Conversations with a Country Road: Topological Narratives in Russian Music of the 20th and 21st centuries

Abstract

Narratives integrated into semiotics and the body of musical text have traditionally served as a means of conveying meaning and messages to a specific or anonymous audience. In scientific literature and journalism, there is an established opinion that Soviet music raised generations on corporate “correct” ideas and values and was periodically subjected to the negative influence of the West, which formed well-known binary oppositions such as “friend/foe”. With the collapse of the USSR, the situation in all spheres of society life changed, and musical narratives changed along with it. The proportion of scientific research on cultural trends and tendencies of the 90s is relatively high, but this cannot be said about Russian music of the second and, especially, the third decade of the 21st century. In addition to producing abstract conceptual sketches, it is necessary to study the details of narratives of contemporary music and identify their patterns depending on the selected aspect. The purpose of the study is to define and conceptualize topological patterns in musical narratives of Russian culture of the 10s-20s. of the 21st century, which is driven by the hypothesis of integrating spatial images into the texts and axiologizing topological concepts. As a result, the identified topological patterns are not only held within the framework of the traditional binary opposition of utopia/dystopia, but also probe to go beyond its boundaries, balancing on the border or trying to absorb the classical contradiction. The article is aimed at specialists in the social and humanitarian sciences, as well as all those who study musical culture or are fond of music.