Contemporary Musicology

Dear friends!

The journal Contemporary Musicology has crossed the six-year mark. From 2017 to 2022, the editors released 25 issues, which presented 145 publications in Russian and English ― this number included, for the most part, scientific articles reflecting the most pressing problems of today's music science, as well as translations of foreign studies and interviews with outstanding scientists. The journal collaborates with dozens of leading musicologists in Russia and abroad, publishes the best works of young researchers. Our journal has repeatedly become a co-founder of major international conferences and congresses held at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music ― such as Musical Composition, Opera in Musical Theater: History and Present Time, Ballet in Musical Theater: History and Present Time. Since November 2022, the journal has been included in the List of Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journals recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK), in which major research results from the dissertations of Candidates of Sciences (Cand. Sci.) and Doctor of Science (Dr.Sci.) degrees are to be published.

We strive to continue the declared course on the prompt publication of the latest scientific materials in the field of musicology. The tradition of announcing two main topics for their deep and comprehensive coverage at the beginning of each publishing “season” also remains unchanged. In 2023, these are ballet as a synthetic genre and contemporary music.

The ballet theme became a natural continuation of the idea of the International Conference Ballet in Musical Theater: History and Present Time (November 21-25, 2022). This large-scale event was held within the framework of the Priority 2030 program and coordinated by the Scientific and Creative Center for the Study of Musical Theater Issues (Gnesin Russian Academy of Music), and was organized by a consortium of universities for arts and research institutes for arts of Russia. The concept of the conference included coverage of the ballet genre issues from the most diverse angles ― its history, theory, practice, methodology, reconstruction, criticism; all components of ballet synthesis and the latest experiments in today’s choreography were discussed. A number of articles for the journal in 2023 were prepared by conference participants – they will begin to be published from the second issue of this year. Articles devoted to current music reflect the permanent attention of modern scientists to the musical creativity of the turn of the 20th and 21^st centuries. This year, the special selection of the topic in the journal occurred due to a significant date - the anniversary of the outstanding scientist, professor of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music Natalia Sergeevna Gulyanitskaya. Over many years of active scientific and creative work, Natalia Sergeevna became one of the leaders of a number of scientific areas in Russian musicology. A special place among them was occupied by contemporary music, compositional technique and pitch systems issues. In the first two issues of 2023, we publish articles written by N. S. Gulyanitskaya, her students, who continue the traditions of her scientific school, as well as the works of scientists whose scientific interests somehow intersect with the field of her research.

Irina P. Susidko