The article uncovers the role and significance of the historical dance in the heritage and choreographic activity of Marius Petipa. In ballet sciences the name of M. Petipa is usually associated with the term “academic dance” and with the prosperity of the classical dance and the formation of its various stage forms. The author of the article offers to focus on the different aspect of the creative activity of M. Petipa, in particular – on his contribution in the development of other types of stage dance on the academic ballet stage, especially historical dance. The article contains examples of Petipa’s masterful works in the field of historical dance. They reflect his special approach which influenced all further history of this type of dance and showed the way to ballet masters how to stage it and to combine with other dance types. Petipa demonstrated the importance of applying of different forms of ballet plastics which enrich each performance and ballet art generally.

The article discusses the problem of reviving classical ballets; considers N. A. Dolgushin’s method of working with the Grand pas from the ballet Paquita. In the course of a comparative analysis of the choreography of Dolgushin’s original version and the traditional one, accepted in the practice of schools and theaters, it was revealed that during the revival the choreographer used the restoration-editorial method − the maximum possible preservation of all the original components and style of the performance, but at the same time the tasks also included updating the musical and choreographic “fabric” of the performance (based on a preliminary study of its stylistic features) and the figurative and emotional nature of choreographic expressiveness. An important place in Dolgushin’s work is occupied by the analysis of archival sources about the appearance of the performance, the memoirs of the first performers, which confirm Dolgushin’s intuitive approach to recreating the atmosphere of the performance and the spirit of the times.

The article examines the contacts of the outstanding Soviet ballerina Galina Ulanova with China, the history of which spans several decades and includes three of her visits to the country. Covering Ulanova’s first trip to China in 1952, the author emphasizes its importance in the context of cultural exchanges under the friendship agreement between the USSR and China. The second visit in 1959 was timed to coincide with a significant anniversary — the 10th anniversary of the formation of New China. Also notable is her last visit 2 and her contribution to the international art scene. The author analyzes in detail the influence of Chinese art on Ulanova’s work, especially after her meetings with the actor of the Beijing opera, Mei Lanfang. This communication enriched her understanding of the national peculiarities of Chinese culture and influenced her performance in the ballet the Red Poppy. The article explores Ulanova’s multifaceted cultural and personal interaction with Chinese artists and the public, showing how art and high professionalism can serve as a bridge between countries and cultures.

The article concerns Kenneth MacMillan’s late one-act ballet Sea of Troubles based on Shakespeare's Hamlet (1988, company Dance Advance; music by Bohuslav Martinů and Anton Webern). It is considered on the base of study of reviews, a scientific article and the video recording of the ballet, which is currently unknown in Russia. The idea, the structure and the stylistic of the production are analyzed in this publication. The conclusion about the place of this performance in the context of the choreographer’s work is drawn.

The article examines the musical solution of ballet productions addressed to the personality of the outstanding French artist A. Toulouse-Lautrec (18641901), performed in different years by Russian and French choreographers. The first part of the article is devoted to the choreographic miniature In the manner of Lautrec, staged by G. Zamuel to the music of B. Archimandritov, who later created a program-symphonic version of the work on the same musical material. The publication reveals the specifics of the composer’s embodiment of the artist’s world. Archimandritov’s creative solution is presented in the context of the artistic tradition associated with the comprehension of works of fine art by the “forces” of music and choreography, aesthetic transformations of Russian ballet art, as well as in direct connection with the choreographer’s idea of G. Zamuel.

This article is dedicated to the role of the Orient subject-matter in the epic variety of the Russian classical opera which was founded by M. I. Glinka. Numerous aspects of the Russian-Eastern and Russian-Western cultural dialogs reveals in the light of a prism known as an opera symphonism. That means an interpretation of the synthesis of different arts which is a genre of an opera under priority of the primary music artist’s intention particularly specific for Glinka. There are given several examples of the carrying out Glinka’s traditions of the Orient matter by A. Borodin, N. Rimsky-Korsakov and M. Mussorgsky as well as anticipation of ideas about a mission of Russia as a connected link between the Orient and Occident in the article.

The article is devoted to the revision of the score of Swan Lake by P. I. Tchaikovsky, performed by R. Drigo for the production of the ballet in 1895 at the Mariinsky Theater. The changes and additions made by R. Drigo to Tchaikovsky’s original score are considered. The question of the independent musical value of the Drigo edition is raised, the Drigo orchestration is analyzed in the context of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral style.

