Nogo is different. For a start, he is the wrong colour. He is also much too small, has less horns than usual, and a bent tail. After seven decades of being teased and bullied by the other dragons – even the youngsters – Nogo is so fed up he asks his mum for advice, which she reluctantly gives. The following morning, having received vague instructions, he sets off to seek help from the Dragon Queen. He soon meets up with Rondo, the Sprong, who is on a mission to get help for his tribe. They decide to travel together and soon become good friends, working in partnership to overcome problems encountered on their journey. Many weeks later they are relieved to finally arrive at their destination. After a good night’s rest, they tell wise old Queen Mag their reasons for travelling to see her. But will she be able to offer them solutions to their problems?

In this monograph, Tatyana Naumenko, Doctor of Arts and a professor at Moscow’s Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, looks at modern Russian musicology through the prism of texts representing it. She mentions subjects addressed in musicological studies, names genres of music that scholars preference to explore, and describes modern methods of research and criteria of assessment, largely with the aim of overcoming Soviet-era dogmatism. Special consideration is given to the writing of academic degree dissertations on music in the former Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. The Annex lists dissertations approved between 1970 and 2013.