UDC 004.8
DOI: 10.36871/hon.202304044

Authors

Irina V. Alekseeva,
Ufa State Institute of Arts named after Zagir Ismagilov, Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan, 450008, Russian Federation

Abstract

In the spiritual life of a person, remembrance plays a significant role. The resurrection of the priceless past experience of one’s own and someone else’s opens the way to comprehension of the present, one’s own Self. Artists strive to reflect the amazing ability of a person to cross the border of the real and sacred worlds in memory. In the musical art of the second half of the XXth — early XXIst centuries, the theme of memory is embodied through a dialogue of compositions from different eras, traditions, concepts. In this vein, the article examines the unique composition by our compatriot and contemporary Mikhail Kollontay “Ten Words of Mussorgsky on the Death of Viktor Hartmann” for piano, cello and violin. Created in the wake of Mussorgsky’s piano cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” and the International Competition and Festival of Arts in Vienna (1993), the trio embodies the journey of human memory along the paths of the afterlife. Reflecting the aesthetics of postmodernism and not belonging to the sphere of sacred music, the composition is devoted to the key themes of “life and death” and “salvation through repentance” for the Russian Orthodox consciousness. It intricately intertwines intra- and extramusical components (title, titles of plays, quotations from literary sources, artistic artifacts, comments in the author’s letters, etc.), which form a dialogue between the “alien” and the “own”, the past and the present, the secular and the spiritual. The analysis of the timbro-sonic side, intonation vocabulary, thematicism and its compositional and dramatic organization reveals vivid signs of the poetics of memory. They build an original concept of the trio, which demonstrates its enduring value in the Russian and, wider, world cultural space. The article is addressed to professional musicians, postgraduate students and specialists in the field of musicology.

Keywords

memory, past, postmodernism, “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky, Kollontay trio, title, theme, plot