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11LAST YEAR OF LIFE AND CREATIVITY OF P. I. TCHAIKOVSKY: 'PATH' FROM THE FUTURE
Abstract
The paper discusses the last year of life and creativ'ty of P.I. Tchaikovsky, which is interpreted as a nonlinear process including a 'cascade' of bifurcations and divided into three stages: order - chaos - new order. We are talking about fractals-processes of elementary, middle and final stages of development, as well as the presence of a 'point of golden section', which is thecharacteristic of non-linear systems of different origin having similar processes of self-organization. From the standpoint of synergy version, the composer's death appears in a different light. It becomes clearer contours, as synergistic simulation is based on real and specific facts of the biography of the composer. Perhaps, P.I. Tchaikovsky 'creates his own future, which leads to a restructuring of his consciousness. The feeling of fear of death disappears, and tired soul finally finds peace.
Keywords
P.I. Tchaikovsky, D.M. Ratgauz, romances, bell, death, nonlinear process, synergistic modeling
AUTHOR
Galina Grushko
PhD in Arts, teacher of the musical and theoretical disciplines Musical college of Rostropoviches Voronezh, Russia grushkogalina@maH.ru
Updating of a synergetic paradigm is obvious: thanks to synergetic the known phenomena and processes of the nature, culture and art appear in a new light. The evolutionary-synergetic approach is very effective in studying difficult open systems of the most various origin. It makes possible to define the general tendencies and universal algorithms of their development, explain genesis of new structures and model nonlinear processes (Knyazeva, Kurdyumov, 1994; Knyazeva, 1998; Melik-Gayzakyan, 2001; Budanov, 2007; Bransky, 2009).
The synergetic model of evolution finds new prospects in understanding pressing problems of the present: the description of the difficult open systems of such scale, as the Universe, the Metagalaxy or the Terrestrial biosphere; allows to comprehend problems of survival of the Person and the Mankind, feature of self-organization of biological and social objects in other foreshortening. Besides, the evolutionary-synergetic approach is very productive in research of the phenomena and processes of musical art: from new positions, it is possible to comprehend musical style and musical form, carry out the analysis of life and creativity of the musical genius (Klyuev, 2010; Grushko, 2013, 2014, 2015). In this way, we will consider the last year of life and creativity of P. I. Tchaikovsky.
Despite wide recognition and sincere delights of public, Pyotr Ilyich is weighed upon life of 'the wandering star' as he excessively is tired of continuous moving and 'obligatory inaction'. Minutes of 'absolute happiness' and 'pleasant condition of spirit' are short-termed, and are often replaced by disappointment: "There is a wish to write nothing, except plaintive outpourings. It is really amazing that I do not go crazy and I do not get sick from phenomenal, terrible melancholy" (Tchaikovsky, 1979, 211-212). However,
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sometimes he becomes almost cheerful as if something exempts him from sufferings and gloomy conditions of spirit. "You cannot imagine, - Pyotr Ilyich writes to his nephew Vladimir (Bob) Davydov, - what pleasure I feel, having convinced that time did not pass yet and that it is still possible to work" (Tchaikovsky, 1981, 43).
Though Pyotr Ilyich's mood is not coordinated with feeling of near death in any way, in compositions of the last year of life its image appears in various forms. So, the hero of the romance 'Night' (No. 2) from a vocal cycle, op. 73 (1893) on D. M. Ratgauz's verses is in a borderline between dream and reality, life and death, his forces die away. He suffers from hopelessness: "weak light of a candle grows dim", "the gloom is sad", "with the past ... the soul leads the conversation ...". Here Night is the synonym to death. The hero - the poet - the composer mourn each other, and also - everyone themselves. Chromatic groans-sighs with motive of "protivleniye" (a specular reflection of melodic turns in accompanied voice part) in combination with measured blows of a funeral bell (their 27) display a terrible condition of agonal languor. The same state is in the final of the cycle, in the romance "Again, as Before, Alone" (No. 6), where bell soundings (their 25), faltering in the beginning, announce transition to new measurement: the bell consecrates a way to other world.
Many poets are known to reflect painfully life and death. For example, A. N. Maykov wrote: "The death is a secret, the life is a riddle. Where is the decision? Chain? End? Ahead is disappearance or the wreath of immortality?". The shrewd psychologist I.F. Annensky tragically endures every minute of decreasing life and feels a borderline - 'here and there': "Oh, heart! When, freezing, you mortal will feel fear, there will be a hand that silently rock lira in a body, and return you, my heart, to the world, to the desired world!".