Three reviews are devoted to three premiere performances in different genres: the ballet-fairy tale The Golden Key (Nizhny Novgorod), the ballet-experiment Illusions of Love (Minsk) and the revival of the choreography of the late 19^th and early 20th centuries An Evening of French Ballet (Samara). The latter was carried out by the connoisseur of ancient choreography Yuri Burlaka, the others by ballet soloists Alessandro Caggeggi and ex-premiere Mariinsky theatre Igor Kolb, who are making their debut as directors of full-length performances.

The given article focuses on a concept of “sounding substance” by Boris Asafiev, which occupied a significant place in his theoretical heritage of postrevolutionary period. In the view of the researcher, the sounding substance accumulated the key communicative, dynamic, and semantic parameters of music that constituted its “anthropological” dimension: the organic consistency of the structure, fluidity, sensory tangibility, invocatory and suggestive features. The author puts forward a hypothesis that the given concept was largely affected by research of oral speech intonation carried out in the early 20th century under the aegis of so-called “Ohrenphilologie” (“auditory philology”). An important factor of such impact were Asafiev’s close contacts with philologists from the Institute of the Live Word, one of the leading platforms of the Ohrenphilologie in Russia of the 1910–20s. The paper establishes continuity between ideas of the specialists in Ohrenphilologie Sergey Bernstein, Boris Eichenbaum, and Victor Shklovsky on the one hand, and the concept of the sounding substance on the other.

The article considers a scantily explored period in the life of Johann Sebastian Bach: his adolescence, which he lived in the town of Ohrdruf from the beginning of 1695 to March 15, 1700. This period is important for understanding the process of development of his skills and is considered in continuation of the theme of a hundred-years search for the person or the persons who can undeniably be called the teacher or the teachers of the genius.

In the context of new knowledge obtained as a result of the integration of purposefully analyzed museum documents along with the documents from the closed archive of Ehrenstein Castle, and church history materials collected by members of local societies, it has been established the following:

Johann Sebastian Bach did not learn to play the organ from his elder brother, organist Christoph, since during this entire Ohrdruf period Christoph himself was deprived of the opportunity to play it due to lengthy repairs to the instrument.

Johann Sebastian Bach, therefore, could not have composed 36 chorale preludes for organ during these years, namely BWV 714, 719, 737, 742, 957, 1090–1120.

Over the course of five years, Johann Sebastian Bach, showing special abilities for science, successfully mastered the full program of general education at the prestigious Lyceum of Counts von Gleichen in Ehrenstein Castle, which contained sixteen disciplines, but from music, it included only choral singing.

The given facts can become the basis for correcting the provisions that have developed in modern Bach studies, including the chronology of Bach’s chorale preludes.

The article explores the history of the Music Section of the Petrograd House of Arts (1919–1923), which united the best composers and performers of the city during the period of War Communism and the beginning of the NEP. The paper examines the role of the Section in the structure of the House of Arts and its position among other musical organizations of the period, traces the changes in the program of concerts held by the Section from 1920 to 1922, and analyzes the perception of the Section’s activities in art criticism.

The history of the Music Section is examined from its inception to the last concerts within the framework of the historical genetic method. The Section which was closely connected with the Conservatory is considered as a specific organization which history reflected the general cultural shifts of the analyzed period. The main sources are archival documents (bylaws of the House of Arts, personal files of composers and performers) and reviews. The article reconstructs for the first time the Section’s program and its management with composers V. Shcherbachev and N. Strelnikov in the most crucial roles, and examines the connection between the Section and the journal “Apollo.” The article is accompanied by an Appendix containing the program of the Music Section.

The article is dedicated to the analysis of Cyriacus Spangenberg’s treatise «Von der edlen und den hochberühmten Kunst der Musica... auch wie die Meistersenger aüffkhommenn vollkhommener Bericht» (1598) — one of the first significant works on the history of music in the German language. It examines the features of the structure and content of the work, in which Spangenberg, following traditional musical topoi, made the first attempt at a systematic chronological presentation of the history of music from antiquity to modernity. The historian pays special attention to German musical culture and the formation of the professional community of Meistersingers. Spangenberg’s innovative approach, elaborated in his treatise, allows us to describe him as one of the first scholars who laid the foundations of musical historiography.

Chinoiserie as a pseudo-Chinese decorative style begins its development in the third quarter of the 17th century. At first, it develops in palace and park art and in applied arts, and in interior design. Similar processes of “Chinaization” also observed on the stage, demonstrating the somewhat belated interaction of theatre art with other art forms in the early chinoiserie. The development of the problem of this interaction as a dialogue of arts observed in the example of the development of chinoiserie in the 18th century. In conclusion, it is shown that chinoiserie fashion peaked (“advanced chinoiserie”) in the mid-18th century. It is during this time that we see a large number of musical and stage productions in the chinoiserie style. Now the theatre arts are subject to the total fashion for chinoiserie as much as other arts.