Three “Arkaim” Ballets: The Legendary Past of the Southern Urals in Contemporary Musical Culture

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of three musical ballets the composers of which have turned
to historical monuments and iconic artifacts which has made it possible to create impressive
images of the historical past of the region. For the Southern Urals, the Arkaim settlement
presents such a significant landmark site. Its remoteness in time grants composers the freedom
of creativity in determining their artistic decisions. At the same time, the general trend was
the utilization of musical materials from the relatively recent traditional layers of culture in
musical compositions. On the one hand, they are comprehensible to the public, and on the
other hand, they relate to the historical past, figuratively denoting the existent connection
with archaic times. A common motive in these works is also the composers’ desire to compare
modern culture with the spiritual traits of archaic antiquity. As a result, there emerge musical
and plastic images which refer to the origins of regional culture, while simultaneously revealing
contemporary issues of cultural memory as an important component of regional identity. Such
a difficult task is solved by composers through the variable use of the principle of musical
polystylistics.

Keywords: Arkaim, cultural landscape, historical artefacts, regional identity, ballet music,
polystylistics.