The article draws attention to the peculiarities of the development of historical musicology at the modern phase. The author emphasizes that over the past three decades there have been significant changes that were caused by global socio-political changes at the turn of the 80-90s of the twentieth century. First of all, it is noted that the context within which the musical-historical process was recreated was subject to ideological correction during the Soviet period. Therefore, at the present stage there has been a deconstruction of the existing musicological picture of the world. Nevertheless, the foundation of historical musicology was laid by Soviet researchers, and their students continue to develop these traditions. The author points to the expansion of the historical and geographical horizons of musicological research, a change in their thematic map, perspectives and general issues, and a significant enrichment in the field of methodology of scientific work.

This article opens a series of publications devoted to the funeral kontakion “With the Saints give rest”, which was able to overcome the framework of Orthodox worship and integrate into the sphere of composer creativity as a Russian musical symbol of Death. The author considers it as an extremely important phenomenon of national culture. The article is the first in Russian musicology to systematizes and analyzes the almost two-hundred-year tradition of musical references to the melody “With the Saints give rest” of the Kiev chant, observed in the secular works of composers of the Russian school. Each of these quotes or allusions receives an original musical embodiment, acquiring different semantic shades. Some semantic aspects identified in the author’s interpretations were initially present in the funeral kontakion. Others, on the contrary, are the result of foreign cultural influence. The publication highlights the reasons that contributed to the actualization of composer’s interest in the melody “With the Saints give rest”. Among them: the death of a loved one, military events and other social upheavals, a premonition of the end of life’s journey and its comprehension in the late period of creativity.

This article examines one of the bright and original works of Rostislav Boyko – a cycle for a mixed a cappella choir “Winter Morning” to verses by A. S. Pushkin, in which the main features of the style of the talented Moscow master are reflected in a concentrated form: the subtlety and originality of the creative idea, the depth of thought, the significance of ideological concepts, always combined with the vivid figurative expressiveness of music. Based on the analysis of this work, the work highlights in detail such issues as the interpretation of the poetic text, the structural principles and interpretation of the musical form, the dramatic development of the choruses of the cycle and their dynamic profile, means of expression, in particular, the intonationmelodic and ladoharmonic language of the work, its textural organization. The author’s attention is also focused on identifying the distinctive features of the composer’s writing, his musical thinking, style and creative method.

The musical art of the Uzbek people related with the spiritual heritage of their ancestors. It forms an ideological and content side of the works of folklore and professional creativity (makoms, katta ashula, dastans) and compositions of modern authors. In this article, we considered several writings of different years, where the ideas of spiritual revival, moral and ethical improvement acquired a conceptual meaning. The comprehensive analysis of the musical works was revealed “external” signs of the ritual science occupy more important place then expressive side, because it is formed as a result of a religious action recreated on the stage. In the instrumental opuses, the emotional component of the ritual comes to the fore, reflecting the worldview and spiritual state of the participants. Thence we can note the difference in approaches to the implementation of ancient rites, renewal of the genre nature of instrumental compositions and strengthening theatrical features in them. Unifies of the whole opuses the appeal of composers to the history, traditions of their people indicative their cultural identity. This makes it possibility to preserve the spiritual connection between generations, not to interrupt the continuity of traditions, including in the field of the spiritual and moral development of society.

The article is in line with issues related to the visualization of non-stage music. The author focuses on the play “Adam’s passion” to the music of Arvo Pärt, staged in Tallinn in 2015 and dedicated to the composer’s 80th birthday. His idea was born in close creative collaboration with the American director Robert Wilson, whose productions from the late 1960s began to have a significant influence on the formation of the image of modern theater, attracting the attention of audiences around the world. He developed an individual and original style of his directorial vision, which is characteristic of all his theatrical works. This is determined by a special way of using light, relying on structures of simple movement and plasticity, classical rigor and laconicism of stage design. The article pays special attention to the personality of Robert Wilson and the study of the phenomena of visual and post-dramatic theater, in line with which theater scholars study his directorial style. It is emphasized that the production of “Adam’s passion” is a striking example of not only the visualization of a musical text not intended for stage execution, but also demonstrates the features of director Robert Wilson’s theater.

