The article draws attention to one of the brightest pages in the history of the musical life of Krasnoyarsk during the Great Patriotic War. It is connected with the activities of the Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa opera theatres evacuated to the Siberian city (from September 1941 to June 1944). Based on the available archival materials and publications in the newspaper “Krasnoyarsk Worker”, the author recreates the repertoire poster for three war seasons, provides fragments of reviews characterizing the productions, focuses on the most significant creative personalities, including the director M.P. Stefanovich, conductors L.I. Giskin and I.S. Shteiman, leading soloists O.I. Blagovidova, S.M. Tukhner, A.F. Krivcheni and others. An analysis of the announcements published in the newspaper revealed the active participation of musicians from the United Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre in the musical life of Krasnoyarsk, performing not only on the stage of the A.S. Pushkin Drama Theatre (520 performances during the entire period of stay), but also in hospitals, military units, industrial enterprises and collective farms (1800 concerts!). An important result after the departure of the theatres was the opening of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Operetta Theatre in November 1944.

On the basis of the corpus of materials of the authoritative journal Musical Academy for the period from 1993 to 2003, the creative activity of representatives of one of the leading Russian schools of composition – the St.Petersburg school – is analyzed. The impulse for the study was an interview with two St. Petersburg composers, G. Banshchikov and S. Banevich, published in the journal in 1995, in which both authors demonstrated a rather disparate understanding of the peculiarities of their school. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to study the genre and stylistic specifics of St. Petersburg composers’ work in the paradigm of «traditioninnovation» in the receptive field of the journal at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries. For its realization selected informational and analytical publications about A. Petrov and B. Tishchenko, as heirs of the Shostakovich school, and S. Slonimsky, whose creative aspirations are in many ways closely related to the «Russian Five». Ultimately, it was concluded: St Petersburg composers whose music is characterized by “structure”, “logic” and “selectivity” in the choice of means of musical expression continue to develop the great traditions they have inherited, but they do so on a qualitatively new level, thus choosing the intensive path of innovation.

The article is devoted to the consideration of auditoryvisual synesthesia in programmatic romantic music. The appeal to the musical art of the Romantic era from the point of view of synesthesia is relevant and significant in connection with the interpretation of its deep meanings, the comprehension of the peculiarities of its perception, and the understanding of the specifics of the creative process of Romantic composers. The study is based on a comprehensive approach that combines the aspects of holistic and synesthetic methods, as well as the method of theoretical generalization and comparison. As shown in the article, at the phonological level, auditory­visual synesthesias in the program music of Romantic composers, being the expressors of the fi urative principle, simultaneously form the deep meanings of the musical text; at the intonational­dramaturgical and compositional level, they determine the nature of the interaction between such interdisciplinary aesthetic features as musicality, pictoriality, theatricality, poeticism, and poem­like qualities, which determine the features of the musical form and the logic of its intonational­semantic development.

This article is devoted to the topic of minimalism as a musical style and the problems of identifying its distinctive characteristics. Finding in history many examples of works using techniques similar to minimalist music, not all of them can be even indirectly attributed to this direction. Despite this, some of them became the forerunners of the emergence of minimalism in music. An important component of the work is the definition of difficulties in identifying patterns between the compositional parameters of a work and its belonging to the minimalist style, which becomes most obvious when considering specific examples and their historical context. The phenomenon of minimalism as a direction in music is its conceptual component, namely, working with time and movement within a musical work.

