Polyphony in Vadim Salmanov's a cappella choral work

Koshkareva Natalya Vladimirovna PhD in Art History Professor, Head of the Department of Conducting an Academic Chorus, State Musical and Pedagogical Institute named after M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov 109147 Marksistskaya street, Moscow, 109147 Russian Federation nkoshkarevav.@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The second half of the twentieth century in Russian music in general and choral, in particular, is a time of profound renewal of compositional writing. The opportunities to get acquainted with the works of the largest Western European composers (A. Schoenberg, A. Webern, P. Hindemith, K. Orff, P. Boulez, O. Messiaen) significantly expanded the technical arsenal of Russian authors ^{[3, 4, 5]}. In addition, on the rise of the "new folklore wave" (definition by L. Christiansen) ^[17] domestic The composers referred to the achievements of I. Stravinsky, in particular, the "Russian period" ^[11]. Updating the sound space of choral compositions of all composition parameters ^[15], including polyphony. In the works of S. Gubaidulina, A. Schnittke, E. Denisov, N. Sidelnikov, Y. Butsko and many others, "the assimilation of various Western composition techniques, together with <...> penetration into the historical depths of Russian intonation" gave rise to individual polyphonic styles ^{[7, p. 406]}.

Vadim Nikolaevich Salmanov (1912-1978) belongs to the number of Russian composers in whose choral work polyphony occupies an important position. V. Salmanov's choral legacy, which includes seventy-one a cappella compositions, presents a bright palette. He wrote six poems based on poems by N. Hikmet (1959), choral cycles based on poems by Y. Kupala (1960), R. Gamzatov (1962), F. Tyutchev (1970), two choral concerts — "Lebedushka" (1967) and "Good Fellow" (1972).

Despite V. Salmanov's significant contribution to the development of Russian choral music in the second half of the twentieth century, there are not many studies concerning his individual compositional style. The most important are the works of M. Aranovsky ^[1], V. Rubtsova ^[8], O. Kolovsky ^[6]. A significant contribution to the study of V. Salmanov's creative method was a collection of materials, research and memoirs (compiled by S. Salmanov, G. Belov) ^[10]. At the same time, there is still no specially directed work on V. Salmanov's choral polyphony. This explains the relevance of this study.

Polyphony, as an important method of composition, is characteristic of the entire choral work of V. Salmanov's a cappella. The polyphonic methods were most vividly manifested in the concert for the mixed a cappella choir "The Swan". In connection with this work, we emphasize V. Salmanov's contribution to the revival of the choral concert genre, which was banned for several decades due to its historical affiliation to the field of sacred music. It was V. Salmanov who took a new look at the genre of choral concert and gave it a new interpretation, filling it with new content. As O. Stets notes, "this type of concert (folklore — N.K.) had no direct historical predecessors, therefore its appearance on the crest of the "new folklore wave" in the second half of the last century, undoubtedly, it was a kind of artistic discovery" ^{[12, p. 8]}. Here is how the composer himself argues for the concept: "I wanted to write a work in the traditions of Russian folk song <...> Concerts for choir have almost disappeared from the repertoire of collectives. Composers stopped working in this genre. The tradition was lost, I wanted to revive it... Before, concerts for the choir were created on a spiritual theme. “The Swan” is composed on a folk story. But it is based on the concert principle. Each part of the cycle is designed for a certain composition of voices, and the technique of "competition" of solo parts and various groups of the choir is also observed here" ^{[10, p. 40]}.

In many ways, the Swan Song became a reference point for subsequent folklore choral concerts by various authors. The composition is based on the texts of Russian folk songs, as well as stylization of folk-poetic sources. Based on them, the composer creates his own melodies imbued with folk song intonation ^[21]. The five parts of the cycle practically do not contrast with each other in tempo: almost all of them are sustained in a calm, measured movement. The exception is the fourth part of "They took our girlfriend away", which has a scherzo character. The concreteness of musical images related to the theme of the female share makes it necessary to involve genre connections in the broadest sense of the word to characterize them. According to V. Rubtsova, "the composer builds a musical narrative in such a way that there is constantly a subtext in it that creates the capacity of a psychological image, outlines the prospect of its development" ^{[8, pp. 18-19]}.

The timbre becomes an active parameter affecting the architectonics of the concert: odd parts ("High, high", "My dark Mists", "Swan on the Sea") are assigned to a mixed composition, and even parts are assigned to a homogeneous one (the second part of "Violent Winds" is a female choir with solo soprano, the fourth part is "Taken away our girlfriend" — male and tenor solo, with a small fragment of alto sound). In this "competition" of male and female voices, individual choral parts and solo timbres, the principle of concertina is manifested.

