Dubrovskaya M. Yu., Ikonnikova Ya. A.
The historical importance of professional dialogue of musicians of Novosibirsk and Sapporo in the development of Russian-Japanese contacts at the turn of the XX–XXI centuries
The article presents the analysis of the results of the creative cooperation between Russian and Japanese musicians – residents of twin cities of Novosibirsk and Sapporo in the period 1990–2000-ies. The consideration of the subject in a historical retrospective of one of the important components of international activities of the Novosibirsk Conservatoire allows to make a conclusion about the value of professional dialogue of experts-musicians of Novosibirsk and Sapporo for the expansion and deepening of mutual understanding, establishment of permanent human and creative relationships of Japanese and Russians, enriching concert and research activities of teachers and students of the Novosibirsk Conservatoire. Studying of materials of a twin city’s wide movement in Russia and Japan led to the identification of specific trends in the processes of cooperation between Novosibirsk and Sapporo.
Keywords: Russian-Japanese contacts, twin cities, musical communication, concert and research activities, specific trends.
Marina Dubrovskaya – Doctor of Arts, Professor, Head of the Department of Ethnomusicology at the Novosibirsk State Conservatoire named after M. I. Glinka.
Е-mail: m-dubrovskaya53@mail.ru
Yana Ikonnikova – V-year student of the Theoretical and Composition faculty at the Novosibirsk State Conservatoire named after M. I. Glinka
Е-mail: yana-ikonnikova@yandex.ru
Govorukhina M. А.
Sensei Koeber and teacher Tchaikovsky
The article is devoted to Raphael Gustavovich Koeber (1848–1923), a well-known philosopher and musician in Japan, a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky’s student on theoretical disciplines. Some facts and events of Koeber’s biography require some clarification. Basing on the reports of the Moscow Conservatory’s Russian Musical Society and historical literature, the author specifies little-known and contradictory information about the period of Koeber’s education at the Moscow Conservatory, including Tchaikovsky’s theoretical classes. The author also clarifies some of Koeber’s biographical facts related to his musical work in Germany and Japan. The “teacher-student” relationship between Tchaikovsky and Koeber is also specially considered.
Keywords: Koeber, Tchaikovsky, Moscow Conservatory, Japan, Tchaikovsky’s students.
Marina Govorukhina – Postgraduate student at the Ural State Conservatoire named after M. P. Mussorgsky
E-mail: Govorukhina_MA@mail.ru
Takahashi Kenichiro.
Japonism in Russian modernist music: the poetics of the Japanese songs of Stravinsky and Louriй
This article discusses the issue of the role of Japanese art in Russian modernist music in the early 20th century on the material of the “Japanese romances” of Igor Stravinsky and Arthur Louriй, which were composed in the 1910s. Both of the modernist composers abandoned traditional Western music (tonal, constructive, with geometric perspective). However they did so in these works in completely opposite ways. Stravinsky sought “the linear perspective” and “two-dimensionality” which he found in Japanese verses and prints. He embodied these concepts, using a metric-rhythmic technique. On the other hand, Louriй sought “the internal perspective”, “three-dimensionality” and “relief”, asserting “overcoming linearity” and “substantiality of elements” as the principles of music. He realized them in this suite, borrowing from the Russian Futurist art various techniques to create relief sounds and increase musical space. Thus, we found in the “Japanese romances” of these Russian modernist composers two opposing attitudes to “perspective” and “dimensions”. This may correspond to the fact that in Russian avant-garde paintings K. Malevich sought “objectlessness” in two dimensions, and V. Tatlin, on the contrary, strove for “volume” of three dimensions.
Keywords: japonism, Stravinsky, Louriй, romance, perspective, dimension, modernist music, Russian futurism, Russian avant-garde.
Kenichiro Takahashi – Professor at the Faculty of Foreign Languages of Sapporo University, Japan, Ph.D. (Humanities and Social Sciences).
E-mail: kenken@asa.email.ne.jp
Eremenko G. А.
