an artistic association "Big Bear" was formed, which included seven artists: W. Helbig, O. Niemeyer, E. Frick, A. Kohler, G. McCoy, O. Rice and R. Zivald. The ideological leader of the group was Marianne Verevkina. She actively participated in exhibitions of “Big Bear” artists in Zurich, Lugano, Berlin. In Ascona M. Verevkina was the first director of the Museum of Modern Art. It was she who persuaded many artists to donate their paintings to the museum. Marianne Verevkina had a leading role in the cultural life of Ascona right up to 1938.

CATEGORY OF TIME IN THE POEM “DIONYSIACA” BY NONNUS OF PANOPOLIS
T.G. Putilina
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-2.2-43-51
Abstract:

The paper analyses how the set of images and events in the poem “Dionysiaca” by Nonnus of Panopolis reflects the ancient notion of time. The immortal gods of Olympus abide in eternity; however they have to reckon with the earth time and the order of things. Nevertheless, the time of the gods and the time of human beings are represented by different gods: Chronos and Aion, respectively. The original ancient gods, Phanes, Chaos, Chronos, can claim to be fully independent of the time of the mortal, and they abide in a sort of “timelessness” rather than eternity. Thus, there are three positions in relation to time: timelessness – complete independence from time of ancient gods, immortality, and eternity. At the same time, there is Olympic gods’ involvement in the earth time and complete subordination to the laws of the earth time on the part of the mortal. Dionysus is characterized by a spiral pattern of time. Zagreus, Dionysus, Iovakh are both a single whole and different. They are the past, the present and the future. Events in their lives are repeated, but not precisely. The above corresponds to the Platonic interpretation of time, and substantial similarity can be noticed.

1348 ST. BIRGITTA'S PEACE LETTERS
YA.V. Pershin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-2.2-52-61
Abstract:

The article analyses the text of the mystical «Revelations» of st. Birgitta and references to her “Revelations” in diplomatic correspondence during Hundred Years' War. In this text she calls on those warring parties for laying their arms down in the name of Jesus. The focus is on the argument in favor of the authenticity of the divine origin of the "Revelations" contained inside the text, and in external comments. These techniques of persuasion, as addressed to the recipient of the message, attempt to use conventional conceptions of established law. Based on a detailed analysis of how they were used, as well as how and why they were successful, we can reconstruct the role of religious elements in the legal and political relations of this era.

PHILOSOPHY IN THE FORMATION OF A PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN
Konstantin Kurlenya
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2016-2.1-81-101
Abstract:

The article studies topical problems of teaching philosophy at musical colleges. The author proves that the main goal for students of creative specialties to study philosophy is in offering a set of basic visions motivating to choose consciously the purpose of existence. The article consistently expands on issues of cognitive theory, ontology, sociology, axiology, aesthetics, and ethics, essential for the formation of a student’s personal and professional status. In modern conception of Russian higher education, the searches of new role and meaning of philosophy are far from being finished. The process of decreasing the subject’s teaching hours in college programmes is accompanied with students’ significant loss of interest in philosophical problematics. This drastically decreases both the learners’ general thinking culture and their inability to confront challenges of life concerning their personal identity and behaviour. The possibility to group the essential topics of European culture philosophical experience around the current aspects of a professional musician’s formation is one of the ways to increase the efficiency of teaching philosophy at a musical college.