DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2023.1.39731

Abstract: The object of the study is the Sonata for Viola and Piano Op. 147 by Dmitri Shostakovich—a work rightfully considered autobiographical and as a farewell. The subject of the study was the specificity of the timbral embodiment of the composition’s figurative and emotional sphere. In the proposed reading, the first part of the sonata is an image of the world to which the composer sends a farewell glance, the second is a sarcastic sketch of bright collective images of the vices of humanity, and the finale is a penetration beyond reality. The author of the article, in detail, referring to specific musical examples given in the text, examines the specific instrumental techniques used by the composer, which made it possible to embody the mystical concept of the sonata. The novelty of the research lies in the identification of three main figurative lines of the composition: eternity, the voice of the soul, and the world, which correspond to different timbral characteristics of the viola, which received their definitions through the use of specific expressive techniques. Eternity is the dispassionate sound of the viola, which is characterized by some programming, inexorability (an allusion to the "knock of fate”), monotonous figuration, and long double notes in the lower part of the range. The voice of the soul is detached, with the dark, gloomy coloring of the sound: melodica, devoid of "beautiful" intonations, sentimental singing, "Beethoven" trio in new refraction, acting as the personification of the otherworldly. The world is a tearing and sharp sound and sarcastic caricature of colors: glissando with access to the flageolet, short caustic foreshocks, exaggeratedly sharp staccato, ascending parallel quarts in sixteenth, illustrating a hysterical burst of laughter. The main figurative spaces coexist throughout the composition, presenting in the sonata genre a new specific characteristic of the viola for the first time, which interprets the world of unreal images in many ways. Shostakovich's sonata is defined as the starting point of the formation of the leading figurative direction of the viola repertoire of the last third of the twentieth century, which secured the viola the role of a guide to the world of the beyond—a kind of Virgil.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2023.1.43871

Abstract: The object of the study is the Sonata for Viola and Piano Op. 147 by Dmitri Shostakovich – a work rightfully considered autobiographical and as a farewell. The subject of the study was the specificity of the timbral embodiment of the composition’s figurative and emotional sphere. In the proposed reading, the first part of the sonata is an image of the world to which the composer sends a farewell glance, the second is a sarcastic sketch of bright collective images of the vices of humanity, and the finale is a penetration beyond reality. The author of the article, in detail, referring to specific musical examples given in the text, examines the specific instrumental techniques used by the composer, which made it possible to embody the mystical concept of the sonata. The novelty of the research lies in the identification of three main figurative lines of the composition: eternity, the voice of the soul, and the world, which correspond to different timbral characteristics of the viola, which received their definitions through the use of specific expressive techniques. Eternity is the dispassionate sound of the viola, which is characterized by some programming, inexorability (an allusion to the "knock of fate”), monotonous figuration, and long double notes in the lower part of the range. The voice of the soul is detached, with the dark, gloomy coloring of the sound: melodica, devoid of "beautiful" intonations, sentimental singing, "Beethoven" trio in new refraction, acting as the personification of the otherworldly. The world is a tearing and sharp sound and sarcastic caricature of colors: glissando with access to the flageolet, short caustic foreshocks, exaggeratedly sharp staccato, ascending parallel quarts in sixteenth, illustrating a hysterical burst of laughter. The main figurative spaces coexist throughout the composition, presenting in the sonata genre a new specific characteristic of the viola for the first time, which interprets the world of unreal images in many ways. Shostakovich's sonata is defined as the starting point of the formation of the leading figurative direction of the viola repertoire of the last third of the twentieth century, which secured the viola the role of a guide to the world of the beyond—a kind of Virgil.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2022.1.40484

Abstract: The subject of this research is Russia’s repertory heritage, including compositions for viola by twentieth-century composers. The works are considered from the viewpoint of their direct impact by the brightest representatives of the Russian viola school: Vadim Borisovsky, Fyodor Druzhinin, and Yuri Bashmet. The analysis is based on pieces devoted to Borisovsky (Sonata for Viola and Piano by V. Kryukov and S. Vasilenko, Songs of the Dead and Rhapsody for Viola and Piano by A. Veprik, A Suite for Viola and Piano by V. Gaigerova) and Bashmet (A Liturgy for a Large Orchestra and a Solo Viola, Bemoaned by the Wind, and Styx for Viola, Choir, and Orchestra by G. Kancheli), and the works by Druzhinin (Sonata for Solo Viola and Variations for Solo Viola). These pieces are considered from the position of a player’s influence on the composers’ interest in the solo manifestation of the viola and its gradual development. The author defines the term “character-performer” as corresponding with the image of a twentieth-century violist and denotes the new features of solo viola repertory as a result of the work of the above-mentioned violists, including the acknowledgment of the uniqueness of the viola’s sound, the establishment of the viola as a bright concert instrument, the expansion of a used range for the viola, the revelation of a mystic component of viola timbre, the definition of the unique unifying ability of viola timbre, the full technical liberation of an instrument, and the need for a co-author as a player.  

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2020.4.40347

Abstract: The subject of this research is Russia’s repertory heritage, including compositions for viola by twentieth-century composers. The works are considered from the viewpoint of their direct impact by the brightest representatives of the Russian viola school: Vadim Borisovsky, Fyodor Druzhinin, and Yuri Bashmet. The analysis is based on pieces devoted to Borisovsky (Sonata for Viola and Piano by V. Kryukov and S. Vasilenko, Songs of the Dead and Rhapsody for Viola and Piano by A. Veprik, A Suite for Viola and Piano by V. Gaigerova) and Bashmet (A Liturgy for a Large Orchestra and a Solo Viola, Bemoaned by the Wind, and Styx for Viola, Choir, and Orchestra by G. Kancheli), and the works by Druzhinin (Sonata for Solo Viola and Variations for Solo Viola). These pieces are considered from the position of a player’s influence on the composers’ interest in the solo manifestation of the viola and its gradual development. The author defines the term “character-performer” as corresponding with the image of a twentieth-century violist and denotes the new features of solo viola repertory as a result of the work of the above-mentioned violists, including the acknowledgment of the uniqueness of the viola’s sound, the establishment of the viola as a bright concert instrument, the expansion of a used range for the viola, the revelation of a mystic component of viola timbre, the definition of the unique unifying ability of viola timbre, the full technical liberation of an instrument, and the need for a co-author as a player.