In this article, the author analyzes the work of the ballerina Gabriela Komleva, whose performing activity still amazes with the skill and virtuosity of classical dance. The roles of Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Nikiya (La Bayadère) were in the focus of attention. The nuances of performance are analyzed, the authority of which lies in the fact that they were transferred to the ballerina from such a master as N. M. Dudinskaya. Based on the video materials, the author comes to the conclusion that Komleva’s dance can be considered as a landmark in the academic repertoire of the new generation of ballerinas. Within the framework of the goal set, it can be stated that the analysis of choreographic vocabulary and its comparison with today’s performance has a certain value for such a repeatedly raised issue as the preservation of the classical heritage. As a result, the analysis carried out on specific examples proves the need for such studies in the aspect of scientific understanding of choreographic art.

The article provides an overview of the critical reviews of the 1920s on the premiere of the dance symphony The Greatness of the Universe by F. V. Lopukhov, which took place on March 7, 1923. As early as the end of 1922, the work attracted the attention of art critics-correspondents of periodicals, who introduced the viewer to the innovative ideas of the choreographer. The premiere did not receive an unambiguous assessment. Some reviewers opposed the very ideas of turning to symphonic music and plotless dances, while others did not unconditionally accept the birth of a new genre as a possible way out of the impasse for ballet theater. In subsequent years, critics continued the discussion about the significance of the dance symphony in the history of ballet art.

The article discusses the emergence of dance symphonism direction on the example of F. V. Lopukhov’s ballet (1923) Dance Symphony The Grandeur of the Universe. Tries to delve into the worldview of its authors. A brief description of the author’s work on the reconstruction of this ballet in modern times is given. The importance of following musical-symphonic laws into the choreography for modern ballet masters is emphasized.

The article discusses the ways of forming the storylines of the ballet Swan Lake, its similarities with earlier works on a related theme: the opera Le lac des Fées by D.-F.-E. Auber to the libretto by E. Scribe (1839) and two ballets The Fairy Lake to the same music, staged in London and St. Petersburg (1840).

The first redaction of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s ballet (1877) inherited to a large extent the signs, solutions, compositional lines and mise-en-scenes characteristic of the “magic” (or “fantastic”) ballets of the first half of the 19th century. This is a fairy story at the heart of the script; opposition and collision of the real and fantastic worlds, necessarily reflected in apotheoses; development of fantastic images, phenomena, objects and their duality. In the second redaction of the ballet (1895), the psychological prerequisites for the behavior of the characters are emphasized, the inevitability of a fateful turn is strengthened, and the movement towards a tragic denouement becomes much more obvious.

However, the bright components of the “magic style”, traditionally present in the choreographic concept of Swan Lake, still diverted the audience’s perception towards fantastic explanations. This led to the fact that eyewitnesses of the premieres of not only the first, but also the second editions of the ballet often could not understand the meaning of the completion of the performances, and in general, its tragic pathos raised many questions. And only in the 20th century, when interpretations of the work almost ceased to remind of the paths of its succession, did the ballet finally take its place in the theatrical repertoire commensurate with its significance.

The article highlights the collaboration of the Danish choreographer August Bournonville (1805–1879) with the composers who wrote the music for his ballets: J. F. Froelich, H. S. von Levenskold, J. P. E. Hartmann, E. M. Helsted, H. S. Paulli, N. Gade, H. S. Lumby, K. K. Möller. Possession of musical abilities, supported by extensive musical experience and knowledge, led to the possibility of mutual understanding and fruitful collaboration between the choreographer and the musicians.

In joint work with composers, Bournonville made extensive use of the musical performance (violin, vocal) and improvisational capabilities acquired during his studies for an accurate and detailed demonstration and explanation of his ideas regarding music. The choreographer also actively used professional musical and editorial skills, carrying out independent selection of music for use in composite compositions, as well as inclusion in the author’s composer scores. Bournonville also practiced a special “team method” involving several composers at the same time to work on the score. Clearly presenting the general constructive idea of the ballet, the choreographer coordinated the well-coordinated work of the musicians, achieving compositional integrity, intonational and stylistic unity of the musical series.

During his long creative career, Bournonville has performed more than sixty successful productions to the music of a whole galaxy of composers - masters of the Golden Age of Danish culture. Working with the creators of music on the terms of an equal artistic partnership, Bournonville thus gradually changed the establishment of the theatrical ballet tradition and contributed to the formation of a first-class national school of composers.

The main object of the article is comparison of aplomb training chief practices in E. Cecchetti, N. I. Tarasov and A. Ya. Vaganova methodological systems and detection of the most effective among them. Issue of the aplomb training is the basis for all classical ballet technique; it is inextricably linked with dance aesthetics. Nonetheless the world ballet so far has no uniform rules or methods of aplomb training, acknowledged by all schools in all countries. There is a number of practices, each having its own advantages, though convergence of these practices is generally impossible due to fundamentally different methodology they are based on.

