The Russian musical art of the early XX century: Genrism

Abstract. Editor-in-Chief’s Column has accomplished publication of a large series of artistic-historical essays ‘Artwork Directions’ which consecutively considered the major epochs. Now we’d like to present one more cycle of essays ‘The Russian Musical Art of the Early XX Century’ covering native musical art of the turn and beginning of the XX century as an attempt to comprehend what was happening with the world and the man at the historic turning point from the era of the New to the Newest Time. The previous essays about the Russian musical art of the early XX century described its poles (2021. Vol. 14. Iss. 10), folk genre (2021. Vol. 14. Iss. 11) and “pagan” style in music (2022. Vol. 15. Iss. 2). The essay is devoted to providing insight into the peculiarities of formation and existence of the phenomenon of genrism in the Russian musical art of the early XX century. The paper examines both the most notable musical genre works (I. Stravinsky’s ballet “Petrushka” (1911), S. Prokofiev’s ballet “Chout” (1915)) and lesser-known examples belonging to the national musical comedy genre, written in the forms of a domestic comedy of manners and characters (U. Hajibeyov’s operetta “Arshin Mal Alan” (1911-1913), V. Dolidze’s comic opera “Keto and Kote” (1918)). Special attention is paid to determining the significance of the festive-hedonistic worldview for the figurative sphere under consideration. As a result, the author comes to the following conclusion: the active development of musical genre art, which covered the entire transition period from classic to modernity, became an indisputable and incredible phenomenon of the early XX century, reflecting the people’s ineradicable will to live, manifested in spite of all kinds of negative and frightening processes of the national history during that time.

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The Russian musical art of the early XX century: Genrism