With the most important feature of the composer's style — polyphony. There are such essential provisions as the principles of melodic-thematic modulation, thematic significance, the "weight" of a short thesis song, the absence of a traditional coincidence of functional and syntactic caesura. The polyphony in V. Salmanov's choral concert is manifested not in the use of clear polyphonic forms in it and not even in the widespread use of free imitations, but in the specific features of the choral texture: its "transparency", variable number of voices, rare use of dense choral polyphony ^[18].

All this stems not from the abstract principle of graphic linearity, but from the sensitively captured specificity of the sound of folk polyphony, associated primarily with heterophony. Simultaneous versions of the melody generate unpredictable dissonant verticals. Due to the frequent crossing of voices (the soprano sings tessiturally below the viola), the melodic contour is blurred, as it were, its coloring, as a rule, by second verticals, both single and forming a parallel movement. Due to freely transitioning dissonances into third, fourth and fifth consonances, functionally connected by intonation, a texture of a completely new expressive and sound-imaginative quality is created. For example, the beginning of the second part of the concert "Violent Winds" is a sample of differentiated heterophony (L. Mukharinskaya's term) ^{[2, p. 6]}, in which the differences of voices are very significant: the volume of the initial melodic intonation of the sopranos (pure quart), the violas have a pure fifth; a canon with changing data is used as a compositional technique (c 9), which naturally correlates with the traditions of folk song practice (the principle of variation). Freedom of voice leads to the occasional inclusion of the pedal voice (bourdon).

In the third part of "My Dark Mists" V. Salmanov applied the technique of gradual introduction of voices — imitation exposure (with an octave and second disposition of the theme-response passages, which is typical for modern fugue), and in Russian folk songwriting — for the process of song formation with its one-voice chant, to which the rest of the voices are gradually added. The continuity of development based on the development of a short theme — the isolation of its individual elements-motifs, the expansion of its range, the carrying out of the main intonation in an increase, and at the same time the transformation of the theme in each verse and timbre variation organically synthesize classical imitation and Russian folk polyphony.

In the final part of "The Swan at Sea", based on the material of the first issue, due to the active polyphonization of the texture, V. Salmanov builds a three-part form, where the third part is a reprise code based on the material of the first issue, framing the entire cycle. The maximum use of melodic intonation (seconds and quarto-fifths) elements of the main melody in all voices, along with metric displacement, makes it possible to achieve the effect of improvisational musical material.

The unison singing characteristic of the Russian song is used by V. Salmanov in brief fragments of each number of the cycle precisely as the convergence of polyphony into monophony. Here it is appropriate to recall S. Skrebkov's statement: "The intonation of unison is basically polyphonic" ^{[11, p. 11]}.

The compositional techniques of the second half of the twentieth century, in particular sonorica and aleatorica, are refracted in a peculiar way in the concert ^[19]. For example, a divergent chromatic sixteen-voice cluster completes the second number of the concerto (c.15). First, from the sound of h 1, the violas (divisi) perform a descending chromatic stroke in the volume of a pure fifth (h 1-e 1), while each sound is delayed, which leads to the formation of an eight-voice semitone cluster. Following this, similarly to the violas, but in the opposite movement, an eight-voice cluster is formed in the sopranos (h 1-fis 2). The connection of two eight-band clusters creates the effect of "howling" wind. The author's remark regarding the performing staff is extremely important, emphasizing that musical means of expression are aimed at maximizing the disclosure of the timbre-colorful sound as a whole, and not at detailing individual tones: "For each sound of a given chromatic stroke, there should be the same number of performers (1, 2, etc.)" ^{[9, p. 54]}.

The sonorous canon ^[14] associated with sounds of indeterminate pitch — elements of ecmelica — is a constructive parameter of the choral texture in the fourth part of "They Took our Girlfriend away". At the same time, the composer accurately records the rhythmic organization and initial nuance, and assigns the subsequent dynamic plan to the conductor, who must build it each time depending on the composition of the choir and the acoustic conditions of the hall. Let's imagine the composer's explanations: "Tenors and basses must speak exactly in rhythm, without a certain intonation, which can rise and fall at the request of the choirmaster. The shades of conversation can either increase or decrease (which depends on the composition of the choir and each of its parts). The first shades (pp, r) of conversation introductions are mandatory, and then – at the discretion of the choirmaster" ^{[9, p. 59]}. This variability of the dynamic parameter of the choral composition indicates the manifestation of the aleatoric technique ^[13].

