Abstract: The relevance of the research lies in the urgent need for modern musicology to reconstruct the profession of a concert pianist. The subject of the study is the art of maestro al cembalo. The object of the research is the work of maestro al cembalo's and the features of his creative activity. The purpose of the research is to study the process of formation of the initial stage of the development of the profession of a concert pianist, which spanned the period from the late Renaissance to classicism. Research objectives: to highlight the main characteristics of joint performance using basso continuo; to provide information about the specific skills and knowledge that maestro al cembalo should have possessed; to show the importance of these musicians in the musical performances, as well as in the evolution of musical creativity; to present portraits of the most significant representatives of this profession. The author of the study focuses on the influence of maestro al cembalo's art on the formation of European concertmaster schools. In order to disclose the stated topic by the author, the following methods are used: anthropological, hermeneutic, comparative historical, theoretical and analytical methods. A special contribution of the author is the search, analysis and systematization of the archival funds of Italian theaters, as well as city archives, on the basis of which information about the life, work and specifics of maestro al cembalo's creative and pedagogical work has been introduced into scientific circulation. The main conclusions of the study show that the most important principles of professional activity of a modern pianist-concertmaster of a musical theater were formed several centuries ago. The results obtained can be applied both in conducting courses on the theory and history of performing arts, and in the practical activities of modern concert pianists. The conclusions of the study allow us to form a stable picture of the initial stage of the formation of concertmaster art, to trace its leading trends, which will be reflected in the subsequent development of this creative specialty.

Abstract: The formation of European concertmaster schools began sequentially – in Germany (from the 15th century) and Italy (from the 16th century). In these two schools, the basic principles of the future profession of the pianist-concertmaster were crystallized. They significantly influenced the development of other national schools, primarily the French one. The object of research is concertmaster artistry. The subject of the article is the French concertmaster school. The aim of the article is to reveal the process of forming the performance characteristics of the French concertmaster school. The presented work details the influence of the artistry of Italian maestro al cembalo and German Korrepetitor on the French concertmaster culture. It traces the complex path of the French concertmaster school in acquiring national identity – from reverence for the German and Italian traditions to achieving an independent status and, furthermore, the formation of a reverse process – influencing the specifics of German Korrepetitor in the field of ballet. The author chose the following methods: textual analysis, comparative-analytical, and a complex of approaches for performing analysis of musical works. The article attempts for the first time to reconstruct the initial period of the formation and development of the French concertmaster school. The author proposes clarifications on the types of accompaniment used (primarily, ad libitum and obligato) in the compositions for joint music-making by French composers of the Baroque era, pointing to objectively existing disagreements on this issue. Based on the analysis of archival documents, new data about the activities of French maestro al cembalo and Korrepetitors are introduced into musicological discourse. Archival data also allow us to conclude that J.-B. Lully was proficient in keyboard instruments. The analysis of methodological literature leads us to conclude that there existed an elaborate system of approaches among practicing musicians in French musical culture of the 17th-18th centuries regarding the collaborative performance process involving the clavier, and there were intensive searches in the field of teaching children the art of accompaniment. The conducted research allows us to conclude about the eclecticism of the process of formation and development of the French concertmaster school, which absorbed the best traditions of the Italian and German schools in the 17th-18th centuries and achieved its own style by the beginning of the 19th century.

Abstract: The relevance of the proposed research lies in the process of formation, development and specification of concertmaster schools in different countries, which has not yet been disclosed in Russian and foreign musicology. In the proposed article, the author refers to the initial stage of crystallization of German-Austrian concertmaster art. The object of research is the concertmaster school in Germany and Austria. The subject of the research is the practical forms of the existence of keyboard accompaniment ad libitum and General Bass. The objectives of the research are to reveal the specifics of keyboard accompaniment ad libitum and General Bache in connection with the formation of German-Austrian concertmaster art; to analyze the manuscripts of master clavists available in open sources who specifically studied this type of performance; to introduce new information from German-language treatises, tablatures and archival sources about the creative and pedagogical activities of keyboard players into Russian musicology. The main research methods were: anthropological, historical-archival, comparative-analytical, a set of methods of performing analysis in their interaction according to the objectives of the study. For the first time in Russian musicology, a number of names of German and Austrian musicians who made a significant contribution to the development of concertmaster art at the initial stage of its formation are being introduced into scientific circulation. The author has found and analyzed a number of treatises and tablatures that reveal the specifics of keyboard accompaniment ad libitum and General Bass. It is proved that ad libitum accompaniment, which is based on an improvisational character, imposed a number of additional "conditions" on the keyboard player for its successful implementation: such a musician had to be able to skillfully build a polyphonic texture in the process of making music together, master the means of dynamics, depending on which voices and/or instruments he was playing music with; be able to transpose and read fluently from a sheet. The specifics of General-Bass accompaniment and its differences from basso continuo and basso numerato are determined. The conclusions of the study make it possible to better understand the essence, content and national characteristics of the German-Austrian concertmaster school, the foundation of which was laid in the XV-XVII centuries.