The comedy The Taming of the Shrew by W. Shakespeare has become the source of the numerous stages, the screen versions and performances in the musical theater (the musical, the opera, the ballet). The study shows that there were the characteristic signs of interpretation of Shakespeare’s play in the entertainment genres of each epoch, which generalized gender traits of relationships and the moral characteristics of the characters — from subordination to the patriarchal norms to the “battle of sexes”. The ballet genre is the most indicative for the interpretation of this play, since it clearly characterizes the bodily contacts of the characters of the work and the relationship with their spiritual motives.

Despite of the variants of the embodiment of The Taming of the Shrew in the drama theater, the opera, the cinema, the ballet and the musical have already been considered, the comprehensive studies of the peculiarities of the interpretation of the gender conflict of the play in the various theatrical genres have not been conducted. The author bases his research on the hypothesis that the nature of the gender conflict of the characters in the drama of ballet also affects the nature of bodily expression in the choreographic embodiment. The versions of Kranko, Mayo and some other choreographers differ in gender meanings that determine dance and plastic solutions.

The article reconstructs the history of creative interaction between Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographers who were involved in the production of the ballet Swan Lake within different cultural and historical epochs. The article introduces the facts of coincidence and inconsistency of creative tasks being solved by choreographers – Reisinger, Petipa – Ivanov, Vaganova, Sergeyev, Burmeister, Nureyev, Ashton, Matthew Bourne, Mats Ek, Preljocaj, etc. – when addressing Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece. The most significant results of the collaborations are characterized. The numerous metamorphoses of the ballet performance are noted to be determined by the changes in the artistic worldview.

The article is devoted to the original large-scale ballet performance, which became a symbol of the national Chinese ballet of the early 21st century. Using the method of content analysis of Internet sources, namely electronic programs and video recordings of ballet performances from different years, information is revealed that is significant for understanding the concept and the chronicle of the creation of the ballet libretto. A general textual characteristic of the libretto of the ballet Dunhuang (the same is The Light of Heart) is given, the reasons and some consequences of the constant revisions of the libretto texts by the librettist are analyzed. The authors come to the conclusion that the ideological content of the production, set out in the libretto, echoes religious (Buddhist) and philosophical-axiological (about virtue in the Chinese value system) meanings that are important for the Chinese public.

The article raises the problem of the relationship between the dance art of the Tatars of the Volga-Ural region and instrumental creativity. The importance of the musician as the initiator of the dance process, his inclusion in the dramaturgy of the dance, and his encouragement of the dancers allow us to talk about the important role of the instrumentalist in the process of dancing among the Tatars. The instruments that participated in dance-instrumental ensembles, instrumental and vocal-instrumental genres that accompanied dance actions are considered. The source for the study was the works of leading ethnochoreologists of Tatarstan G. Tagirov, D. Umerov, K. Bikbulatov, which conveyed the features of the interaction of dancers and musicians in the Tatar dance art, as well as the author’s expedition materials on the instrumental culture of the Tatars of the Volga-Ural region.

The article is devoted to the analysis of interpretations of the Faustian myth in opera librettos of the late 20th — early 21st centuries. The starting point of the study is Thomas Mann’s novel Doctor Faustus, which also appears in a number of opera librettos. The operas Your Faust by Henri Pousseur, The Last Night of Faustus by Pascal Dusapin, Doctor Faustus by Konrad Böhmer, Faust and Yorick by Wolfgang Rihm, Faust by Philippe Fénelon, and Doctor Atom by John Adams are also analyzed. The final conclusion from the conducted research is the thesis that the multiplicity of the most diverse sources present at all levels in the librettos of operas of the second half of the 20th − early 21st centuries, created on the basis of the Faustian myth, represents its postmodernist interpretation, updated depending on the needs of society and the listener with a variety of semantic accents.

The article examines the significance of the fusion movement in the history of jazz art. Having emerged during the crisis period in jazz performance in the second half of the 1960s, fusion had an important influence on the formation of new norms regarding jazz instrumentation, sound and repertoire. The aim of the study was to identify the role of fusion in the processes of changing the jazz musical paradigm of the late 1960–70s. The objectives are focused on determining the features of this movement and the historical significance of fusion in the dynamics of jazz culture. In the process of the research, sources in English of such authors were used. The article contains important conclusions about the role of fusion in the history of jazz development and its significance for world musical culture.

The article deals with the principles according to which traditional forms of the Japanese theater (Noh,) are currently developing and changing. The author comes to the conclusion that a synthesis of genres within the types of theater and a development of interspecific relations can be observed. The influence of European forms of theater gives rise to independent theater groups in Japan. Several performances of the modern repertoire are described: “The Haunted House” (Kabuki), Journey to the West (Bunraku), and also the activities of a modern stage director Miura Motoi and his theater company Chiten.

