The article examines the prerequisites and main stages of transplantation of the Russian funeral kontakion into church music in Great Britain. It was in this country that, beginning in the 19th century, a strong tradition was formed of including “With the Saints give rest” in the funeral and memorial rituals of the Church of England, as well as in the collections of songs called Hymnals. An important impetus for the introduction of this chant into the liturgical singing practice of Great Britain was the reverent attitude of Queen Victoria towards it and the activity of Sir William John Birkbeck, who was destined to become an apologist for Orthodoxy and a conductor of Russian culture. This tradition, which began in the Victorian era and successfully existed throughout the turbulent 20th century, remains reminiscent of itself today. The performance of the funeral kontakion during the burial ceremonies of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II was presented by the Russian media as a sensation. Our research shows that here we are not dealing with an extraordinary event, but with more than a century of sustainable practice, reflected in the works of composers of Foggy Albion.

The work of the Far Eastern composer A. V. Novikov reflected the change of neo-baroque. The purpose of this work is to study the genre, intonation-style, compositional features of his symphonic manifestations: the Concert “Viva la academia” and Concertino’s “Afterword”. The task of observation includes the assimilation of the Baroque tradition, the transformation of intonation, genre and compositional prototypes. The features of the refraction of musical rhetoric, genre and structural synthesis are revealed. The comparison showed that the expansion of the Baroque concert cycle to a single movement was accompanied by the inclusion of new forms. The outlines of the invention and concerto forms are individualized through the features of the crescendo and sonata forms, respectively. In the Concerto this leads to structural modification. In the vivid juxtaposition of Concertino’s affects, the logic of a fused suite and a French overture is visible, which is closer to the principle of compositional deconstruction. The reflection of the style of early music is felt in the introduction of modal patterns into the tonal and polyphonic context, which is complicated in the rethinking of the artist of the 20th century, as well as in concert techniques. The author’s interpretation of Baroque style recalls the reconstruction (Concerto) and deconstruction (Concertino) of the semantics of a bygone era, enriched with allusions to the monumental Handelian and Romantic style. The functions of ancient models, which interested the composer as a means of obtaining new trends in meaning formation, as an expression of the cult of innovation of the Baroque and modernity, in the presentation of A. Novikov are expanded and aimed at the goals of artistic communication of high art with the listener.

Observing the double and even triple circulation of many genres functioning in modern music – folklore, mass, academic (as happens, for example, with song), the article explores the genre of spiritual verse, which, historically, has realized the function of translating Christian ideas into accessible folk language. The author relies on quite numerous examples in the domestic mass culture (mainly related to the phenomenon of so-called Christian rock), in which songs of religious, spiritual and ethical content, although not called brass verses, but – in a reduced form – comply with many of the “laws” of the genre. In the works of Zh. Bichevskaya, Pelageya, V. Butusov, K. Kinchev, we find compositions in which aspiration to themes of the spiritual plane, non-worldly affairs of human existence, and a characteristic “dictionary” of motives can be traced. They are dominated by the features of epic or lyric poetry and reflect the complex, mutually influencing nature of church and secular culture.

The article is devoted to the piano works of one of the most complex and controversial composers of the late stage of Western European romanticism, Johannes Brahms. In his work, there is a paradoxical synthesis of academic traditions and new romantic trends. Performing and pedagogical practice should adequately respond to the correlation of the artistic image, technological fixation and the development of implementing techniques. Subject of study: features of style, which acquire the role of fundamental constants, allowing us to conclude that Brahms’ piano works are “non-pianistic”. In the course of the study, a holistic analysis technique was used, which includes consideration of various expressive means, diagnosing the inconsistency of their use. There are three main constants of piano creativity: orchestration, virtuosity and meditativeness. Different compositions of Brahms are used demonstratively: concertos, variations, intermezzos. Their features are revealed. The conclusions confirm the paradoxical nature of the Brahms style, the need for competent decoding of the musical text and possession of a wide palette of expressive means of the piano to display the analyzed constants.

The article is devoted to a new creative project of the Department of Music Theory and Composition of the D. Hvorostovsky State Pedagogical Institute – the All-Russian Olympiad in musical theoretical subjects “Musical Dimension”. The purpose of the article is to comprehend its results, which revealed a number of methodological problems, and to indicate the ways to solve them. The text of the work describes the form of the Olympiad and the conditions for completing tasks, describes the tasks themselves and the ways of evaluating them. The authors analyze the work of the participants in detail, noting both their positive sides and disadvantages. The teachers of the Department of Music Theory and Composition draw conclusions about how difficult certain tasks turned out to be for students, outline the overall picture of the quality of the work performed, and also give recommendations that will be useful to teachers of theoretical disciplines of music schools and colleges.

