AT THE ORIGINS OF RUSSIAN MUSICOLOGY: A. N. SEROV (on the 200th anniversary of his birth)
The purpose of the article is to study A. N. Serov’s contribution into Russian musicology through solving the following tasks: identification of the specifics of his musicological analysis and methodol-ogy; the significance of Serov’s most important works (on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and “Leonore Overture,” Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar,” etc.); the influence of Serov’s methodology on Russian musicology of the 20th century (B. V. Asafyev’s theories of intonation, symphonism, and musical form. The article explores Serov’s conceptions of the structure of musicology, which includes musical aesthetics (philosophy of music), history of music, and a whole range of theoretical disciplines (harmony, counterpoint, the theory of form, instrumentation, etc.). The conclusion is drawn that Serov strove to achieve a synthetic, generalizing view, both within the framework of musical science as a whole (it is confirmed by the above-mentioned structure of musicology) and within the framework of theoretical disciplines (musical science in a narrow sense). Serov achieves his goal by applying the thematic analysis, which is in fact the analysis of the musical dramaturgy of an instrumental piece or an opera.