Irina S. Stogniy

Professor of Analytical Musicology Department; Editor‑in‑Chief of the journal “Scholarly Notes of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music”

Biography

Musicologist and teacher.

She graduated from the Gnesin State Music and Pedagogical Institute (now the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music) in 1975 in the class of Associate Professor L. V. Popelyash. Her diploma thesis was entitled «On the Evolution of the Cantus firmus Tradition in the Late Fifteenth Century». She completed her postgraduate studies under Professor F. G. Arzamanov.

Her professional formation was profoundly influenced by her teachers F. G. Arzamanov, V. P. Bobrovsky, R. N. Berberov, R. K. Shirinyan, N. I. Peiko, O. B. Stepanov, and B. S. Ionin.

I. S. Stogniy began her teaching career in 1975. In 1986 she defended her Candidate of Art History dissertation «The Concept of Invariant in the Theory of Musical Language» at the N. A. Rimsky‑Korsakov Leningrad Conservatoire. Since 1987 she has taught at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music; in 1993 she became Associate Professor in the Department of Polyphony and Analysis (now the Department of Analytical Musicology).

From 1994 to 2011 she served as Dean of the Faculty of Professional Development (renamed the Centre for Professional Development in 2008). In 1995 she was appointed Executive Secretary of the Gnesin Academy Admissions Committee, a position she held for nine years. In 2006 she was awarded the academic title of Professor.

I. S. Stogniy created a new elective course in «Musical Semiology» for musicologists and composers.

She is the author of numerous educational and scholarly projects. In 1994 she initiated a cycle of musical gatherings aimed at bringing together musicologists and performers from different specialisations.

I. S. Stogniy organised the series of scholarly‑practical conferences «Semantics of Musical Language» (2001, 2003, 2005). The conference proceedings were published in collections for which she acted both as contributing author and editor‑compiler.

In 2005 she launched the conference cycle «Christian Images in Art», held in 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011, with the papers published in corresponding volumes. In 2006 and 2008 she curated the project «Problems of Artistic Interpretation», which combined a scholarly conference with master classes and concerts.

In 2012 she organised the All‑Russian conference «Spiritual Culture: Reality and Prospects» in Khabarovsk.

I. S. Stogniy takes an active part in conferences hosted by other institutions, including the Ippolitov‑Ivanov State Music and Pedagogical Institute, the Rostov State Rachmaninov Conservatoire, the Astrakhan Conservatoire, the Maimonides State Classical Academy, and the Ryazan Music College. She has given master classes at the Rostov Conservatoire and the Krasnodar Regional Methodological Centre.

She has repeatedly travelled to Krasnodar, Yoshkar‑Ola, Ryazan, Tver, and Ulyanovsk to provide methodological support. From 2002 to 2007 she led a regular seminar for teachers of music‑theory disciplines in Syzran. She has served on the juries of the All‑Russian Student Research Competition and the Young Composers’ Competition in Pushkino. Over different years she has chaired State Examination Boards at music colleges in Tver, Pushkino, Ryazan, and Ulyanovsk, and has been a member of attestation commissions in Elektrostal, Krasnodar, and Pushkino.

I. S. Stogniy often serves as official opponent on dissertation councils (three to four times a year), reviews scholarly works, and lectures on professional‑development courses for teachers of music institutions. She is the author of 53 works on contemporary issues in music theory, with particular emphasis on musical language and semantics, including the monograph «The Connotative Properties of Musical Text» (Moscow, 2013).

In 2013 she defended her Doctor of Art History dissertation «Processes of Meaning‑Formation in Music (A Semiological Perspective)» at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.

In 2013 I. S. Stogniy received a Commendation from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation «for her high level of teaching, organisational, and creative work and her significant contribution to the professional training of musicians».

Publications, projects, and conference activity:

Selected publications:

