Music in the Performances of the First Studio of Moscow Art Theatre: from La Marseillaise to Jester’s Song (1913–1917)

The exploration of the creative path of the Moscow Art Theatre’s First Studio and the Moscow Art Theatre the 2nd (1912–1936) is one of the current areas of modern theatre historiography. As the embodiment of all three aspects of the studio — educational and methodological, experimental and theatrical and “chamber-theatrical” — the troupe eventually crossed all the boundaries and became one of the most significant theatres of the 20th century. The experience in the production started itself at the point to which the Moscow Art Theatre’s directing was at 1912. The evolution of music in the studio’s performances of the pre-revolutionary period seemed to present in a condensed form the main achievements of the first 15 years of the Art Theatre. Creative problems that directors had to resolve: acceptance or denial of the playwright’s will to the sound design of the action, the introduction of an author’s or compilation musical composition, — were intertwined with organizational issues, the creation of an orchestra, and the invitation of composers. It was possible to judge the details of this process only from indirect information until recently. In 2023 the archive of the conductor N. N. Rakhmanov who worked in Moscow Art Theatre the 2nd was revealed (Russian State Archive of Literary and Arts) and it clarified much. The main task of the research at this stage is to systematize the complex of production materials of various kinds and fill in the information gaps that remain due to the loss of some musical scores and documents of production activities.