Consideration of the pedagogical heritage of Anatoly Markovich Znak, professor, head of the creative painting workshop of Krasnoyarsk State Institute of Arts, People’s Artist of Russia, is relevant not only to fill in the completeness of his creative biography, but also to develop the best traditions of art education at the present stage. The article traces for the first time the role of the academic tradition of teaching painting in Krasnoyarsk regional school. The importance of teacher-pupil communication in an individual approach is emphasized. The unique personal qualities of the artist-pedagogue are emphasized. The specifics of his methodological techniques are considered. The presented research is based on the author’s personal experience of communication with Anatoly Znak in the process of his teaching and on numerous memories of his students, who became the leading representatives of pictorial art in Siberia and Russia.

Chest production in Tyumen is one of the little-studied artistic phenomena, especially in the post-revolutionary period. This paper examines the history of one of the artels of that time – the labor artel «Sunduchnik », organized in 1918. The purpose of the article is a general description of the chest production in the artel “Sunduchnik” in the period 1918–1923, this is the time of activity of the artel. The range of tasks includes: the introduction of new information into scientific circulation and the analysis of specific works of art. The information from the State Archive of the Tyumen region was of decisive importance in the work. The paper provides information about the organization of production in the artel, its materials and techniques, analyzes specific items. A dictionary of artel employees is given as an appendix. It is concluded that the activities of the artel employees played an important role in the history of the Tyumen chest production. It became a link between private workshops and a furniture factory.

The article provides an artistic analysis of the creative works of the Simbirsk artist and teacher D. I. Arkhangelsky, determines the role of the rural landscape in his work. The prerequisites for choosing a plot and motive for works, working methods and artistic features of the artist’s visual language are revealed. As part of the study, the authors classify the artist’s creative heritage into several groups that allow for artistic analysis: watercolor and oil works (1900–1920); pencil graphics (1900–1920); black and white graphics (linocuts, ink, 1900–1920); watercolor works from the 1960s. The article provides personal memories of the artist, citing his letters and letters from his students, revealing the features of the worldview of the Simbirsk master. As the study showed, the rural theme in the artist’s work was one of the dominant ones for the creation of creative works by D. I. Arkhangelsky used techniques from new directions for his time, Russian impressionism and modernism, repeated the pictorial motif, revealing it from the points of view of historical and visual value, consciously abandoned staffage, worked mainly in watercolor and graphic techniques – pencil, ink, linocut.

The article presents the results of a scientific study of the portrait genre as a category of the theory of fine arts based on the analysis of existing concepts of the portrait genre and its typology in the history of aesthetics and philosophy. The problem of the study is the fragmentation of the research approach when determining the specifics of the concept of “portrait” as a category of the theory of fine arts. In this connection, the etymological meaning of the concept “portrait”, the content of the concept “portrait genre”, its specificity and purpose in the theory and history of fine arts were studied, and the correctness of naming a portrait was determined. The theoretical and methodological approaches for conducting the research were: dialectical laws and the theory of reflection by G.V.F. Hegel, the basic principles of the synthetic concept of the ideal D. V. Pivovarov, conceptual provisions of the theory of fine arts V. I. Zhukovsky and N. P. Koptseva.

The article proves, that the idea of transformation, the spiritual and moral dominant of Russian Orthodox culture, is most vividly reflected in the works of Russian literature and is the main one in the F. M. Dostoevsky’s story “The dream of a ridiculous man”. Approved that the providential dream in which a ridiculous man experiences the posthumous fate of a suicide (grave – hell), as well as a collision with the consequences of his own sinfulness (the fall of the heavenly planet through his fault) leads to the fact that the hero is mentally transformed, becomes an altruist and, striving to rise to the height of Christ (an allusion to the crucifixion), finds the meaning of life in preaching and active love. It is emphasized that the techniques of mirror composition contribute to the affirmation of the idea of transformation: 1. The plot about a ridiculous man who came to the good world and corrupted it by evil is mirrored in relation to the biblical plot about Christ who came to the evil world and saved it with goodness; 2. The plot about the altruistic world of another Earth, which subsequently fell, is mirrored in relation to the plot about a ridiculous man, evolving from egoism to altruism; 3. The plot about the stay of the egoist hero in the altruistic world of another Earth is mirrored in relation to the plot about the altruist hero in the egoistic world of our Earth. These compositional techniques help to understand that Dostoevsky reflected in this story the Christian understanding of the idea the man’s and world’s transformation: for the transformation of the world on Earth and its transformation into paradise it is necessary that all people be mentally transformed and elevated to altruism (become like Christ); the transformation of the human soul can occur only after the man realizes his own sinfulness, which should lead to repentance, humility and active service to God. The statement of the idea of transformation in this context proves that Dostoevsky was in the field of Russian Orthodox culture and reflected its mental characteristics.