The article is devoted to the study of special terminology, formed by folk performers on the Kyrgyz komuz and functioning among professional musicians and mentors. The attention of the researchers is drawn to the study of concepts that characterize the methods of performance on a folk musical instrument of the folklore tradition, the technique of sound production, the actualization of terms in pedagogical practice, as well as ways to display the features of articulation in educational and educational publications. The main attention is in the special forms of virtuoso ornamental movements carried out by the right hand of the komuzist. This style of performance is unique in the context of traditional forms of instrumental music-making of ethnic groups related to the Kyrgyz ethnic groups of Central Asia. The characteristics of the methods of playing the Kyrgyz komuz can be traced on the example of samples of the virtuoso performing style presented in publications of different years. As a result of the analysis of the conducted research, the palette of applied techniques of playing the komuz is recreated and the problem of their reflection in musical notation is raised.

François Delsarte (1811−1871) was an outstanding French singer, vocal teacher, and stage art theorist who developed an original system of bodily expression of the performer in art forms related to word, sound, and gesture. As a result of painstaking study of the expressive possibilities of natural human self-expression in the unity of sensations, emotions and thought, for the first time in the history of musical and theatrical art, he formed a system that includes a philosophical and aesthetic justification and a structured description of the basic poses, gestures and facial expressions of a person with an indication of their semantics. Being a talented singer and actor, Delsarte paid special attention to the relationship and interaction of plasticity, timbre, intonation and diction.

In modern scientific discourse, his ideas are reflected in the works of theater critics, cultural scientists, and philosophers. However, in the field of musicology, the importance of Delsarte’s teaching still seems to be underestimated. It is promising to consider his ideas in the light of the achievements of modern human sciences (neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science), which is especially important in connection with the strengthening of the positions of body-oriented epistemology and interdisciplinary interest in semiotics. Based on the studied materials, the article highlights the features of Delsarte’s semiotic system, including those related to the “gestural” potential of musical art, and also the vector of development of his research program in relation to the study of musical texts from the perspective of the possibilities of identifying their semantics is proposed.

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.

The issues related to the analysis of the rhythm of children’s (including “mother’s”) folklore are considered in the mainstream of general analytical approaches in Russian ethnomusicology. This view allows us to see the patterns of organization of various song genres, but does not contribute to the formation of specific terminology that reveals their distinctive properties. However, it is children’s folklore that is most closely connected with the patterns of human ontogenesis, which determines many structural and rhythmic parameters of the texts that a child must master, forming the necessary speech and musical skills. Observing common features at the level of rhythmic organization in samples of children’s folklore among different peoples, the Romanian ethnomusicologist Constantin Brailoui in the middle of the 20th century proposed to define them with the term «children’s rhythm». In this article, this term is compared with those that have developed in Russian ethnomusicology in relation to time-stable constructions (sequences of eight eighth notes, combined in pairs according to the trochee type) using the example of samples recorded during expeditions in the Vologda region.

The article raises the issue of the multidimensional dramatic interaction of the visual and auditory series of the film, contributing to the conceptual unity of the work. Music, speech and noises that make up the sound score of films form a significant, almost self-sufficient artistic component of the film text. This phenomenon is considered by the example of films from the second period of Terrence Malick’s work.

Theses from theoretical works on sound by S. M. Eisenstein and B. Balázs were used as a methodological basis for the analysis of the films.

This study summarizes the formation and development of Chinese piano music, and delves into the application of traditional Chinese cultural elements in the genre of Chinese piano miniatures. Since the reform and opening-up policy, musicians have anticipated the emergence of a “new wave” of Chinese music. The composer Tan Dun made the most significant transformation in the field of piano. The piano miniature of this Chinese composer is taken as an example in this study. The objective of this research is to reveal how the composer ingeniously combines Western modern compositional techniques with Eastern traditional culture and art by combining Hunan flower-drum opera (Chinese: 花鼓戏; pinyin: Huāgǔxì) with folk rituals. In this way, the composer wanted to express his special feelings for the culture of “shamanism” and “chu” of his native Hunan province. This will enhance the future international influence of Chinese piano music and also help protect and promote Chinese cultural heritage.

The article outlines the historical process of existence of the stage composition The Yellow Sound by V. Kandinsky. Based on the methods of historical and theoretical musicology, the methods of comparative and cultural analysis, the different attitudes towards the problem of staging The Yellow Sound during the author’s lifetime (in the first half of the 20th century) and in the second half of the century – the first quarter of the 21st century are shown. The experimental stage composition was not staged by the author himself, but the worldwide popularity of Kandinsky’s pictorial legacy, the interest in his theatrical and literary legacy, encouraged directors to stage The Yellow Sound on the theater stage, since the idea of the synthesis of arts, which formed the conceptual foundation of Kandinsky’s text, was relevant for many authors of the postmodernist era. The productions that took place were very far from the surviving script by V. Kandinsky, and in different performances the musical component often changed (due to the absence of the original score by the composer F. Hartmann). One example of new music for The Yellow Sound is a piece by A. Schnittke, created taking into account Kandinsky’s script. The artistic merits of the music of this composition contributed to the emergence of a whole series of different new productions of The Yellow Sound using the music of A. Schnittke as a basis. At the same time, all these productions are reinterpretations, since the script of the stage composition is absent from them, but the symbolism of the color scheme, based on the color theory of V. Kandinsky, is preserved.