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EnE. Petondi, E. Lobzakova
Implementing of the hagiographic tradition in the artistic system of the cantata “Sergius of Radonezh” by I. Vorobyov
Correlation with the experience of previous eras, the discovery of origins, and the clarification of the role of traditions in creating a new artistic integrity is one of the most relevant perspectives for analyzing a musical work in modern musicology. The cantata “Sergius of Radonezh” (2014) by the St. Petersburg composer Igor Vorobyov, which interprets the image of the great Christian ascetic within the framework of a secular choral genre, confirms the immense significance of Old Russian culture and ecclesiastical tradition for the development of contemporary music. The process examined in the article – the embodiment of the principles of the hagiographic genre at various semantic and structural levels of the musical work (ideological concept, libretto, composition, dramaturgy) – demonstrates the specifics of the author’s approach, which consists of a significant modification of its canon. For instance, at the verbal level of the cantata, the traditional sequence of reflecting the saint’s path through stages characteristic of a vitae is outwardly preserved: the rejection of the worldly in youth, the description of the saint’s feats, death, and veneration. The compositional and dramaturgical organization of the work, based on a contrasting composite form, can be interpreted in connection with the leading structural principle of hagiographic narrative, which represents a series of pictures arranged chronologically but not connected by a single dramaturgical line. However, the internal semantic content of the cantata, characterized by a predominance of an emotional-psychological and even dramatic mode in interpreting the image of the saint and his path, as well as the logic of the musical development governed by numerous intonational-thematic connections, provides grounds for arguing that the vitae is present in the artistic system of the cantata “Sergius of Radonezh” as a “genre image” or as a “depicted genre”.
Key words
I. Vorobyov, cantata “Sergius of Radonezh”, hagiographic narration, dialogue between secular and religious, composition and dramaturgical organization.
For citation
Petondi E., Lobzakova E. Implementing of the hagiographic tradition in the artistic system of the cantata “Sergius of Radonezh” by I. Vorobyov. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2025. No. 4. Pp. С. 121–131.
