This article is devoted to the study of thematic processes in the early romances of S. V. Rachmaninov. The main attention is paid to three compositions: “At the Gates of the Holy Abode”, “Don’t Sing, Beauty, in My Presence” and “The Flower Has Withered”, which are distinguished by their thematic concentration, intonational versatility and internal eventfulness. As it turned out in the end of the study, the originality of the romance “At the Gates of the Holy Abode” lies in the presence in the piano introduction of thematic seeds with a certain semantics, which later sprout in both the vocal and instrumental parts, contributing to the embodiment of the multidimensional image of the suffering Lyrical Hero. The romance “Don’t Sing, Beauty, in My Presence” is considered as a dramatic scene where various figurative and intonational spheres interact. The miniature “The Withered Flower”, in which the musical fabric is organized on the basis of short, intonationally prominent and semantically independent motifs, approaching musical symbols, is regarded as an artistic discovery of the young author.

The article provides the first detailed analysis of the article by the outstanding 20th century pianist M. V. Yudina «Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky» (1969). Previously unpublished archival materials from the Yudina collection of the Russian State Library were used in the study. The idea is put forward that Yudina’s study was the first attempt to interpret the music of the cycle from a Christian perspective. This fact is noted as unique for Soviet musicology and art history in general. The article substantiates the methodological approach used by Yudina in interpreting a musical work, which we conditionally designate as the method of Christian semiology. It is based on the understanding of music as the embodied Logos of being, divine thought. It is revealed that when interpreting the symbolic plan of a musical work, Yudina relies on three main methods: the method of artistic synthesis, the method of typological exegesis and the Gospel commentary. The way in which each of them is implemented by Yudina in interpreting the pieces of the cycle is considered. An analysis of Yudin’s comments allows us to conclude that the compositional concept of Pictures at an Exhibition, as interpreted by the outstanding pianist and thinker, represents «death and resurrection» and covers the history of the world from the fall to the general resurrection. Yudina’s discovery of the gospel subtext of the cycle gives Mussorgsky’s work a new dimension and allows us to consider it as an integral part of the composer’s creative legacy, inextricably linked with the embodiment of fundamental Christian ideas.

The problem of the interaction of music and word in vocal works has always attracted many researchers, since the synthesis of two autonomous types of arts-music and poetry, in which each of these types exerts a figurative-emotional, intonational and compositional influence on each other, is of great interest. In this regard, an article dedicated to the choral cycle of the outstanding St. Petersburg composer, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Yuri Falik, is very relevant. In it, the author examines this composition from the point of view of the ratio of the musical and verbal series, analyzing the content, metrorhythmic organization, the form of the poetic text and identifying how these means of expression are embodied in music. In addition, the work emphasizes the idea of the originality of the artistic concept of the opus in question. Composer, turning to poems by different poets written in different years and even eras, taking into account textual features and connections, creates a cycle characterized by integrity and structural completeness, in which all parts are united by a common idea and have a through line of dramatic development. Such a creative approach to the literary and poetic source, his musical decision testifies to the skill and talent of its creator.

The object of research in the article is the dodecaphonic-sonoristic fantasy “Agnus Dei” by the St. Petersburg composer Sergey Ekimov. The piece was written in 2023 on the eve of Arnold Schoenberg’s 150th birthday. The authors focus on the genre-stylistic, linguistic, and compositional-technical features of the work, considered in the context of a dialogue with an Austrian master. The concept of the piece is interpreted as a transition from disharmony to harmony, from dodecaphony to tonality enriched with sonorous elements. The sound transformation caused by the movement from paraphony to euphony acquires a symbolic meaning within the framework of the memorial liturgical genre, while the metamorphosis of composition technique outlines the evolution of Schoenberg’s artistic thinking, who aspires to synthesize tonality and seriality in his later works. Conclusions are drawn about Ekimov’s non-dogmatic approach to dodecaphony, inspired by Schoenberg’s own free interpretation of the method.

The article is devoted to the study of the opera by the Chinese composer Tan Czyan’pin “The Dawns Here Are Quiet” (2015), created based on the famous Soviet story. The aim of this work is to analyze the deep integration of Russian musical elements into the score of a Chinese composer and to determine the artistic significance of this intercultural adaptation in the context of Chinese-Russian cultural dialogue. The relevance of the study is emphasized by the anniversary context of the production and the persistent interest in Russian culture in China. The methodology includes a detailed analysis of the opera’s musical score (leitmotifs, harmony, orchestration, vocal parts) and a study of Tan Czyan’pin’s authorial comments on the creative process, supplemented by critical reviews, including Russian ones. The results of the study demonstrate that Russian elements form the conceptual core of the work. The composer systematically uses characteristic techniques: the leitmotif of the accordion, stylization of the aesthetics of Russian classics (Tchaikovsky, “The Mighty Handful”), inclusion of Soviet war songs (“Hey, let’s go!”, “Kamarinskaya”, “Tropinka”, “Dorozhenka”, “Dubinushka”, “Katyusha”). These elements serve as a key instrument of musical dramaturgy: they reveal the characters’ personalities (the girls’ individualized arias, Vaskov’s monologue), enhance the emotional impact (the climax with Zhenya’s death) and form a lyrical-romantic structure against the backdrop of an epic military narrative. The analysis confirms the path of not mechanical borrowing, but deep creative stylization of Russian traditions. The main conclusion of the study is that Tan Czyan’pin’s opera is a successful example of cross-cultural synthesis. The recognition of the artistic merits of the music, noted by Russian critics, underlines the maturity of the composer’s approach. The work has become a significant event in Chinese musical theatre and a symbol of spiritual connection and mutual respect between the two cultures, demonstrating the potential for further deep creative interaction China and Russia.