The death problem, destroying and making senseless, excites I.A. Bunin. Perhaps, life is given for 'struggling' with it: "Whether we are born with feeling of death? And if not ... I would love life as I love it ...?". His hero Arsenyev suggests: "We have no beginning and no end". Only memory unites generations and resists to death, non-existence, loneliness (Bunin, 1978).
M. Zarechny argues in a similar way, but from positions of quantum physics and esoterics: "... our true 'I' was never born and would not die ... 'I' is not a body and not a wave. It is the Ocean. And is transition of the one wave to another, when you are the Ocean, death?" (Zarechny, 2007, 177). John Donne does not agree with it, as "... the death of each person belittles me also, because I am unity with all the Mankind, and therefore do not ever ask, for whom the Bell tolls: it tolls on You" (Donne, 2012).
Unlike them, supporters of synergetrics believe that 'the brain environment' of a person as the self-organizing system serves as 'ground' for turning on mechanisms of self-organization at interaction with the world (Knyazeva, 2000; Kagan, 2003; Knyazeva, Kurdyumov, 2006). Balancing between chaos and order, the self-organizing system gets to an attractor cone that affects its behavior. Thus, memory does not disappear - it remains and continues to work, memory is the future of the past.
The self-organizing system seeks for self-preservation, infinitely comes back to the old 'to break' to the new, and, above all - exchanges energy and information with other systems. If their parameters coincide, there is a resonance effect, and information is demanded. In that case the law of analogies works: the similar is attracted by the similar.
Therefore, it is not surprising that, being at peak of creative glory, the composer, despite of load, pays attention to creativity of little-known, but 'talented poet', D. M. Ratgauz, and composes romances on his verses. Concern, continuous efforts, delay before the departure abroad, "to rewrite one opus": "I do not know what will be destiny of our romances, but I know that I wrote them with a great pleasure", - Pyotr Ilyich tells from Paris to his reporter. And, later he notifies: "... our romances are ready for printing" (Tchaikovsky, 1981, 92, 111, 135).
Pyotr Ilyich repeatedly emphasizes - 'our' romances, though he was not personally familiar with the poet, never met him, and saw his 'portraits' only in July, 1893, after writing the romances. "I do not doubt your sincerity at all", but, why "the tone of your poems is minor, your lira is adjusted on very sad harmony", and life "is sad and is inseparable with melancholy?". Why there is a tendency to grief and sadness? "I have a claim to be very sincere in t music- meanwhile after all I am mainly inclined to sad songs too, and like you ... I can consider myself a happy person!" (Tchaikovsky, 1981, 135, 153154).
Pyotr Ilyich does the first sketch to the romance 'The Sun Has Gone' at once, on the letter of the poet from September, 26 (1892) (Tchaikovsky, 1979, 36), which predicts the future in the verses: "Friend! Pray for me. I am praying for you!", seeking 'to see clearly' his own in him, and him is in his own. Any text can contain a prophecy, which itself influences future events and predetermines them (!). There is an unconscious expectation of realization of the told and its embodiment in life. In particular, 'the practicing philosopher of life' psychologist E.A. Tsvetkov does not doubt: "We create texts and we spin fabric of the destiny" (Tsvetkov, 2006, 40). Therefore, everyone is be able to start the program of future events as the word possesses the magic force.
This version has scientific justification. The perception (knowledge) defines external reality through process of the circular organization of nervous system: the learning person creates the world, both changing it and changing himself (Maturana, Varela, 2001). Therefore, many 'prophecies' are called into question. Perhaps, their authors 'create' the future, but do not foresee it. In life of the personality, nonlinear in all respects, "... the past does not predetermine the present - it is determined by unknown the future . attraction force of the present to the future" (Kagan, 2003, 221).
In February (1893), Pyotr Ilyich tells to his brother: "... I will compose small pieces for piano and romances, the symphony which then is again conceived, then opera, and then, perhaps, I will stop" (Tchaikovsky, 1981, 34-35). About what there was a phrase "I will stop"? Unless he feels 'something hopeless, final' and endures 'a mysterious stage' on the way to a grave? Or he has fatal presentiments and thoughts of death? There are no data about it. However, the negative installation in verses influences Pyotr Ilyich, and he follows it - the 'mysterious sympathy', which at once doubled after contemplation of portraits of the poet develops into something bigger. Accepting negative installation as 'the project of the future', the composer starts preparing his 'scenario' - creates a cycle of romances (on April 22 - on May 5, 1893). Preceding non-existence, psychological states of the hero - the poet comprehends as own. Then the feeling of tranquility comes, and sensation of fear of death disappears - its inevitability ceases to seem accident. On the contrary, the death becomes rescue as it exempts from terrestrial sufferings (night -dream - death).
