Ru
EnV. Tugaev, T. Shak
Music in the television serial film “Bad Weather” by S. Ursulyak: from social truth to psychological implication
The article is devoted to the analysis of the music of the television series “Bad Weather” by director S. Ursulyak (2018) filmed based on the novel of the same name by Al. Ivanov, based on real events from the lives of “Afghan” heroes after their return to their homeland in the context of political and social tendencies in Russia in the 1990s. The musical themes of the film are based exclusively on multi-style and multigenre quotations that perform a leitmotif function: Yu. Chichkov’s “Song on the Magic Flower” is Tanya’s leitmotif; G. F. Handel’s Menuetto in G minor is the leitmotif of the relationship between Tanya and Herman; E. Artemiev’s “Farewell to Russia” (from the feature film “Hitch-hiking”) is the leitmotif of the Motherland. Particular attention is paid to the song content represented by popular songs of Russian and foreign pop music, common in the latest quarter of the 20th century, and it plays an important role in expressing the ideological concept of the film. It is proved that the musical themes recreate three figurative-dramatic and plot lines of the series: lyrical-dramatic (relationships of the main characters), heroic-epic (reminiscences of Afghanistan, battle scenes), social (life and everyday life of “Afghans” after returning to their Homeland), which is reflected in the climaxes, classified by the emotional-expressive factor and location in the form. Analysis of the dramaturgic process allows us to conclude that the film presents a mixed type of dramaturgy implemented among other things through music and combining the features of the conflict-dramatic (dynamics of images, the wave principle of development of events with several “crescendo” climaxes and the denouement in the last frames of the film) and contrast-epic types (the presence of several parallel dramatic lines, the principle of contrasting comparison of events). Multi-genre quotation material helps to recreate the social authenticity of the events taking place due to the song layer and at the same time the psychological subtext conveyed by quotations from the music by G. F. Handel and E. Artemiev.
The genre of a multi-part television film is an important part of works by S. Ursulyak. The tendencies outlined in the principles of selection and introduction of musical material allow us to talk about the appropriate specificity of his directorial thinking.
Key words
genre of television series, song content, quote, leitmotif, dramaturgy, climax, film director S. Ursulyak.
For citation
Tugaev V., Shak T. Music in the television serial film “Bad Weather” by S. Ursulyak: from social truth to psychological implication. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2024. No. 4. Pp. 21–31.
