IX International Scientific Conference "St. Petersburg and National Musical Cultures: Musical traditions of the Caucasus peoples. To the 130th anniversary of the Boris Galaev birth

December 3-5, the Department of Organology, Russian Institute for the History of Arts, holds the X International Scientific Conference “St. Petersburg and National Musical Cultures: Musical traditions of the Caucasus peoples.To the 130th anniversary of the B.A.Galaev birth.

The conference is dedicated to one of the classics master of national ethnomusicology, folklorist, the founder of the Ossetian composer school, and conductor Boris Alexandrovich Galaev (Aslan-Girey Galati, 1889–1976). B.A.Galaev, being one of the brightest representatives of the Petersburg (Leningrad) scientific school of folklore, set the development vectors for the main areas of the Ossetian musical art and science: ethnomuscology, composing and conducting. In each of the pages of his oeuvre he left a highly professional heritage for the descendants.

The conference focuses on the musical cultures of the Caucasus peoples in their diversity of traditions, contacts, mutual influences, and historical destinies. The traditions of the peoples of the Caucasus region, with all their national uniqueness, have many common features due to the proximity of territories, the similarity of ways of socio-economic development, the fundaments of the formation of cultures and forms of life. The point of uniqueness for this region lies in the fact that today it is a source of live and carefully preserved traditions. Scientific reviewing of the current state, history of collecting, studying and publishing samples of traditional art of the Caucasus peoples, a synthesis of the achievements of scientists, educators, travelers – representatives of different nationalities is the purpose of this conference.

The discussion suggests the following range of issues:

– Boris Galayev heritage in the context of contemporary science and art of composition;

– Traditions of musical cultures of the Caucasus peoples;

– Musical instruments and instrumental traditions of the peoples of the Caucasus: functioning, reconstruction, performance;

– Nart’ epos as a model of the world of the peoples of the Caucasus;

– The phenomenon of choral polyphony in the culture of the peoples of the Caucasus;

– Gender aspects of authorship and performance in the traditional cultures of the Caucasus;

– Storytelling as an instrument of ethnic identification in the Caucasus;

– The problem of marginal and enclaved crops in the Caucasus;

– Saint Petersburg musical Caucasus studies;

– Composition schools of the Caucasus peoples: past and present.

– Traditional musical culture in the metropolis.

– Scientific understanding of national musical traditions in St. Petersburg and the North-West region of Russia.