Perhaps, the aspiration to counterbalance himself with the world leads to turning on protective mechanisms and reorganization of consciousness that, in turn, blocks the program of self-destruction. Therefore, individually developed mental protection through a bell that reflects a Christian synergy - a unification with the God - releases Pyotr Ilyich from 'fatality captivity'. However, the attempt to rescue himself and enter the new life, even if the sufficient potential of Divine Love is saved up, is unsuccessful: "Devilish li fe! There is no any pleasant minute: only eternal fear, melancholy, fatigue ... but now hour of release is close", - he exclaims (Unknown Tchaikovsky, 2010, 400). Though the bell, which mourns 'the gone ones' and rescues 'still not gone ones', is consciously chosen by him as a security measure, but "sacred faces are mournful and severe and the bell hoots, without stopping ... and heart is torn, and so is the destiny" (Dvoryashina, Eshurin).
So, the version of P. I. Tchaikovsky's death is offered. From the synergetric point of view, the last year of life and works of the composer is process, nonlinear in all respects, is "path" from the future. Mystical seems the fact that the turning point in his destiny
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coincides with the 'point of a golden ratio', separating the past and the future, an old regime from a new order, life from death. In this time appears a vocal cycle on D. M. Ratgauz's verses.
As any nonlinear process, the last year of life and creativity of P. I. Tchaikovsky includes three stages: the beginning - the middle - the end or, according to synergetic terminology, order - chaos - the new order. It is about fractals-processes of the initial, average and final stages of development peculiar to the self-organizing systems of the most various origin possessing similar processes of self-organization. In relation to the 'late' period of life and creativity of P. I. Tchaikovsky, these stages are as follows:
The first stage (order) - the past. Fatal 'acquaintance' with the poet D. M. Ratgauz (August-September, 1892) and information from the future; vigorous creative activity; creation of a number of works, including, Sixth symphony and vocal quartet 'Night';
The second stage (chaos) - a turning point between the past and the future, an old regime and a new order, life and death; symbiosis of the future - the past - the present, 'a point of a golden ratio'. Creation of romances as 'the project' of the future (on April 22 - on May 5, 1893); identification of himself with the hero - the poet; search of evolutionary alternatives and transition to a new state;
The third stage (the new order) - the future. Completion of process; sudden illness (October 20, 1893) and death (on October 25, 1893).
From synergetic positions, the new version of death of P. I. Tchaikovsky, receives, as it seems to us, rather serious justification, but, of course, can not be considered the ideal. Thanks to synergetic modeling, it gets accurate contours as it is based on the concrete and real facts of the biography of the composer, but not on fictions. Perhaps, Pyotr Ilyich himself 'creates' the future, knowing that such is his destiny. Even the illness, which blocks 'the wrong' behavior and the program of self-destruction, does not help him to change (Lazarev, 2008; Posnansky, 2011). However 'path' from the future allows to overcome sensation of fear of death and to find rest.
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FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL FORMS OF MOTIVATING UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS TO PERFECT THEIR PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
Abstract
In the paper, some topical problems concerning the financial position of the Russian university professors and different methods of financial and non-financial character that are meant to stimulate the faculty for continuous self-perfection and professional development are discussed. The analysis of the working conditions of the Russian professors shows that due to an extremely high teaching load they lack time for scientific research and other forms of activity. Having described the consequences of the crisis that struck the soviet system of higher education in 1990-s, the authors examine the present-day situation and come to the conclusion that Russian higher education again faces a crises, but this time it is provoked by organizational and social reasons. In this hard period, some urgent measures should be taken - in a form of financial and social stimulation - in order to support the Russian professors and to create safe and stable conditions for their personal and professional development. The results of the survey, which is aimed to highlight some topical problems in the life of the Russian professors, are presented. They show that not all the methods of professors' stimulation exist in Russia, and some of them are less popular among the Russian scholars than among their foreign colleagues.
Keywords
professor's salary, forms of remuneration and allowances, teaching acti^ty, scientific research, teaching load, methods of stimulation, professional development, financial and social forms of motivation
AUTHORS
Tatiana Isaeva Mikhail Chourikov Yulia Kotlyarenko
PhD in Education, Professor PhD in Language, Senior lecturer
Head of the Modern Associate Professor, Rostov State
Languages Department Deputy Dean, Transport University
Rostov State Rostov State Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Transport University Transport University kotlakot@rambler.ru
Rostov-on-Don, Russia Rostov-on-Don, Russia
isaeva.te@yandex.ru cmp_umu@rgups.ru