«Language as a Problem of Musicology», in Voprosy intonatsionnogo analiza i formoobrazovaniya v svete idey B. V. Asaf’yeva, Leningrad Conservatoire, 1985, pp. 63–77;
The Concept of Invariant in the Theory of Musical Language, Candidate dissertation, Moscow, 1986, 186 pp.;
«Invariance in Music as a Semiotic Problem», in Muzykal’nyy yazyk v kontekste kultury, Gnesin Institute, issue 106, Moscow, 1989, pp. 23–41;
«On the Constructive Function of Semantic Oppositions in a Musical Work», in Voprosy poetiki i semantiki muzykal’nogo proizvedeniya, Gnesin Academy, issue 144, Moscow, 1998, pp. 26–37;
«On the Specific Structure of Choral Composition (Towards the Problem of Choral Performance)», in Teoriya i istoriya khorovogo ispolnitel’stva, Gnesin Academy, issue 142, Moscow, 1998, pp. 22–42;
«On the Semantic Multi‑Dimensionality of the Musical Work», in Muzykal’naya konstruktsiya i smysl, Gnesin Academy, issue 151, Moscow, 1999, pp. 40–52;
«The Meaning‑Forming Role of Detail in Musical Text», in Muzykal’noye obrazovaniye v kontekste kultury, Gnesin Academy, conference proceedings, 1998/2000, pp. 177–188;
«The “Hidden Motif” in the Musical Work», in Muzykovedeniye k nachalu veka: proshloye i nastoyashcheye, Gnesin Academy, conference proceedings, 2002, pp. 209–225;
«Some Aspects of Semantic Analysis of the Musical Work», in Semantika muzykal’nogo yazyka, conference proceedings, Gnesin Academy, 2004, pp. 54–60;
«Internet and Interpersonal Relations in an Arts Institution», in Etika i kultura mezhlichnostnykh otnosheniy v obrazovatel’nom prostranstve vuza, Ippolitov‑Ivanov Institute, 2003, pp. 59–64;
«Analysis in Various Music‑Theory Disciplines», in Muzykal’noye obrazovaniye v kontekste kultury, Gnesin Academy, conference proceedings, 2004, pp. 81–92;
«Background Form as a Semantic Component of the Musical Work», ibid., 2004, pp. 150–157;
«The Semantics of “Play” in Beethoven’s Eighteenth Piano Sonata», in Semantika muzykal’nogo yazyka‑2, Gnesin Academy, 2005, pp. 50–57;
«Techniques of Expressing Irony in Music», in Semantika muzykal’nogo yazyka‑3, Gnesin Academy, 2005, pp. 158–164;
«The Semantics of Variation in Brahms’s Piano Sonatas», ibid., 2006, pp. 118–127;
«Musical Semantics and the Problems of Analysing Musical Content», in Muzykal’noye soderzhaniye: sovremennaya nauchnaya interpretatsiya, Rostov‑on‑Don Conservatoire, 2006, pp. 136–161;
«Objects of Analysis and the Limits of Interpretation», in Interpretatsiya khudozhestvennogo teksta i analiz muzyki, Ippolitov‑Ivanov Institute, 2007, pp. 3–17; and in Protsessy muzykal’nogo tvorchestva, Gnesin Academy, issue 9, 2007, pp. 225–242;
«The “Geometry” of Compositional Space as a Bearer of Christian Imagery in Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem», in Khristianskiye obrazy v iskusstve, Gnesin Academy, issue 170, vol. 1, 2007, pp. 211–221;
«The Genre Dimension in Analytical Hierarchy», in Muzykal’noye obrazovaniye v kontekste kultury, Gnesin Academy, 2008, pp. 180–188;
«Tonal Dramaturgy in J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion», in Khristianskiye obrazy v iskusstve, Gnesin Academy, issue 171, vol. 2, 2008, pp. 33–48;
«Bach’s Keyboard Toccatas: From Semantic Polyphony to Polyphony of Forms», in Pax sonoris, Astrakhan Conservatoire, 2008, pp. 157–162;
«Musical Semiotics: History and Practical Significance», in Muzykal’naya semiotika: puti i perspektivy razvitiya, Astrakhan Conservatoire, 2008, pp. 17–22; and later in Uchenyye zapiski of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2018, no. 4, pp. 66–74;
«The Tonal Aspect of Musical Semantics», in Muzykal’noye obrazovaniye v kontekste kultury, Gnesin Academy, 2009, pp. 181–200;
«Interpreting the Psalm Text in Bach’s Cantata No. 150», in Problemy khudozhestvennoy interpretatsii, Gnesin Academy, 2010, pp. 102–115;
«Interpretation: Idea, Necessity, Inevitability?», in Ispolnitel’skoye iskusstvo i muzykovedeniye, Maimonides Academy, 2010, pp. 328–340;
«The Idea of “Dual World” in Stylistic Interpretation», Gnesin Academy, 2010, pp. 39–51;
«Metaphor in Music: Formulation of the Problem», and «Metaphorical Language in Music», Muzykovedeniye, 2010, nos. 10 and subsequent issues, pp. 11–16;
«Interaction of Explicit and Hidden Semantic Layers in Music», Musicus, 2010, nos. 3–4, pp. 17–22;
«Christian Images in Secular Choral Miniatures by Russian Composers», Muzyka i vremya, 2010, no. 7, pp. 24–29;
«The Phenomenon of “Background” in Music», Muzykovedeniye, 2011, no. 11, pp. 2–10;
«Aspects of Semiotic Research in Music», in Voprosy muzykoznaniya, Schnitke Institute, 2011, pp. 11–19;
«Piano Cycle Four Gospel Scenes by V. Ryabov», in Khristianskiye obrazy v iskusstve, issue 4, Gnesin Academy, 2011, pp. 87–97;
«Tonal Semantics in Bach’s Passions», in I. S. Bakh, G. F. Gendel’, A. Skarlatti, Gnesin Academy, 2011, pp. 80–89;
«Problems of Intertextuality in Music», and «Modes of Intertextuality in Music», Astrakhan Conservatoire and Musicus, 2011, pp. 36–44 and 28–33;
«Romantic Irony as an Aspect of the Tragic», in Romantizm: istoki i gorizonty, Gnesin Academy, 2012, pp. 43–50;