In the code of the final part of the concert "On the Swan Sea", the long—restrained choral "pedals" are preceded by ascending (in the bass part) and descending (in the viola part) glissando - a bright coloristic device that carries a certain emotional and semantic load (in the words "Goodbye, goodbye") and emphasizes the subtlety of pitch intonation in natural order (microchromatics).

The leading role of the linear principle ^[16] determines the properties of V. Salmanov's ladofunctional thinking. The originality of V. Salmanov's musical language is manifested, first of all, in the peculiarities of the ladoharmonic system and the organization of the musical fabric of the composition. The ladoharmonic system of the musical language "Lebedushka" reflects the typical properties of modern ladofunctional thinking. First of all, it is the integration of folk mode systems into the modern composer's language. Essential for V. Salmanov is the wide range of folklore involved in terms of its stylization (there are no quotations in the work). Let us emphasize that familiarization with the authentic performance of folk songs (folklore expeditions, audio recordings, etc.) played a great role in the formation of V. Salmanov's ladofunctional thinking (however, as for many composers of that time).

The feeling of the folk manner of singing, in particular the performing "chromatization of diatonics" (high-altitude variation of steps) was clearly expressed in the "Swan". For example, on the characteristic "dispute" of the major and minor thirds of the fret, the main theme of the "Swan" is built, framing the entire concert (the first "Is it High, is it high" and the last "On the Sea Swan" parts). This intonation is due to genre connections (prichet), simultaneously performing a pictorial role (imitation of a swan moan).

The alternation of these variants of the third stage of the fret affects the tonal plan of the entire concert (the first part is written in C-dur, the final one in c-moll), closely leading to the fret modulation (in C-dur) on the final chords. Tonal movement and the connection of the tonalities of individual parts (C-dur—h-moll—c-moll—b-moll—c-moll (C-dur)) they are cemented by thematic development and are perceived as a manifestation of the zone system. Within each part, the boundaries of the sections of the forms are leveled due to the mismatch of functional and syntactic caesura (harmonization of syntactic caesura with dissonant consonance), tonal shifts cease to be distinct. Ladotonal variability is also very characteristic of the composition — the unsteadiness, the "duality" of the tonic. Such is the fluctuation of the Aeolian h and Dorian e at the beginning of the second issue of "The Winds are Violent", followed by the appearance of the Phrygian h.

As can be seen from the above analysis, the peculiarity of V. Salmanov's compositional style is the saturation of the choral texture with polyphonically organized material, as well as the concentration of all elements of choral writing for the expressive transmission of an artistic image — it is this quality that leads him to a chamber interpretation of the choir. In this, V. Salmanov (consciously or intuitively) reflected one of the leading performing trends of recent times — the attraction to the principles of a chamber ensemble, a quartet. The point here is not in the performing line—up - "Lebedushka" was written for a large group, with divisi in choral parts, with a full vocal range (including bass octavists), with soloists. The quartet principle manifests itself primarily in the complexity and subtlety of the relationships between the dramaturgically independent voices and at the same time forming a single whole. In such conditions, each intonation becomes prominent and extremely capacious, and the musical whole sometimes approaches an aphorism in laconism and content ^[20]. Thus, V. Salmanov's composition focuses on a fairly large concert group, but certainly possessing the subtleties of chamber ensemble performance.

Summing up, we note that the importance of the Lebedushka choral concert for the development of Russian choral music in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty–first centuries cannot be overestimated. This work reflects the most important aspects of V. Salmanov's polyphonic thinking: the filigree mastery of choral polyphonic polyphony; the special melodism of polyphonic tissue, both imitative and heterophonic-sub-vocal; fluency in contrapuntal technique; synthesis of traditional polyphonic techniques with composition techniques of the second half of the twentieth century (sonorica, aleatorica).

The polyphonic techniques used by V. Salmanov in "Lebedushka" are also characteristic of his concert "Good Fellow" (1972) for male choir, tenor, English horn and accordion to folk words ("Ah, you, my field"; "Beyond the Kuban River"; "Eh, you share"; "Are you my bee bee"; "Wind up, wind up"; "The birch trees are loose"; "My dream, my dream"). Russian Russian concerts continue the line of folklore concerts, where the stylistic features of V. Salmanov's choral polyphony are indirectly reflected in the works of V. Kalistratov ("Russian Concert", 1977), O. Taktakishvili ("Kartalinsky Melodies", 1982), A. Kiselyov ("Russian Wedding", 1985), V. Khodosh ("Zoryushki-Dawns", 1986), E. Petrova ("Burn, the sun, brighter!", 2011) and many others.

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