Leonid Myasin's Music Laboratory: on the 125th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding choreographer

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of the musical component of the artistic activity of the outstanding choreographer of the Russian diaspora Leonid Myasin (1895-1979), whose 125th birthday is celebrated by the theatrical world in 2020. The main milestones of the choreographer's musical education are noted, the spectrum of his musical interests is revealed, and techniques of working with the music of the created ballets are studied. The purpose of the research, carried out using historical and typological methods, is to study the stages of the formation of the choreographer's musical maturity, his author's style. The circumstances of Myasin's collaboration with contemporary composers Manuel de Falla, Eric Satie, Sergei Prokofiev, Paul Hindemith are considered. Special attention is paid to the process of formation of a system of artistic methods of working with music in the joint work of the choreographer with Igor Stravinsky on the implementation of the ballets "Pulcinella", "Sacred Spring". The questions of Myasin's attitude to such spheres of musical expressiveness as rhythm, dynamics, timbre are highlighted. The methods of the choreographer's work with works of symphonic music are studied, the methods of achieving musical and plastic synthesis in the stage solutions of Myasin's choreographic symphonies are analyzed: "Omens" (1933) to the music of the Fifth Symphony by P. Tchaikovsky, "Choreartium" (1933) to the music of the 4th Symphony by I. Brahms, "Fantastic Symphony" (1936) to the music of the symphony of the same name by G. Berlioz, etc. It is concluded that the laws of musical composition and dramaturgy were a source of artistic renewal and enrichment of the author's style for the choreographer, the development of the intellectual beginning of his choreography.