«Interaction of Meditative and Expressive Principles in Music», Astrakhan Conservatoire, 2012, pp. 12–24 and later reprinted in 2017 conference volumes;
«Musicology as a Semiotic Discipline», in Iskusstvovedeniye v kontekste drugikh nauk, Maimonides Academy and RGSU, 2012, pp. 340–346;
«Mythopoetic Space in V. Ryabov’s Piano Cycle Four Gospel Scenes», in Teatr, zhivopis’, kino, muzyka, 2012, no. 4, pp. 121–135;
«Semantic Multi‑Dimensionality of the Musical Work», Muzykovedeniye, 2012, no. 10, pp. 2–9;
«Semantics of Musical Forms», Astrakhan Conservatoire, 2012, pp. 23–30;
«The Symphonic Poem from Liszt to Strauss», in F. List: po prochtenii geniya, Herzen University, 2013, pp. 61–69;
«Intertext as Dedication: V. Ryabov’s Piano Fantasy in C Minor in Memory of Maria Yudina», Gnesin Academy, 2013, pp. 206–214;
«Musical Intertext and Connotations», Muzykovedeniye, 2013, no. 1, pp. 3–13; and «Connotations of Musical Text», Muzyka i vremya, 2013, no. 4, pp. 24–32;
monograph The Connotative Properties of Musical Text, Gnesin Academy Press, 2013, 224 pp.; and Doctoral dissertation «Processes of Meaning‑Formation in Music (A Semiological Perspective)», Gnesin Academy, 2013, 414 pp.;
«Modest Mussorgsky: Creativity as Confession», Nash sovremennik, 2014, no. 3, pp. 257–265;
«Searching for Deeper Meanings through Intertextual Analysis», Uchenyye zapiski of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2014, no. 4, pp. 55–70;
«Musical Form as a Semantic Concept», online conference «Musical Scholarship in the Unified Cultural Space», Gnesin Academy, 2014;
«On the Specific Nature of Semantic Analysis», in Teoriya muzyki: aktual’nyye voprosy metodiki prepodavaniya, Gnesin Academy, 2015, pp. 58–69;
«Denotatum and Connotatum in Analysing Musical Meaning», in Muzykal’naya nauka v XXI veke, Gnesin Academy, 2015, pp. 504–515;
«The Theory of Connotations in Musical‑Text Research», in Iskusstvovedeniye v kontekste drugikh nauk, RGSU, 2015, pp. 472–481; and «The Musical Work in the Light of Connotation Theory», GKA im. Maimonida, 2015, pp. 252–263;
«On Two Semiological Conceptions of Music», e‑journal Izrail’ XXI, 2015, no. 52;
«F. G. Arzamanov», in Istoriya uchebnykh zavedeniy, Gnesin Academy, 2015, pp. 165–168;
«Musical Connotations and Their Role in Unfolding Meaning», Muzykovedeniye, 2016, no. 1, pp. 3–12;
«Artistic Concepts in G. Sviridov», GKA im. Maimonida, 2016, pp. 334–344;
«Inserted Plot and Its Role in Dramaturgy», in Muzykal’noye iskusstvo i nauka v sovremennom mire, Astrakhan, 2016, pp. 18–25;
«Analysis in Different Theory Disciplines», IV online conference «Musical Scholarship in the Unified Cultural Space», Gnesin Academy, 2016;
«Text‑within‑Text Composition and Its Role in Music», GKA im. Maimonida, 2017, pp. 341–351;
«Interaction of Meditative and Expressive Principles», Schnitke Institute, 2017, pp. 273–284;
«Intertextuality in Music: Variations on a Theme», Sovremennyye problemy muzykoznaniya, 2017, no. 3;
«The Method of Connotative Analysis», in Aktual’nyye problemy muzykal’nogo analiza, Ippolitov‑Ivanov Institute, 2017, pp. 33–46;
«The Concept of Dual World: Dialogues with J. S. Bach», Muzykovedeniye, 2017, no. 10, pp. 32–41;
«Tonal Plot in the Musical Work», in Muzykal’noye obrazovaniye v kontekste kultury, Gnesin Academy, 2017, pp. 18–33;
«On the Specificity of Gospel Imagery in Early Twentieth‑Century Russian Music», in Novozavetnyye obrazy i syuzhety v kulture russkogo modernizma, Indrik, 2018, pp. 627–641;
«The Musical Work in the Light of Connotation Theory», Uchenyye zapiski of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2018, no. 3, pp. 66–79;
«Polyphony of Meanings: Towards an Integral Image of the Musical Work», in Muzyka–Filosofiya–Kognitivistika, GII, 2018, pp. 58–65;
«Musicology and Philology: A Dialogue of Disciplines», in Traditsii i perspektivy iskusstva kak fenomena kultury, GKA im. Maimonida / Kosygin University, 2019, pp. 216–232;
«Tonal Dramaturgy: A Narratological Aspect», abstract in IV Congress of the Russian Society for Music Theory, Kazan, 2019, pp. 47–48;
«R. Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten: Symbolic Context and Imagery Metamorphoses», in Opera v muzykal’nom teatre, Gnesin Academy, 2020, pp. 489–496;
digital manuals Analysis of Choral Works, Part 1; Objects and Methods of Semiotic Analysis; Semiotic‑Linguistic Methods; Narrative‑Compositional Unfolding of Musical Text, Gnesin Academy, 2019–2020;
«The Musical‑Poetic World of Sviridov’s Poem Otchalivshaya Rus’: Artistic Concepts», Uchenyye zapiski, 2021, no. 4, pp. 69–82;
«The Chorale Es ist genug from Bach to Denisov», Uchenyye zapiski, 2022, no. 4, pp. 20–32;
«Anton Bruckner’s Motets on Pange lingua and Tantum ergo», Muzykovedeniye, 2023, no. 5, pp. 3–14;
«R. Strauss’s Ballet Die Legende von Josef: Musical Interpretation of a Biblical Plot», Uchenyye zapiski, 2024, no. 1, pp. 46–70;
«Theory and Practice of Musical Semiology», Mir muzyki, 2024, no. 3, pp. 77–89;
«Genre Invariance in the Works of Paul Hindemith», Zhurnal Obshchestva teorii muzyki, 2024, no. 4, pp. 50–65.