Sound images of Japan in European music of the XX century
The East-West dialogue is considered in the cultural-historical aspect in the introductory section of the article. The opinions of French scientist-anthropologist K. Levi-Strauss in regard to the essence of the problem and perspectives of the researching of other nationalities cultures by European scientists were used. Despite of important difference between Eastern and Western ways of thinking, the view from the outside allows to distinguish unchanged typological features of other cultures, gradually overcome oriental exoticism, i.e. accentuation of the exotic arabesque details and penetrate into mechanisms of functioning of compositional and stylistic system of non-European type of creation.
The main attention in the article is paid to mutual relations of European composer’s professionalism and traditional music of Japan. Their development is directed to transmission of originality of Japanese musical tradition in order to open new expressive opportunities in alien sphere for European composers. In line of music Japonism, a number of music works of different genres (Puccini, Orff, Stravinsky) of the first half of the XX century was characterized. There were shown techniques of quotation, stylization of the thematic material, the timbres of national instruments, pitch structures of Japanese musical and verbal recitation.
Deepening contacts with Japanese music culture finds out the searches of music avant-garde. The principle of modeling of the basic parameters of Japanese traditional music in analyzed works of Messiaen, Gubaidulina, Ksenakis defined a avant-garde composers’ version of non-European influences.
Keywords: East, West, Japan, traditional music, European composers, music avant-garde, oriental sound images, Pentatonic modes, national instruments, sonoristics.
Galina Eremenko – PhD in Arts History, Professor at the Music History Department of the Novosibirsk State Conservatoire named after M. I. Glinka.
Е-mail: erema49@mail.ru
Maximova A. М.
On the question of sources forming a composer’s symphonic folklorism in the early works of Japanese composers
The article contains an initial description of the formation process of the Japanese symphonists’ methods of working with traditional sources in the 1930s. The material is a piece for symphony orchestra «Etenraku» by Konoe Hidemaro (1898-1973) created in 1931.
Konoe’s drawing on Japanese classical heritage and Gagaku ancient orchestral music is justified by the following reasons: the author belonged to the aristocracy, studied at Gakushuin school, and learnt from Kosaku Yamada, who sought to create a national spirit of the symphony. The creation of arrangements for symphony orchestra of a famous Gagaku’s play «Etenraku» is due to Konoe’s and Yamada’s creative aspirations. Konoe implemented it in line with the composer’s ethnographism. By finding special ways of sound and innovative combinations of timbre, the author of «Etenraku» makes the European orchestral instruments to sound ‘Japanese’ imitating the traditional instruments of the Gagaku orchestra.
It is concluded that Konoe’s appraised method of transcriptions, criticaly reflected upon by Yamada, the founder of Japanese school of composition, helped to achieve a new level of realizing the national Japanese symphonism, which can be designated as a composer’s folklorism of composition.
Keywords: Etenraku, Hidemaro Konoe, transcriptions method, Tsurukame, Kosaku Yamada, composer’s ethnographism.
Anastasia Maximova – post-graduate student of the Ethnomusicology Department at the Novosibirsk State Conservatoire named after M. I. Glinka.
Е-mail: maxalt@mail.ru
Chabanets E. N.
Art of Japan: one in all and all in one
Japanese arts might be considered as a tool of moral and spiritual formation of a person. Traditionalism of arts helps to preserve their authenticity and conservative core of the general philosophical and spiritual foundation. Thus, Japan accepts novelties of the modern world in its mobile periphery but maintains its cultural roots. Arts are considered a universal tool, a social simulator, etc., as they carry analogy to undergoing processes in the society.
Keywords: Arts, Japan, culture, philosophy of arts, spiritual practices, conventionalism, spirituality, assimilation of arts, spirituality of arts, history of Japanese arts.
Elena Chabanets – Candidate of philosophical sciences, Lecturer at the Department of Oriental Studies of the Tomsk State University.
E-mail: elenachab@sibmail.com
Shishikura Masaya.
