• Music in the Performances of the First Studio of Moscow Art Theatre: Baleful Maidens and Cursed Kings (1918–1921)

УДК: 792.2(=161.1)"1918/1921"+792.027

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2025-3-32-54

EDN: AUVKQJ

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Alexander V. Naumov

Cand. Sc. in Art Studies, Senior Researcher in the History of Music Department
State Institute for Art Science
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: alvlnaumov@list.ru

Music in the Performances of the First Studio of Moscow Art Theatre: Baleful Maidens and Cursed Kings (1918–1921)

Abstract

The formation of musical traditions of the First Studio of Moscow Art Theatre took place within the first five years of the theatre existence (1913–1918) in the same vein as all types of the activities: educational and methodological, experimental-staging and chamber-theatrical. The promotion of the Studio actor N.N. Rakhmanov to the post of head of the musical department was one of consequences. Materials of the composer’s archive are the main source for the study. The main feature of such a historical stage of this article was the “riddance of the studio principles” and its transformation into a full-fledged repertory theatre with a simultaneous search for some new techniques in a directing and acting (deriving the future “Stanislavsky system”). At the same time, there was a continuous, “latent struggle” between poetic and prose drama in the repertoire throughout 1918–1921. Rhythm and style, dictated by literary sources of different natures, produced several acute questions. Ultimately, they identified the difference between the “schools” of Stanislavsky’s followers, the Studio’s directors Boleslavsky and Vakhtangov. Stylistic transformation had a significant impact on the musical aspect of performances. Creative requests invoked to the expanding the orchestra and organizing a professional choir, in spite of “the struggle-communism epoch” difficulties. The Studio went in parallel with the Moscow Art Theatre and its founders, and appealed to the forms of music theatre in the early 1920s. Later, when the Studio invited composers to work on the performances, the significance of existing was reconsidered. The main goal of the study is still the systematization of the production materials complex (in various kinds) and the filling of information gaps that remain due to the loss of some musical scores and production documents.

Keywords

The First Studio, Moscow Art Theatre, K.S. Stanislavsky, R.V. Boleslavsky, E.B. Vakhtangov, Nadejda Bromley, Iorio’s Daughter, Balladina, theatre music.

For citation

Naumov A. V.Music in the Performances of the First Studio of Moscow Art Theatre: Baleful Maidens and Cursed Kings (1918–1921). Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2025, no. 3, pp. 32–54.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2025-3-32-54

EDN AUVKQJ

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Received: 14.02.2025

Revised: 11.05.2025

Accepted: 17.07.2025