The concept “Rebel” in G. V. Sviridov’s “Oratorio Pathétique”

The paper proposes a new, unconventional view of the collective character “revolutionaries” in G. V. Sviridov’s “Oratorio Pathétique”. The aim of the work is to analyze this collective character as an objectified form of the artistic concept “Rebel”. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the application of a new interdisciplinary approach to the study of the collective character of the oratorio genre, which made it possible to delve into the semantic and emotional layers of the composition and reveal previously unestablished features of the interpretation of the image of revolutionaries. The author focuses her attention on the explication of the semantic content of the core of the concept “Rebel” and its surrounding associative layers related to the cultural and historical context. The verbal and musical features of the embodiment of the collective character are identified, revealing two content elements of the image – mechanistic and ritually ecstatic. The near and far periphery of the concept is characterized, correlating with the ontology and philosophy of the “military march” genre and with the cult perception of the 1917 revolution. As a result, a reconstruction of the image of “revolutionaries” was made, and it was determined that a number of cognitive core and peripheral features of the concept “Rebel” form its evaluative layer, which has a pronounced negative character. This calls into question the traditionally positive interpretation of the image of “revolutionaries” by Soviet musicology.