Transcending Musical Bodies:
Embodiment of Multiple Bonds of the Ogasawara Islands
This article explores musical bodies that connect people beyond historical and geopolitical boundaries. Drawing a case from the Ogasawara Islands, Japan, it explicates how musical bodies embody multiple pasts of this small island community. Since the first settlement in 1830, the Ogasawara Islanders have suffered various hardships, including Japanese colonisation (1870s), discrimination at home, forced evacuation during the Pacific War (1941–1945), segregated life under the US Navy (1946–1968), and reversion to Japanese administration (1968). Reflecting the entangled history, various musical genres are present in Ogasawara today, including taiko drumming, Micronesian dance, and hula. The variety of musical activities appears to represent a fracturing of memories and identity. However, I argue that these musical activities rather embody multiple bonds of Ogasawara with many others. Here, musical bodies take a significant role. The performing bodies produce corporeal experiences of Ogasawara’s multiple pasts, and affirm extended relationships of this small/remote community. By referring to such concepts as “historical reenactment” and “historically informed performance,” the article identifies Ogasawara within a plurality of histories and cultures that transcends our conventional concepts of history, culture, and the nation.
Keywords: The Ogasawara Islands (Japan), musical bodies, plurality, historical reenactment, historically informed performance.
Shishikura Masaya.
Transcending Musical Bodies: Embodiment of Multiple Bonds of the Ogasawara Islands. Translation оf Yulia Magomedova
This article explores musical bodies that connect people beyond historical and geopolitical boundaries. Drawing a case from the Ogasawara Islands, Japan, it explicates how musical bodies embody multiple pasts of this small island community. Since the first settlement in 1830, the Ogasawara Islanders have suffered various hardships, including Japanese colonisation (1870s), discrimination at home, forced evacuation during the Pacific War (1941–1945), segregated life under the US Navy (1946–1968), and reversion to Japanese administration (1968). Reflecting the entangled history, various musical genres are present in Ogasawara today, including taiko drumming, Micronesian dance, and hula. The variety of musical activities appears to represent a fracturing of memories and identity. However, I argue that these musical activities rather embody multiple bonds of Ogasawara with many others. Here, musical bodies take a significant role. The performing bodies produce corporeal experiences of Ogasawara’s multiple pasts, and affirm extended relationships of this small/remote community. By referring to such concepts as “historical reenactment” and “historically informed performance,” the article identifies Ogasawara within a plurality of histories and cultures that transcends our conventional concepts of history, culture, and the nation.
Keywords: The Ogasawara Islands (Japan), musical bodies, plurality, historical reenactment, historically informed performance.
Masaya Shishikura is an ethnomusicologist, who originally came from Chiba, Japan. He received a PhD from the Australian National University (2014) and an MA from the University of Hawai‘i at Mвnoa (2007).
Vasilyeva G. М.
The path to ‘the land of knowledge’: literature in the Japanese education system
The article studies the role of fiction in the formation of national character. Dotoku koeiku course is the major document defining the principles of moral education. It states 24 moral values. Japanese teachers develop different educational methods, e.g. Essays on life, The heart’s notebook. In the XXI century, Japan aims at becoming ‘the society based on knowledge’. Although, literature is losing its esthetic and educational functions, and the status of book and reader is changing. Those who like reading are called ‘a book boy’ or ‘a book girl’. Literary products such as manga and ranobe have replaced traditional books.
As one of three majors, literature (‘reading’) is a part of the native language curriculum. The teachers are relatively free in choosing the programme. Reading aloud and repetition are essential for studying. It is through a fairy tale that a child is introduced into the culture of the country in primary school. Literary works of the XX century’s classics such as Rashomon, In a grove by Ryыnosuke Akutagawa, The Moon Over the Mountain by Atsushi Nakajima, Lemon by Motojirф Kajii are studied in high school. It is said in The New Course of Studies that a child should ‘enjoy reading’. This statement has caused a few discussions whether reading for entertainment is of a greater importance than reading for deep understanding.