Analysis of the main methods, described in works by G. Cecchetti, N. I. Tarasov and A. Ya. Vaganova allows making the statement that in methodology by A. Ya. Vaganova the correct aplomb training has a dominant value, and hands, legs and head movements are logical outcomes of the correctly taught and mastered body position in statics and dynamics.

This article is dedicated to Galina Ustvolskaya’s Fourth Sonata for Piano (1957), which occupies a central position in the composer’s sonata works. The Sonata’s dramaturgy was prepared by previous works in the genre, notably the Second and Third Sonatas, and it closes the first period in the evolution of sonatas. At the same time, the Sonata reveals no small points of contact with the Twelve Preludes for Piano composed in 1953. In the opinion of the author, in these two works for the first time the lyricism can be seen so vividly. The object of the analysis in this article is the lyrical element of the Fourth Sonata refracted through the prism of Ustvolskaya’s tragedy. The author suggests that the lyricism in the Sonata should be interpreted through three hypostases of the sphere of farewell: lamentation, funeral and mourning. The most developed and complicated path is weeping. Embodied in a few seconds of a chant, lament pervades the entire thematicism of the Sonata. The author examines the intonational sphere of the work, outlines the genre origins of the material in the movements and sketches the further path of development of the imagistic spheres of the Fourth Sonata. The article provides sheet music examples to illustrate the most important, in the opinion of the author, stages of the dramaturgy of the work.

The article explores the actor speech in the first Soviet sound feature film The Road to Life (1931) by means of auditory and instrumental analysis. The connection of the poetics of the film with the tradition of film expressionism is being studied. The speech score of N. Ekk’s film is seen as a unique embodiment of the principles of indirect, contrapuntal use of sound in cinema, declared in the late 1920s by Soviet filmmakers. The study revealed such expressive means of speech phonogram as sound asynchronousness, emotional speech strokes, speech intertitles, speech events, sound swarm and others. The conclusion states the decisive role played by the director’s artistic plan in the formation of the film’s speech score and about the special place that N. Ekk’s experimental picture occupies in the history of Russian and Soviet cinema.

The article is devoted to the issue of conceptualization and systematization of sound instruments of academic music of the late 20th — early 21st century. Modern composers have long been using not only musical instruments and computer technologies in their compositions, but also a large number of objects and mechanisms for non-musical purposes. The latter are given increasingly responsible roles, up to the soloist instrument, opposed to the orchestra. With all the prevalence of non-musical subjects in music today, this phenomenon has not received sufficient scientific understanding. The proposed article attempts to systematize and categorize all “atypical” and “non-normative” musical instruments, and also identifies and describes the nature of the work of composers with these subjects.

This paper aims to analyze the intermedial relationships between the visual arts and the theater, starting from the idea of “Pathosformeln” put forward by A. Warburg. Warburg, who meant art history as “psychohistory”, understood by “Pathosformeln” the stable corporal formulas for expressing strong emotional reactions. Such postures and gestures were ancient quotations and embodied the dark (Dionysian) side of antiquity. Renaissance artists turned to them in their search of ways to express strong excitement, and thus the “Pathosformeln” found new life in art. The most famous theatrical pose of fear can be considered with the portrait of actor D. Garrick as Richard III by W. Hogarth. In the pose and gesture of Garrick as Richard III one can see similarities with one of the “pathos formula” analyzed by A. Warburg, namely the “Death of Orpheus”. Similarly, the female theatrical gesture of fright, recorded by F. Lang and I. Engel as well as in theatrical iconography (L.-K. Carmontel, M. Kirzinger), also goes back to an ancient prototype — the nymph escaping pursuit. Updating the techniques of acting, D. Garrick and others — consciously or intuitively — turned to formulas of passionate gesture language, carrying within them an ancient pathos. I interpret the problem of intermediality in this context as the relationship between theater and the visual arts through bodily formulas common to both arts for expressing intense excitement.

The current of the New Wave has been leading in the musical culture of China for several decades, and the work of many composers falls into this mainstream. At a conference in Wuhan in 1985, traditional Chinese music and modern Western composition techniques were identified as the style guidelines of the direction.

The author makes an attempt to identify the characteristic features of the New Wave as the leading artistic trend in the art of China of the XX century and to consider how they manifest themselves in the works of Chinese composers in the specifics of the musical language, thematic preferences, compositional technique, appeal to national folklore material. The periodization of the New Wave in musical art is proposed, the musical works of Guo Wenjing, Xu Changjun, Chen Qigang, Tang Dong are analyzed.

The article deals with the formation of elective chromatic systems of accordion and button accordion keyboards as a product of the synthesis of the systematic ideas of C. Demian and C. Wheatstone. A comparative analysis of the ergonomic properties of the two systems B-Griff and the Kravtsov system, adapted to the elective devices of modern instruments, is carried out, the level of efficiency of their functioning is determined in relation to the organization of the performing process in line with the ergonomic system “man – machine”.