DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.4.16947

Abstract: This article examines the relevant issue pertaining to Russian, European, and world practice of using the musicological notion of “symphonic music”. The author notes the differences in the versions and peculiarities of interpretations of the term “symphonic music” in both, literature of strictly musicological profile, as well as within the broader culturological discourse. The author determines and analyzes the level of aesthetical, semantic and referential correlation between symphonic music and performing attributes of symphonic orchestra. The article presents multiple example of musical works that although attributed to the symphonic music, are in no way substantiated by the specificity or the expressive means and capabilities of symphonic orchestra. In the process of locating the various musicological aspects of the notion “symphonic music”, the author gives its adequate etymological and cultural-historical correlation with the core lexeme “symphony”. The author reveals the key and “cementing” role of constructive category of “symphonism” in this process. It is stated that the “symphonicity of the form” of musical works is determined not by some established “canonical” schemes, but by a complex internal organization of their musical texture, which is linked, first and foremost, with the continuity of development and overall process of the formation.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.2.17032

Abstract: The subject of research in this article is the vocal-symphonic concept of the oratorio-trilogy by Hector Berlioz “The Childhood of Christ” Op. 25, which is being viewed as a prime example of creative thought of that era (middle of XIX century), and being examined in form of analysis of musical composition, musical dramaturgy, fundamental plots and characters of Christianity, as well as emotional-psychological side of the musical content. Based on examination of the letters and Mémoires of Hector Berlioz the article presents a hypothesis on the genesis of the creative concept of the oeuvre, and offers facts from the history of its creation and performance. The plot motifs of Berlioz’s poetic libretto presented as units of the overall structure of the creative text. The author analyzes the particular aspects of the oratorio-theatrical embodiment of the space-time spiritual concept of eternity of Christian love, examines the fusion of spiritual and secular elements within the semantics of the creative text, gives attention to the specificity of the composition, musical dramaturgy, principles of polyphonic thought of the composer, synthesis of genre elements (oratorio, symphony, mystery play, and others), and reveals the correlation between Berlioz’s innovative musical thinking and the creative practice of the psychological realism within the French art and literature of 1850’s. Research methodology:- Musical-philosophical hermeneutical reconstruction of the process of structuring the creative idea and the aspects of its realization within the programmatic vocal-symphonic concept of the oratorio-trilogy.- Analysis pertaining to the musical philosophy of the score of “The Childhood of Christ” as a creative canon, which reflected the phenomenon of the topology of the path- Analysis of the musical and aesthetical aspects of the psychological realism within intonation-dramaturgical development of the work.Scientific novelty of the research consists in:- Discovery of Berlioz’s individual approach towards the critical perception of Christianity in France during 1850’s- Analytical justification of the position that composer’s interpretation of the Christian spiritual values, including the eternity of Christian love, presented in the oratorio-trilogy of “The Childhood of Christ” is relevant in the XXI century- Determination of the musical and aesthetical phenomenon of realistic vocal intonation, which is in a state of development of psychological and critical realism in the French art and literature of 1850’s- Musical and philosophical understanding of the functionality of spiritual and semantical concepts of the Christian “storge” and Christian “agape” in the musical dramaturgy of these parts of the work: “Herod’s Dream”, “Flight into Egypt”, and “The Arrival at Sais”.Main conclusions:1. The specificity of composer’s individual understanding of the psychological mystery of communication between human soul and God is reflected in the deep structure of the oratorio-trilogy “The Childhood of Christ” – the concept of eternity of Christian love2. The perception on this concept is relevant for the modern Christian world, and prompts us to change our attitude towards the life and creative heritage of Berlioz3. “The Childhood of Christ” is a great example for the French composers of the XIX-XX centuries, who created oratorio-theatrical works and significant forms of vocal-symphonic music based on the synthesis of arts and genres; among them are works by Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, César Franck, Claude Debussy, Vincent d'Indy, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, and Olivier Messiaen.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2014.1.12535