Keywords: education system, basic documents, reading, methodology, literary work, fairy tale, literary product.
Galina Vasilyeva – PhD in Philology, Associate Professor at the Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management.
Е-mail: vasileva_g.m@mail.ru
Matsui Aki.
The collective singing as expressive activity: practice singing in different age groups of children
This paper discusses the significance of collective singing in mixed age childcare. Matsui (2013) reports that, when singing in a group, younger children spontaneously modeled themselves after their older peers and, by observing the facial expressions of the older children, were able to understand the song despite their inability to understand the meaning of all the lyrics. The study also reports that singing in a group promoted a sense of sharing that seemed to lead to a feeling of togetherness and to help them cooperate with each other.
This study prompted the author to investigate if the aforementioned positive effects could be replicated in kindergartens specializing in mixed age childcare. The author observed children’s collective singing in regular classes of four kindergartens chosen by the author. In none of the classes visited were children shouting while singing, except that one child, when singing in a group, sang too loudly but noticed his loudness and adjusted his tone to that of his peers. Collective singing seemed not only to keep children from shouting, but also to produce other positive effects. These observations substantiated the significance of collective singing in mixed age childcare and confirmed the findings of the previous study (Matsui, 2013).
Keywords: mixed age childcare, collective singing as an expressive activity, a shouting-like loud voice, vocal range, teaching of singing.
Aki Matsui – Lecturer of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Education, Sapporo Otani University.
Galickaja S. Р.
On the problem of monodic texture
The article highlights the lack of research of the traditional monodic music’s texture aspects. On the background of general conceptual characteristics of monodic type of musical organization such as monomelody and unilinearity, the author offers preliminary general typological characteristics connected to mono and multilayered texture and provides some ideas on their specification. There is still a lot to be discovered and clarified in this field; in particular, the terminology require further development. Eventually, the canonical texture invariants of certain traditional monodic musical cultures (ideally of each existing, including the Japanese one) are to be identified and thoroughly examined.
Keywords: monody, textural aspects of monodic music, mono and multilayered texture.
Savolina Galickaja – D.A., Professor at the Ethnomusicology Department of the Novosibirsk State Conservatoire named after M. I. Glinka.
Chabovskaya N. I.
The study of Japanese music culture in Tomsk (on the 15th anniversary of the ensemble of Japanese music “Hikari to kadze to”)
The article reveals work of Japanese music ensemble «The light and the wind,» the Denisov Tomsk Musical College (artistic director N. I. Chabovskaya) that was started in 2000. This year the band has celebrated the 15th anniversary of their work. The author describes the cast of the ensemble, which includes both college teachers and students, doing the performing practices. The article touches upon the prerequisites and the history of the ensemble, the geography of its concert performances, participation in festivals and other creative projects.
The regular cast of the ensemble currently consists of four college teachers: performer on koto N. Chabovskaya, flutist N. Sturova, pianist T. Clemens and vocalist T. Stukalova. The ensemble had G. Ishutina as a singer until 2013.
The ideological orientation of the ensemble is based on the syncretism of traditional Japanese culture and authenticity of performance. The vocal works are performed in the original language (Japanese), and stage costumes are kimonos and obis.
The ensemble performs pieces of traditional professional and modern classical music for the Japanese koto, for ensembles (a koto and a shakuhachi (flute), two kotos, two kotos and a flute), for voice and piano, processing and pieces for piano. Recently added modern Japanese pop songs and choreography.
Special attention is paid to concert and educational mission of the ensemble, its creative projects. Performances of the ensemble «The light and wind» are accompanied by conversations and stories about Japanese artistic traditions, commentaries, and sometimes they are an action or dramatization based on Japanese mythology. Sufficient detail in the article is regarded the semantic component of traditional Japanese music in connection with the specifics of the mentality of the nation, the customs, vital processes; the divine origin of koto, a variety of symbolic assimilation (from the material of manufacturing koto to the name of each string). All this serves as a context for the concert and educational programmes of the Tomsk Japanese music ensemble.