The article is devoted to the issues of musical and non­musical content in the composition for solo cello and string orchestra “The Protecting Veil” (1987) by John Tavener (1944–2013). The creation of the composer’s work was inspired by the Orthodox feast of the Intercession. It is based on the legend of the appearance of the Mother of God, who saved the Greeks from the Saracen invasion in Constantinople in the tenth century. A religious miracle prompted J. Taverner painted a grandiose eight–part fresco related to the life of the Virgin Mary – from the Nativity to the Assumption. The timbre personification of the main iconographic figure of the play was the cello, which is a soloist throughout the composition. The accompanying stringed instruments are considered by the author as a continuation of her “endless song”. In Russian and foreign musicology, the “The Protecting Veil” by John Tavener had not previously been considered in detail, which predetermined the relevance of the presented topic. The purpose of the article is to trace the embodiment of sacred content in the musical text of the composition at different levels – figuratively­emotionally, compositionally­dramaturgically, stylistically­linguistically, spatiotemporally. The composer called “The Protecting Veil” a “lyrical ikon”, continuing his series of “sound icons” (the original type of composition in the work of J. Tavener, which is directly related to the concept of an icon and is characterized by a religious mode of content, is the result of many years of spiritual search by the musician). The study showed that the composition reflected the characteristic features of this type of composition: reliance on the traditions of Byzantine hymnography, symbolism of thought (timbre, spatial, numerical), the branded principle of composition, methods of rehearsal technique, symmetry of the structure of themes, appeal to medieval­Renaissance polyphonic techniques of organizing the material, ecstasy of images, genre. The drama of the cycle is based on a contrasting juxtaposition of musical images of the Virgin Mary, the suffering Mother, and the Queen of Heaven, through the prism of which the main evangelical events take place.

The research problems of the article are related to the study of fractals as one of the types of mathematical structures and their individual “composer reading” in music. The article provides an overview of scientific research sources devoted to the study of fractals in various forms of art and literature. In more detail, we are talking about the scientific literature, in which the patterns of fractal structures are considered in the projection on musical art, a proprietary classification of fractals in music is proposed. The author focuses on the principle of self–similarity, which most vividly reveals the patterns of fractals in chamber­instrumental compositions by composers of the XX–XXI centuries – D. Ligeti, P. Nergor, Cormann, A. Key. In the process of implementing the principle of self­similarity, the role of repetition in music (accurate or varied) is emphasized, which is manifested in various parameters of the organization of musical material: pitch, composition technique, principles of development and shaping. The research methodology is based on scientific works dealing with the embodiment of fractals in a work of art. A. Dukhno, Ye. Nikolaeva, Yu. Kirbaba, Yu. Dmitryukova), composition techniques in music of the XX–XXI centuries (S. Kurbatskaya, T. Frantova), features of shaping and dramaturgy (V. Kholopova, V. Zaderatsky).

The article explores the interaction between academic and mass musical art in the vocal cycle “Death Speaks” by contemporary American composer David Lang (b. 1957). In this work, Lang continues the trend of interpenetration between these two spheres, a tendency inherited from his older minimalist contemporaries (Reich, Glass). The interaction between academic and mass stylistic strata occurs on multiple levels. On the verbal level, the German Romantic poetry of Schubert’s songs (Goethe, Heine, Muller, and others) is presented in the composer’s own English translation, in a simplified and condensed form, making it more accessible to a wider audience. On the musical language level, the work incorporates repetitive techniques of minimalism (combinatorics, phase shift, augmentation), which appear in both academic compositions and rock music. On the performing ensemble level, the crossover ensemble blurs the boundaries between stylistic strata, (professional musicians who have gained popularity as rock performers – Shara Worden, Owen Pallett, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner) and integrates elements of rock culture (electric guitar, drums, and performer versatility). The composer reveals the existential theme of death, which resonates across various cultural strata. A shared approach to the organization of musical material in indie rock (post-rock, according to A.U. Slobodchikova) and postminimalism has been identified: diatonica, repetitive compositional techniques, polyphonization of musical texture, and immersion in a single emotional state.

The article is devoted to the work of the contemporary Chinese-American composer Liang Lei (born in 1972). In his works, he turned to the centuries-old traditions of Chinese culture, primarily to the visual arts of calligraphy and painting. Using the example of his instrumental opuses “Aural Hypotheses” (2010) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and vibraphone, and the Concerto for Harp and Chamber Orchestra (2008), the process of refraction of the characteristic features of Chinese calligraphy and painting guohua in the musical fabric is considered. It is realized at the level of writing styles (shoujin, kuangcao), in working with the empty space of the white sheet of paper feibai, techniques of applying ink to paper, and the use of different types of ink consistency. In the process of comparative analysis it was established that for artistically convincing embodiment of the features of calligraphy and painting Liang Lei turned to a wide range of techniques of avant-garde methods of composition – micropolyphonic and pointillistic texture, limited aleatoric, repetitive technique, sonoristics, techniques of extended piano and genre elements of instrumental theater. Thus, the composer combined ancient traditions of Chinese calligraphic art with modern Western means of musical expression.

