Ru
EnK. Zhabinsky
“Chronicle of S. Rachmaninov’s life and work” in context of modern problems of the Russian musical biographical literature
The article is devoted to the actual problems of modern musical and biographical literature (in particular, research) as one of the priority components of Russian musicology. It is noted that the main trends of socio-cultural development observed in the “Perestroika” and post-Soviet Russia predetermine a visible increase in public interest in stories about the life and work of outstanding musicians, primarily composers. This determines, in particular, a noticeable convergence of the research and “popular” spheres of musical biography, its “fictionalization” and “conceptualization”, increased political “engagement” in biographical publications of the modern era (1990–2020s). In turn, this naturally gives rise to a special role and significance of the methodological foundation of the newly created research biography, the need for a consistent correlation of the individual concept of the latter with the universal provisions of modern historical science. Special attention should be paid to the currently implemented large-scale research projects – documented descriptions (chronicles) of the life and work of the greatest Russian musicians. The author of the article turns to a similar “Chronicle” devoted to S. Rachmaninov, revealing the deep logic of the conjugation of traditional research principles and controversial “innovations” in various aspects of biographical narration – from the initial guidelines related to the selection and positioning of the sources involved, to the compositional distribution of the relevant material. At the same time, the need for consistent use of relevant information provided by the humanities is emphasized as a significant factor in the newly made “Chronicle” – from the regularly updated approaches to the transliteration of foreign-language surnames to the materials of modern archival research. The specific function of pageby-page comments and reference apparatus as important information elements of the specified genre of musical biography is designated.
Key words
modern biographical literature, musical biography, chronicle genre, S. Rachmaninov, composers’ archives.
For citation
Zhabinsky K. “Chronicle of S. Rachmaninov’s life and work” in context of modern problems of the Russian musical biographical literature. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2024. No. 4. Pp. 126–136.
