Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Krusenstern et Lissiansky furent les premiers circumnavigateurs russes qui permirent à leur pays au XIXe siècle de concurrencer l’Angleterre dans le Pacifique Sud. Anciens cadets de la marine russe, ils avaient reçu une formation sur des vaisseaux de la Royal Navy selon des accords anglo-russes pour lutter contre la France révolutionnaire. Cette thèse porte sur le positionnement de la Russie dans le Pacifique Sud et sur ses capacités à égaler, sinon devancer sa rivale l’Angleterre, première puissance navale et commerciale. Les récits détaillés de Krusenstern et Lissiansky, d’autres circumnavigateurs russes qui surent profiter de leur savoir, ont été examinés.La Russie se positionnait timidement dans une région éloignée de ses frontières. Son Empire se construisit sur l’Eurasie, vaste bloc monolithique, avec une extension en Amérique constituée de l’Alaska et du territoire californien de Fort Ross. En tentant la colonisation dans les mers chaudes, la Russie craignait des tensions, voire des conflits avec les autres puissances, qui lui reprochaient déjà de trop s’agrandir au détriment de l’Empire ottoman, « l’homme malade de l’Europe »; l’équilibre des forces si cher à l’Angleterre n’était plus respecté. Pendant ce temps, l’Angleterre s’était lancée dans une colonisation intensive en Australie et en Nouvelle-Zélande; pour dissuader ses concurrents, elle annonçait officiellement l’annexion de ses nouvelles terres, et rapidement elle les peuplait, les explorait et les exploitait. Son but était de s’approprier de nouvelles matières premières pour alimenter sa puissante industrie et se p! réparer à d’éventuelles crises politiques et économiques venant d’Europe ou d’Amérique. Hawai’i était à cette époque un point central ouvert aux quatre principales puissances : l’Angleterre, la France, la Russie et les Etats-Unis; chacune essayait d’obtenir les faveurs du souverain local en attendant que l’une d’entre elles s’imposât.La Russie joua un rôle important dans le Pacifique Sud au niveau scientifique et technique. Ses circumnavigateurs avaient fait de très nombreuses découvertes géographiques, auxquelles ils avaient donné des noms glorifiant la Russie; ils améliorèrent les cartes de façon sensible. Ils surent bénéficier des meilleurs instruments de précision et des tout derniers ouvrages scientifiques pour obtenir des mesures et des résultats aussi conséquents que précis. La guerre de Crimée allait mettre en évidence les faiblesses d’une Russie qui s’était montrée jusqu’ici victorieuse et qui devait dorénavant se remettre en cause jusqu’à renoncer à certaines ambitions dans le Pacifique / Kruzenshtern and Lisianski were the first Russian circumnavigators who, in the nineteenth century, enabled their country to compete with England in the South Pacific. Former cadets in the Russian Navy, they had received training on Royal Navy ships in accordance with Anglo-Russian agreements to fight against revolutionary France. This thesis focuses on the position of Russia in the South Pacific and her ability to match, if not surpass her rival England, the first naval and commercial power. The detailed accounts of Kruzenshtern and Lisianski, other Russian circumnavigators who took advantage of their knowledge, were examined.Russia was positioning herself timidly in a region which was far from her borders. Her empire was built on Eurasia, a large monolithic block, with an expansion into America which consisted of Alaska and Fort Ross, a Californian territory. Attempting colonization in warm seas, Russia feared tensions or even conflicts with other powers, who accused her of seeking her expansion too much at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, the "sick man of Europe"; the balance of power so dear to England was no longer respected. England had begun an intensive colonization of Australia and New Zealand. In order to deter her competitors, she officially announced the annexation of her new lands, which she quickly populated, explored and exploited. Her goal was to obtain new raw materials to feed her powerful industry and to prepare herself for any possible political and economic crises from Europe or America. Hawai'i at this time was a focal point for the four major powers: England, France, Russi! a and the United States, each trying to curry favour whith the local monarch until one of them prevailed over the other three.Russia played an important role in the South Pacific in science and technology. Her circumnavigators had made many geographical discoveries, to which they had given names glorifying Russia; they also significantly improved maps. They were able to take advantage of the best precision instruments and the latest scientific literature to obtain consistent and accurate measures and results. The Crimean War was to highlight the weaknesses of Russia, who had so far been victorious, but now had to question and renounce certain of her ambitions in the Pacific Ocean

Diss. : Philosophische Fakultät : Münster : 1981. - Contient en annexe des Fables en langue russe. - Bibliogr. p.-213-226. Index. -

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät--Köln--Universität, 1988.