Keywords: koto, Japanese music, traditional culture, ensemble of Japanese music, musical college, content of professional music of oral tradition, syncretism, creative projects.
Natalia Chabovskaya – PhD in Arts History, director and teacher of music theory subjects at the Denisov Tomsk College of Music, the chairman of the Tomsk branch of the Russian Choral Society.
E-mail: midare@rambler.ru
Novokreshchenova A. A., Smirnova T. V.
On studying the symphony ‘programme’ of Viennese composers of the latter half of XVIII century
The article is devoted to understanding of the ‘programme music’ phenomenon and the specifics of its implementation in the symphonic music of leading composers of the Viennese classical school. Based on the compositions by Beethoven, Vranitzky brothers, Haydn, von Dittersdof, Mozart and Shpergera, the typology of special sort of ‘programme’ (or ‘characteristical’) symphony was created and examined taking into consideration its performance, intonational and thematical sources and the intentional and meaningful aspects. The symphonic typology includes such symphonies as: theatrical one, the one with elements of visual and stage action, the one for liturgical celebrations, social and political events, the one for secular ceremonies, a dedication to the noble person, the one that reflects the environment or the places of performance, the one with implements of some features of different national musical styles, the one imprinted with picture of nature consonant with the emotional condition of a person, and finally the one connected with ancient mythology. Examining the ‘programme’ (or ‘characteristical’) symphony of Viennese classics allows concluding that there was a diversity of symphony genre and its figurative and meaning expressions.
Keywords: programme music, absolute music, Vienna classical symphony, characteristicy.
Anna Novokreshchenova – a 5th year student at the M. I. Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatoire.
E-mail: annnovok@mail.ru
Tat’jana Smirnova – PhD in Arts History, Associate Professor at the Music History Department of the M. I. Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatoire.
E-mail: s-tatyana-v@mail.ru
Golovaneva A. S. Dmitry N.
Smirnov’s ‘Jacob’s ladder’ after the engraving of William Blake – a state-work
The article is devoted to the concept of Dmitry Smirnov’s work, created on the plot of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ engraving by William Blake. A comparison of meaningful aspects of musical and pictorial sources is made. In this context, symbols represented in Blake’s engraving and Smirnov’s music images – angels, James, of God, the stars, the stairs – are considered. It is noted that Blake’s images in the composer’s work have their own personalization by certain musical instruments. The prevalence of sleep, meditation seems to be the main and stresses the lack of vivid drama in Smirnov’s music. Based on V. Bobrovsky’s theory, in the considered piece one can observe mono-dramaturgy, or single-element dramaturgy, in which all means of musical expression aimed at recreating the state of sleep.
Keywords: Dmitry N. Smirnov, William Blake, arts synthesis, drama, meditation.
Angelina Golovaneva – postgraduate student of the Department of Music Theory and History at the Astrakhan State Conservatory.
E-mail: petrovagk@yandex.ru
Vavilov S. P.
The Sobolevsky family, musicians form Tomsk:
a Catholic and a Lutheran
The article deals with activities of the Sobolevsky family, who lived and worked in Tomsk in the first third of the 20th century. The contribution into the development of the town’s musical culture by P. Sobolevsky, the professor of the Tomsk Technological Institute, and his wife O. Sobolevskaya was reviewed. The article contains some interesting information about the musical life of the town. The Sobolevsky family were among the founders of the first Siberian Choral Society. The Society played a large role in reviving the town’s musical life in the 1920s. The author stresses that the spouses’ different religious views were not an obstacle for an active social and family life.
Keywords: Catholic, Lutheran, confession, Tomsk, concert, singer, pianist.
Stanislav Vavilov – PhD in Technology, Associate Professor at the Management Systems Optimization Dept. of the Computer Science Institute of the Tomsk National Polytechnic University.
Е-mail: baron@tpu.ru