The woodcarving of Huizhou District represents a unique phenomenon in Chinese folk architecture, reflecting the historical, socio-economic, geographical, and cultural characteristics of wood decoration development. This article examines the traditional woodcarving of Huizhou District, located in the southeastern part of Anhui Province. It analyzes the decorative styles of woodcarving, explores its genre and aesthetic features, and investigates its distinctive characteristics, such as narrative diversity, symbolism, allegory, technical mastery, intricate detailing, and the harmony between utility and ornamentation. The traditional residential houses of Huizhou, as outstanding examples of Chinese wooden architecture, serve as a focal point for studying woodcarving, which plays a key artistic and symbolic role. The decoration of these structures embodies centuries-old traditions, the craftsmanship of artisans, and the cultural values of the region, showcasing essential elements of decorative and applied arts: key ornamental motifs, carving techniques, and their artistic and historical significance.

The purpose of this article is to identify specific features in the illustrations of Russian artists of the late twentieth century to the literary works of China. The relevance and novelty of the work is determined by the fact that the chosen angle has not yet received any understanding in Russian art history. As a result of the study, a conclusion was made about the organic synthesis of the traditions of the culture of the Middle Kingdom and the main trends in the development of modern Russian illustration. Among the features of the work of illustrators are such as: individual interpretation of images in accordance with the author’s ideas about the culture, life and nature of China, the correlation of national fine art and Western movements, the influence of animation techniques, Chinese traditional painting and graphics, an emphasis on the image of the inner world of characters, as a marker reflecting the semantic aspects of the content of literary works.

The article is dedicated to the work of the outstanding Chinese artist Tang Hui (born 1968), whose work has received recognition far beyond the borders of the country. The author’s focus is on the painting “A Strike in Space and Time” (1991), which has become a kind of manifesto of the master’s artistic worldview and ideological and aesthetic attitudes on the “polyphonic” art scene of China at that time. As the study showed, Tang Hui, whose formation took place during the New Wave 85 period, not only absorbed the key conceptual ideas of this movement, but also actively rethought the boundaries of the artistic language in a new cultural context. In the context of the radical transformation of the Chinese art scene of the 1980s. Tang Hui built his own creative trajectory. His artistic method is an original synthesis of Western and Chinese artistic codes. The results of the study not only fill the existing gaps in Russian art history, but also open up prospects in the further development of the problem of cultural dialogue between the West and the East, as well as issues of the national identity of modern painting in China.

In the 21st century, the art of watercolour painting in China entered a new historical phase, marked by the work of many talented artists, among whom the figure of Zhou Gang stands out – a artist who has not yet attracted the attention of Russian scholars. The article, relying on historical-cultural, iconological, and formal-stylistic methods, analyses paintings from the series “Miner Portraits”, in which the ideological and creative principles of the Chinese master are most fully embodied. The study of his works allows for a better understanding of the processes taking place in China’s contemporary art scene and helps trace the development of watercolor painting in the context of the globalization of art. It is shown that the talented artist and educator Zhou Gang made a significant contribution to the reform of watercolour techniques. In his search for a personal style, he deeply reflected on the ways of expressing artistic individuality. His credo – “local realism” – has become the most important distinguishing feature of his work, where social themes occupy a leading place. Zhou Gang combines heterogeneous artistic elements and motifs, imbuing his works with his feelings and emotions: empathy and love for ordinary people, and a reverent attitude towards everyday life. His works are imbued with a vivid spirit of “neo-realism”, yet they are also marked by a synthesis of Western and national traditions in the formation of a distinctive creative style.