On the Training of Specialists in Musical Folklore at Leningrad State Conservatory in the Late 1920s

Abstract

The development of the scientific and musical direction at Leningrad State Conservatory in the second half of the 1920s is associated with the development of curricula and the beginning of the training of research and teaching staff. This period is an important milestone not only in the development of domestic musicology in general, but also in ethnomusicology, since from the end of the 1920s the conservatory began to train specialists in musical folklore. A significant role in this belongs to B. V. Asafiev, who not only developed the musical and folkloristic specialization, but also oriented some of his students toward the study of folk music.

Based on documents from the Archive of St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory and the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St. Petersburg, introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, some issues related to the educational process are revealed, graduates who studied disciplines related to folk music are identified, and the circle of teachers is established. Understanding the history of the development of education in the field of musical folklore is an important step towards understanding the principles of the formation of the scientific school of St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Conservatory, as well as some general patterns of development of the domestic science of musical folklore. Among them is the interdependence of scientific research (theoretical and practical) and educational directions, which was manifested in the initial systemic connection of expeditionary work with the formation of specialized phonoarchives, on the basis of which research into musical folklore should be carried out, and the involvement of young specialists in solving these scientific problems even at the stage of their training.