Music by modern composers of Kazan in live art performances

This paper reviews trends in live art music performances staged in large, non-capital Russian cities using the example of Kazan. This is also the first review of the compositions “ With a Rope around the Neck ” by Rashid Kalimullin, “ In Complete Darkness, or Music by Touch ” by Elmir Nizamov and “ Once Napoleon Was Going to War with Russia ” by Roman Parkhomenko. Composed at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries and expressing tragic, lyrical and satirical attitudes towards reality, they demonstrate increasing interest in live art performances from the Kazan composers. These compositions are characterised by conceptualism, synthesis, synaesthesia, new perceptions of time and space, corporeality, immersion and improvisation. Being based on avant-garde stylistics, they defy strict fixation of text and use aleatoric and repetitive techniques, although without complete destruction of form. In Kazan, live art music performances pursue much more significant goals than just shocking the audience. Instead, they deal with good and evil, life and death and the role of the artist in today’s world, search for new ways of interhuman communication and deride any craving for world domination. In these processes, each composition assumes the changeability of meanings and semantic inversion. The specific feature of such performances in Kazan is that they take place in concert halls rather than in alternative venues. However, they blow up the conventional environment and rebel against conservative expectations. As a result, traditional concert venues take up new roles and become testing grounds for daring experiments. Live art music performances make their contribution to shaping the informal image of Kazan as a city that adopts modern cultural ideas.