This study is aimed at identifying ways to professionalize the compositional embodiment of the image of Venice in the chamber and vocal music of the 19 century European tradition. The attitude to Venice as one of the most poetic and picturesque cities in the world is firmly established in creative practice. In numerous literary works, the city appears multifaceted and contradictory: through the prism of a combination of business and romance (W. Shakespeare), the space of the eternal carnival and the center of education (plays by the Venetians C. Gozzi, C. Goldoni), the place of secret conspiracies, gloomy massacres (V. Hugo, W. Shakespeare), then a dream, an earthly paradise (Ch. Dickens, O. Pushkin). But always Venice – a special place where eternity, antiquity, closely intertwined with youth (G. Byron, J. W. Goethe, A. Chenier, A. Musse, O. Apukhtin, A. Maikov, F. Tyutchev, I. Brodsky). The motive of the magical beauty of the city also remains key. Although it changed under the influence of new aesthetics (for example, decadence, with its special attitude to death – G. d'Annunzio "Flame", T. Mann's "Death in Venice"), but has not lost its relevance in the 21 century. An important addition to the development of literary and poetic Venetian was artistic journalism (essays, sketches, travel notes of prominent representatives of Romanticism). The variety of material in terms of genre and style, combined with the experience of the mystical charm of the city, contributed to the formation of the image of Venice in art, its topos, "urban myth". Numerous interpretations of the chosen theme in works of art make up the "Venetian text" of art. The interpretation of the city as an environment with its own specifics (L. Batkin, M. Kagan), such that it is associated with worldviews, archetypes of behavior, cultural traditions and forms of expression, actualizes features that can be identified as typical for the image of the city in creative practice. The most important among them is anthropocentrism (according to Yu. Lobanova). In a broad sense, it involves the realization of human energy in the creation of a unique spiritual environment, which is further determined by the emergence of related concepts, such as the soul of the city, the image of the city. The position of a creative person as a spectator who perceives the city in the integrity of visual and emotional characteristics, refracting his impressions through personal psychological experience and the existing artistic tradition, leads to the formation of urban topos in the works. According to the developers of the semiotics of the city M. Antsiferov, M. Kagan, Yu. Lotman, V. Toporov, the urban topos is inextricably linked with the text as a structured sign system. By analogy with literature, we can interpret all musical works on the theme of Venice in the Venetian text in music, with its inherent as a system features of musical-material, genre and structural paradigms (M. Aranovsky). Although the problem of the urban text in music was developed in the studies of I. Barsova, T. Bilalova, L. Gakkel, G. Zharova, G. Rusalova, L. Serebryakova, T. Shcherbakova, I. Yakovleva, the theme of the Venetian text remains "open", despite to a large number of works in European musical art that glorify Venice and need to be included in scientific and performing practice. It is proved that the formation of the artistic image of Venice in literature and art was facilitated by the processes of mythologizing the history and cultural traditions of the city. The key ideas are mysticism, mystery, unreality, the divine origin of the city, which are connected with the very fact of its existence, contradictions of natural laws. Integral components of the city topos are the sea, stones, gondolas, canals, St. Mark's Cathedral, night silence, melancholy, death, carnival, mask, mirror.
