Oratorios of War and Peace
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
have manifested themselves in various genres, including those
of the cantata and the oratorio. Time has singled out three works:
Prokoiev’s “Alexander Nevsky” (1938) and Yuri Shaporin’s “On
the Kulikovo Field” (1939) and “The Story of the Battle for the
Russian Land” (1944). Prokoiev presents direct projections
on modernity, modeling the invasion of foreign troops and the
forthcoming battle with them. The conquerors appear in the
form of a hyperbole as a faceless, soullessly mechanical force,
incompatible with perceptions of human beings or humanity.
The image of the Russian people sublimates strictly the positive
and humane element. The maximally acute confrontation of the
musical material leads in a natural way to an inevitable collision of
antagonistic essences: in the movement titled “The Battle on Ice”
all the most essential elements for the conception of Prokoiev’s
cantata is brought together.
Shaporin, basing himself on the poetic cycle by Alexander
Blok, turned to the fateful period in the history of Rus. The genre
image of his symphony-cantata “On the Kulikovo Field” comes
close to that phenomenon in Russian literature as the warrior’s
narrative. The rhapsodized military valor is inspired by the heroic
patriotic idea of serving Russia.
In the oratorio “The Story of the Battle for the Russian Land”
the integral, complete cycle of the epic quality of the events with
a foretelling of the forthcoming future is consistently recreated.
An important feature of the composition is the markedly
positive quality of the images. Here there is no confrontation of
antagonistic forces, and the historical conlict itself ends up being
merely implicated. A sense of historical optimism permeates the
entire narrative. The work on the oratorio was carried out at the
height of the war, however, the composer is absolutely certain
of victory, and the title of the inal movement (“The Return of
Spring”) even divines the season in which the war ended.
Keywords: Sergei Prokoiev’s “Alexander Nevsky,” Yuri
Shaporin’s “On the Kulikovo Field,” “The Story of the Battle for
the Russian Land,” the Great Patriotic War in cantatas and oratorios
Article Details
Copyright
The rights on the results of intellectual activity and equated means of individualization are protected in accordance with Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The authorship, author's name, executor’s name, inviolability of the work and result of execution are protected by the rules of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of the author or executor, regardless of providing legal protection of such results of intellectual activity at the time of their forming.
Copyright laws regulate the civil legal relations for using works of science, literature and art. Such relationships are formed as the result of the author’s writing his or her texts. In this case the author can rightfully claim copyright of the work.
The author has certain rights to reuse the work (see: “Ethical Aspects in Terms of Multifold Publications).
Licenses
All copyrights on the articles belong to their authors. The author transfers the rights on using the article the publisher.
PDF versions of scholarly articles of the journal PMN are published by using the license Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives cc by-nc-nd, allowing loading and distributing works on the assumption of indicating the authorship. The works may not be changed in any way or used for commercial interests.
Criteria for Authorship, Co-authorship
The term “author” refers to all persons (co-authors) who have made a substantial contribution to conducting the research and creation of the manuscript and responsible for its content. The person (author) who has submitted the manuscript to the editorial board shall bear responsibility for the complete list of the group of authors and the changes made to the manuscript in accordance with the results of the peer reviewing and editing.
1. Authorship is based on the following criteria:
1) The author made a substantial contribution to the research activity and development of concept, collected the data, made analysis and interpretation of the data.
2) The author carried out the writing of the text of draft articles and edited it attentively and substantially.
3) The author approved the final version of the article prior to its submission.
4) The author bears responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript.
2. The authors shall guarantee that the submitted manuscript is the original work.
3. Scholarly reviews for some issue or other should be objective, present material in a wide range and at the same time take into account the views of the author of the review.
4. The authorship of scholarly publications is obligated to reflect accurately the contribution of individuals to the research activity, with specific information about the authors.
5. The authors may not mislead the readers by publishing acknowledgements of gratitude to people who were not actually involved in writing the work. Other persons who made contribution to the work, but are nevertheless not the authors, may be listed in the rubric of “Acknowledgements,” with indications of the type and extent of their activities.
6. Authors are obligated to provide a description of their contribution to the publication.
7. The order of authorship must be a joint resolution of co-authors. The authors should be ready to explain the order of their enumeration and listing.
8. The authors shall be entirely responsible for the correct definition of authorship acting in accordance with the rules adopted in their institution.
9. Investigators must ensure that only those persons who meet the criteria for authorship (that made a significant contribution to the work), shall be considered the authors, and the researchers who do not merit authorship will be excluded from the list of authors.
References
2. Nestyev I. V. Zhizn’ Sergeya Prokofieva [The Life of Sergei Prokofiev]. 2nd Edition. Moscow: Sovetsky Kompozitor, 1973. 713 p.
3. Sabinina M. D. Prokofiev [Prokofiev]. Muzyka XX veka [20th Century Music]. Part 2, Book 4. Moscow, 1984, pp. 7–43.
4. Levit S. I. Yury Aleksanrovich Shaporin: ocherk zhizni i tvorchestva [Yuri Shaporin: A Sketch of his Life and Work]. Moscow: Muzyka Press, 1964. 399 p.
5. Martynov I. I. Yu. Shaporin [Yuri Shaporin]. Moscow: Muzyka Press, 1966. 164 p.