Abstract: The subject of this research is the aesthetic stance of M. F. Gnessin viewed in comparison of the aesthetic perspectives of his contemporaries. The object of this research is the scientific-critical texts of M. F. Gnessin, L. L. Sabaneev, V. G. Karatygin, V. I. Ivanov, H. A. Laroche, A. Schoenberg, B. V. Asafyev and others, which reflect the key aspects of their aesthetic position. Emphasis is made on the questions of the essence of musical art, peculiarities of music creation process, and problem of synthesis of arts. The main method became the analysis of manuscript and printed texts of M. F. Gnessin, as well as the comparative analysis of aesthetic concepts of M. F. Gnessin, L. L. Sabaneev, V. G. Karatygin, V. I. Ivanov, A. Schoenberg, and others. The conclusion is drawn that M. F. Gnessin in one of the most progressive thinkers of his time, who studied the relevant problems of musical aesthetics: the nature of music, interrelation of arts, role of “emotions” and “reason” in the process of composing, The author detect parallels in the views of Gnessin and the ideas of A. N. Skryabin, V. E. Meyerhold. W. W. Kandinsky, A. Schoenberg (in the field of synthesis of arts), L. L. Sabaneed. A. Schoenberg (in the area of musical-vocal communications); as well as certain differences, such as introduction of the original definitions of “primary” and “limit” elements of art, “consubstantiality” of the sound, color, timbre, etc. The novelty consists in the attempt of comprehensive comparative analysis of aesthetic views of Gnessin with the analogous concepts of the contemporary to him artists and thinkers.

Abstract: The object of this research is the unpublished and mostly unknown texts of M. F. Gnesin on the Jewish music culture: the report “Richard Wagner and Judaism” (1913), article “Anti-Semitism and Music” (1915), as well as manuscripts dedicated to the history and theoretical bases of Jewish music (“Jewish Music” and others, 1920’s). The subject of this research is the problems of cultural identity, national self-consciousness, “musical” nationalism that reflect a complicated process of establishments of the professional Jewish music culture in Russia of the early XX century. The key research methods contain the analysis of the handwritten and printed texts of M. F. Gnesin, as well as comparison of their fundamental premises and conclusions with the perspective of the national and foreign contemporaries. The following conclusions were made: Gnesin is one of the first national scholars, who comprehensively studied the history and stylistic peculiarities of Jewish music; Gnesin’s texts touch upon most important and relevant for his time questions – not only musicological, culturological, but also philosophical, social, psychological (particularly the phenomenon of the so-called “Jewish self-hatred”), as well as reflect the evolution of views upon the Jewish music culture within the environment of the representatives of Jewish intelligentsia of the early XX century. The scientific novelty consists in introducing into the scientific discourse the unstudied and unpublished texts of M. F. Gnesin, which have not previously been the subject of a particular research.