This article discusses one of the widely used instruments that in recent decades has become the world standard in the field of visual programming for creating works in various directions of electroacoustic music. Today, mastering Max/MSP/Jitter is a mandatory part of the educational programs of the largest centers of electroacoustic (akusmatic) music, sound design, music computer science, multimedia art, research and experimental studios of electronic music. The author provides a history of the development of this environment, the principles of its organization, and ways of applying it in practice. The article analyzes the features of Max/Msp/Jitter that allow musicians and multimedia artists to embody the boldest artistic intentions, creating works based on new compositional approaches such as stochastic processes, cellular automata, genetic algorithms, etc., using a wide range of means to embody their ideas. This includes synthesis and sound processing, working with video and images, 3D graphics, physical modeling, as well as various devices such as MIDI controllers, sensors, virtual reality systems, projection mapping, etc. The article provides examples of the application of Max/ Msp/Jitter by composers. The compositions of Pierre Boulez “Anthèmes 2”, Lamberto Coccioli “Touch”, Karlheinz Essl “Lexicon- Sonate” are considered.

This article is devoted to the creative activities of the Irkutsk journalist A.K. Bagashev (1916–1948), who in the military and the first post-war years published a lot of articles in the local press. Musical and stage art were the key topics of lighting. These spheres were well known to Bagashev. The journalist often wrote about the Irkutsk Theater of Musical Comedy. Critical articles, written by Bagashev, testify to the horizons and readability of the author. In addition to the professional literacy of this journalist, it is necessary to indicate the indisputable historical significance of his articles. Thanks to these materials, some of events in the Irkutsk musical life of the 1940s preserved for usin detailed descriptions.Thats why, his experience is very valuable today and can be used in the future.

The article is devoted to the consideration of the peculiarities of the formation of early musical and aesthetic education in Russia. Its relevance is due to the fact that this phenomenon has not yet received comprehensive coverage, and in this context, understanding the specifics of its development is certainly of great importance for musical science and musical pedagogy. The purpose of the work is to identify a number of stages in the development of musical and aesthetic education of preschoolers in our country and in determining the features of each of them. As it was possible to establish, it has its source in kindergartens of the late XIX century, in which the main attention was paid to singing. Important is the period of the first half of the 20th century, when the main provisions of the methodology of musical education of preschool children were formulated, which received their disclosure in the future. The result of this process was the appearance in our time of aesthetic departments at the Children’s Art School and Children’s Art School, based on an integrated approach to classes and a variety of subjects. The work presents the characteristics of each stage, gets coverage of the question of some methods of early musical and aesthetic education. The study of the principles of this phenomenon showed that it has its own specifics due to the psychological characteristics of preschool children, which are characterized by syncretism of consciousness, thinking and perception. That is why musical and aesthetic education, primarily aimed at comprehending the musical language, always relies on practical tasks that synthesize music with elements of other types of arts: plastic, movement, drawing, theatricalization.

The study of the musical traditions of East Asia since the beginning of the 80s of the last century has been included in the list of leading areas of scientific activity of the Department of Music Theory of the Far Eastern State Institute of Arts (Vladivostok). The accumulated knowledge and experience became the basis for many years of study of the musical writing of the countries of the Far East in the wide context of written hieroglyphic culture using a neurosemiotic approach. One of the results of the study was the development of the course “History of Notation”, in which a significant place is occupied by the study of traditional Eastern musical notography. The introduction of this material into the university course contributes to the understanding of the high artistic value of the musical culture of East Asia and the formation of ideas among students about traditional musical writing as the most important tool for preserving and relaying traditional cultural heritage.

 The work is devoted to the study of the issue of drawing attention to the world of wildlife through the art of oil painting. The special importance of detailing the skin of animals is emphasized, since this is one of the ways to achieve artistic bulge and vivacity of the animal image. The author means that increasing the detail of the skin significantly affects the realism and depth of the image, and, in turn, the visual perception. The work analyzed some existing approaches in the image of animals, allowing to identify their predominant features and disadvantages. The most effective techniques used to enhance expressiveness by detailing the skin are considered, demonstrating that their careful and systematic use in oil painting increases the level of artistic expression and creates the most memorable visual experience for viewers.

The article analyzes the forms of transmitting cultural values (meanings) through modern works of art. The novelty of the approach to an artistic product lies in the fact that it is studied both as a result of crosscultural communication and as a means of cultural tranfer. The author distinguish three modes of cultural transmission in the arts and define them as provocation, similarity, integration. Provocation implies that the artist shows interaction of values in different cultures focusing on their hostility and inconsistency. Similarity, on the contrary, is a form demonstrating closeness of meanings and search for common ground in the value systems of society. Integration is the third form, where the artwork expresses human values which are universal for all peoples: clean environment, safety, peace, health, freedom, justice, etc. This process does not always have positive connotations. A conflict of values may often indicate the ongoing process of accumulating and transmitting senses. It is concluded that, despite various forms of transmitting meanings, the arts are able to build cross-cultural communication between peoples due to their supranational, symbolic and universal language.