Diss.--Faculty of Humanities--University of Copenhagen, 1988. / Résumé en danois.

The primary focus of this thesis is a selection of lesser-known Ballets Russes works, which, despite being largely neglected in academic studies, constitute important chapters in the history of the company. The bright light of publicity that shone on Stravinsky - in particular on Le Sacre du Printemps - has cast shadows over other Ballets Russes works, creating an over-simplified historical perspective. This is not to deny that Le Sacre was a watershed moment for the company, and in seeking to enrich our understanding of its place within broader musical trends, the thesis is divided into three sections, representing works composed before, around the same time as, and after, Stravinsky’s notorious masterpiece. Following a brief introduction, and a descriptive chapter outlining Diaghilev’s artistic heritage, as well as Paris before the arrival of his company, the first section deals with the Ballets Russes’s early modus operandi; focusing on Nikolai Tcherepnin’s Le Pavillon d’Armide and Reynaldo Hahn’s Le Dieu bleu. The next explores the Ballets Russes in the wake of Le Sacre du Printemps, using Erik Satie’s Parade as an example of a ballet indebted to Stravinsky’s innovations. However, influence was not entirely a one-way phenomenon, and part of this section also discusses connections between the early Ballets Russes works and Le Sacre. Finally, the season of French ballets performed in 1924 allows me to reflect on the stylistic changes that occurred in the later years of the company, using Darius Milhaud’s Le Train bleu, Georges Auric’s Les Fâcheux, and Francis Poulenc’s Les Biches as examples of the company’s shift to an enterprise that placed greater emphasis on the visual. This research argues that even the lesser-known works, despite their apparent lack of musical innovation, contributed to the more path-breaking scores that have come to command scholarly interest. Moreover, the seasons I have highlighted reflect the changing ideologies of Diaghilev and his company, as it evolved from a Russian troupe inspired by the Mir Iskusstva, to a European artistic collective presenting the ideas of Cocteau and Les Six to Paris. Areas of future research extend from this thesis, as many other lesser-known ballets not encompassed here would clearly benefit from detailed scrutiny. Applying the principles of musical examination here outlined, together with an open-minded approach to new historical perspectives, should further help to redress the balance of scholarly attention that has skewed the overall understanding of the Ballets Russes.

During its twenty-year lifespan, the Ballets Russes (1909 to 1929) was celebrated for bringing together illustrious artistic and cultural figures to collaborate on exotic productions based on Russian, Spanish, English and French themes. Notable by its absence from the Ballets Russes’ exotic interests is the culture and music of America, and this despite that during the 1920s Americans culture was a source of fascination and unease in the European cultural imagination. The Ballets Russes’ impresario, Serge Diaghilev, is recognized as holding the culture of the New World in disdain, yet nonetheless commissioned a “typically American” ballet score from Chicago composer John Alden Carpenter in 1923, which resulted in a score featuring a skyscraper-inspired machine aesthetic, and the inclusion of jazz and spirituals. Carpenter’s ballet was dropped by the Ballets Russes before production and was ultimately premiered as Skyscrapers: A Ballet of Modern American Life by the Metropolitan Opera Company on 19 February 1926. This thesis seeks to better understand Diaghilev’s perceived disdain for American culture, the reasons that caused him to avoid the inclusion of an American ballet in the Ballets Russes’ repertory, and his motives for commissioning a score from Carpenter. Drawing on archival documents from the Library of Congress, I construct a historical narrative of the commission and offer insight into the complex politics of patronage in the Ballets Russes. Furthermore, I position Skyscrapers as a product of cultural transfer, thus illustrating the manner in which Carpenter conceived of his ballet as an American work for an international audience. Finally, I examine the Metropolitan production of Skyscrapers and how it perpetuated racial stereotypes and participated in the debates about the mechanization of American life during the 1920s.

Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät--Universität Zürich, 2004. / Bibliogr. p. 418-444.

Texte remanié de: Th. Ph. D.--University of London, 1987-1988. / Bibliogr. p. 185-194. Index.

Thesis--Columbia, 1976. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [383]-390).