The article is dedicated to the outstanding Austrian pianist and composer of the 19th century Sigismond Thalberg. The goal is to clarify a number of aspects of his life and creative path. Using the source study approach, the author analyzes scientific and memoir works, a number of which are introduced into circulation in Russian musicology for the first time. In the course of the study, some established provisions in musicology, including Russian, about the early period of Thalberg’s life and creative path are refuted. The author joins the point of view that the musician’s father was Prince Franz Joseph von Dietrichstein, adding this new evidence, found independently, to the already known. At the same time, it is argued that the widespread opinion that his mother was Countess Maria Bydescuty von Ipp cannot be considered fully proven; perhaps she was Baroness Suzanne Wetzlar. The main atten­tion is paid to the personality of Thalberg’s teacher. The assertion that this was J. N. Hummel, which appears in the main works about Thalberg, is convincingly disputed. It is concluded that his main teacher was K. Czerny.

The modeling method, widely used in cultural studies, allows us to present a complete picture of the analyzed object and the phenomena and processes occurring in it. This article proposes a structural and dynamic model of the formation of academic musical culture in the republics of Altai, Tyva, and Khakassia, which allows us to reflect the dynamics of its historical development and design features in each individual historical period. This approach creates opportunities for a comprehensive analysis of culture as a systemic integrity, and, at the same time, as a deterministic open process traced in historical dynamics. The scientific novelty of the study is an attempt to build a common model of academic-type professional musical culture for the three South Siberian republics in the unity of its temporal and structural characteristics. Based on the proposed theoretical model, it is possible to solve such research tasks as identifying the synchronicity and asynchrony of the processes of development of academic musical culture in different regions, establishing similarities and regional features of the musical culture of Altai, Tuva and Khakassia. When building a structural and dynamic model of musical culture, we relied on the methodology of a systematic approach and the concept of a dialogue of cultures. This allows us to consider the object under study in its entirety and integrity, to study the state of musical culture in aspects of the interaction of traditional and academic cultures, in historical, cultural and socio-political contexts.

The purpose of this article is to review the compositions for the yataga by the Buryat composer L. N. Sanzhieva in connection with national culture. This traditional instrument became firmly established in the musical life of Buryatia in the 1970s, and a special performing class was opened at the East Siberian Institute of Arts. The analyzed collection “Compositions for yataga” (2012) is intended both for improving the skills of yataga players in the educational process and for concert practice. The connection of the plays and concerts of the collection with images of nature (“The Call of Izyubr”, “Awakening”, “What the Daurian lily sing about”, “Deer Horn”), historical characters (“Yurt in the steppe distance”), national cults and legends (“Traveling through Tunka”, “Altan Mundarga”, “Kharagun”). The predominant reliance of the attack part on the angemitonic pentatonic minor mood, widespread in Buryat traditional culture, in combination with seven-step scales in the piano or orchestra parts, was found. The synthesis of typical intonation phrases with the author’s methodological findings testifies to the creative ingenuity of L. N. Sanzhieva, who skillfully combines traditional musical cultural heritage with the author’s imagination. The following collections by the Buryat author, intended for iochin, limba, khur and morin-khur, contribute to the expansion of the imaginative sphere and the search for new musical language possibilities. The performance of the composer’s works in concert and educational practice is an important evidence of their relevance and national recognition.

The article examines the gospel album “Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration” (prod. by Quincy Jones, 1992), which is a remake of the great oratorio by G. F. Handel in the tradition of African American music. The figurative, meaningful and artistic aspects of the “Messiah” are indicated, which turned out to be close to modern musicians, carriers of the gospel tradition; the peculiarities of their treatment of the music of the oratorio are revealed. A comparative analysis of the original and the gospel version reveals the follow­ing features of working with the Handel text: the choice of numbers in accordance with the intention of the creators of the album, the predominance of solemn, hymnal sounds; preservation of the contour of themes in many selected numbers of the oratorio with further variation in the African-American style; strengthening the rhythmic beginning; changing the performing composition in many compositions of the album; performance-improvisation of numbers in a characteristic, non-academic manner, which emphasizes the emotional expressiveness of the word. The authors of the study defines the role of the gospel version of the oratorio in popularizing G. F. Handel’s work, in shaping the musical taste of a modern audience.

This article is devoted to the issues of forming the visual image of a model in the context of a cross-cultural dialogue. Based on interdisciplinary analysis and personal professional experience of the author, the necessity of transformation of classical visual strategies is argued, taking into account cultural markers, semiotic systems and social rhetoric. The work examines different approaches to visual representation through the prism of cultural semiotics (Yu. M. Lotman), theories of identity (S. Hall), symbolic violence and taste (P. Bourdieu), as well as the modern mythology of fashion (R. Barth). The method of visual positioning of the model proposed by the author in the context of a globalized media environment includes adaptive, integrative and transformative models of image formation, each of which is correlated with the cultural environment. The article pays special attention to the risks of cultural appropriation, interpretation of visual symbols and ethical boundaries of visual representation.

This article examines the role of historical portraiture in monumental and decorative art (MDA) as a component of the cultural and educational environment in technical universities. Using Irkutsk National Research Technical University as a case study, the research analyzes contemporary approaches to integrating MDA into architectural spaces and its pedagogical function. Special focus is given to three key diploma projects by graduates of the Department of Monumental and Decorative Painting, which showcase a synthesis of artistic traditions and modern technologies. The findings reveal that historical portraits in MDA serve not only a decorative purpose but also an educational one, fostering corporate identity and historical memory. The study’s novelty lies in its emphasis on the regional specifics of Siberian MDA and its contribution to visual pedagogy.