Conference activity 2014–2017:

«Denotatum and Connotatum in Analysing Musical Meaning», paper at the conference «Musical Education in the Context of Culture», Gnesin Academy, 14–17 October 2014;
«Searching for Deeper Meanings through Intertextual Analysis», paper at the international conference «Musicological Forum 2014», Gnesin Academy, 17–19 November 2014;
«Christian Motifs in Secular Choral Music by Russian Composers», paper at the Christmas Readings «Spiritual Music of the Twentieth and Twenty‑First Centuries», Moscow Conservatoire, 26 January 2014;
«The Theory of Connotations in Musical‑Text Research», paper at the international conference «Art Studies in the Context of Other Disciplines», RGSU, 13–18 April 2015;
«The Musical Work in the Aspect of Connotation Theory», paper at the international conference «Art as a Cultural Phenomenon: Traditions and Prospects», Maimonides Academy, 13–19 April 2015;
«The Method of Connotative Analysis», paper at the international conference of the Ippolitov‑Ivanov Institute, October 2015;
«Tonal Plot in the Musical Work», paper at the international conference «Musical Education in the Context of Culture», Gnesin Academy, 1–3 November 2016;
«Spiritual Concepts in Sviridov», paper at the Christmas Readings «Spiritual Music in the Twentieth and Twenty‑First Centuries», Moscow Conservatoire, 28 January 2016;
«Sviridov’s Otchalivshaya Rus’: Artistic Ideas», paper at the international conference «Art as a Cultural Phenomenon: Traditions and Prospects», Maimonides Academy, 12–16 April 2016;
«Text‑within‑Text Composition and Its Role in Dramaturgy», paper at the international conference «Art as a Cultural Phenomenon: Traditions and Prospects», Maimonides Academy, 11–15 April 2017;
«Intertextuality in Music: Variations on a Theme», paper at the international conference «Technique of Musical Composition: One’s Own and the Other’s», Gnesin Academy, 20–21 April 2017;
«Interaction of Meditative and Expressive Principles: A Territory of Meanings», paper at the international conference «Art Studies in the Context of Other Disciplines», Schnitke Institute, 23–28 April 2017;
«On the Specificity of Gospel Imagery in Early Twentieth‑Century Russian Music», paper at the international conference «New Testament Images and Plots in Russian Culture of the Early Twentieth Century», A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature, 21–23 November 2017.