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2014.1.65333

Abstract: The object of this work is one of the newest Russian theories – the theory of musical content, which the author of the present articles is one of the generators. This method of research has a musicological direction, but is contiguous to philosophy. The author considers the well-known philosophical dyad “form-content” inapplicable to the art of music, since in practice these notions turn out to be poorly differentiated from each other, which leads to confusion. In their place a dichotomy of conceptions of a notional type is offered, which the author called the “specialized and non-specialized content” of music. Content is the expressive-notional essence of music. Specialized content belongs solely to music; it is formed by the content of sound, intervals, chords, modes and tonality, melody, rhythm, texture, timbre, sonority, thematicism, musical form, etc. Non-specialized content is present both in music and beyond it: human emotions, depicted objects (birds, the movement of sea waves, the warbling of the brook, the noise of the approaching train, the sound of a clock, movement of human beings – steps, running, etc.), as well as various ideas. Both the described concepts and terms and the theoretical elaboration of the ability to analyze the art of music from the position of broad notional categories present a new phenomenon in music theory.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.1.15180

Abstract: The subject of this work is the article of B. V. Asafiev about the comedy production of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov “Woe from Wit” realized by Vsevolod Meyerhold in 1928. Asafiev, a famous Russian and Soviet historian and theoretician of music and renowned composer, also took part in creation of this spectacle: he was selecting music that would illustrate the inner image of the characters. The goal of this article became his argumentation of this selection, especially the forming of the psychological likeness of the main character – Chatsky. The key point became Asafiev’s claim about musical characteristics as most active in manifestation of the essence of the character. The author compares the Sturm und Drang era with the times of Mozart, Beethoven, Shubert, and German Lied. Going analytically deeper into the music of Beethoven, the author highlights its multifacetedness, while turning to Mozart – he underlines in it not brightness, but the opposite, the features of the “world-pain”. In theatrological sense Asafiev counterposes the images of Chatsky and Famusov as irreconcilable, gives attention to the logic of the dialogues and ensembles, and the tempos of development of the play. He demonstrates, for example, the tones of French “happy” songs, to convey the street and drawing room vulgarity. As a result, characterizing Griboyedov’s famous comedy through music, Asafiev unfolds a broad musical panorama that includes in addition to the mentioned composers works of Bach, Field, and Wagner. The publication of this forgotten article sheds light on the collaboration between Asafiev and Meyerhold in both, the theatrical aspect, as well as the stage in development of the Asafiev’s intonation theory.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.1.66492

Abstract: The subject of this work is the article of B. V. Asafiev about the comedy production of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov “Woe from Wit” realized by Vsevolod Meyerhold in 1928. Asafiev, a famous Russian and Soviet historian and theoretician of music and renowned composer, also took part in creation of this spectacle: he was selecting music that would illustrate the inner image of the characters. The goal of this article became his argumentation of this selection, especially the forming of the psychological likeness of the main character – Chatsky. The key point became Asafiev’s claim about musical characteristics as most active in manifestation of the essence of the character. The author compares the Sturm und Drang era with the times of Mozart, Beethoven, Shubert, and German Lied. Going analytically deeper into the music of Beethoven, the author highlights its multifacetedness, while turning to Mozart – he underlines in it not brightness, but the opposite, the features of the “world-pain”. In theatrological sense Asafiev counterposes the images of Chatsky and Famusov as irreconcilable, gives attention to the logic of the dialogues and ensembles, and the tempos of development of the play. He demonstrates, for example, the tones of French “happy” songs, to convey the street and drawing room vulgarity. As a result, characterizing Griboyedov’s famous comedy through music, Asafiev unfolds a broad musical panorama that includes in addition to the mentioned composers works of Bach, Field, and Wagner. The publication of this forgotten article sheds light on the collaboration between Asafiev and Meyerhold in both, the theatrical aspect, as well as the stage in development of the Asafiev’s intonation theory.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.1.15216

Abstract: The subject of this work is the article of B. V. Asafiev about the comedy production of Alexander Sergeevich Griboyedov “Woe from Wit” realized by Vsevolod Meyerhold in 1928. Asafiev, a famous Russian and Soviet historian and theoretician of music and renowned composer, also took part in creation of this spectacle: he was selecting music that would illustrate the inner image of the characters. The goal of this article became his argumentation of this selection, especially the forming of the psychological likeness of the main character – Chatsky. The key point became Asafiev’s claim about musical characteristics as most active in manifestation of the essence of the character. The author compares the Sturm und Drang era with the times of Mozart, Beethoven, Shubert, and German Lied. Going analytically deeper into the music of Beethoven, the author highlights its multifacetedness, while turning to Mozart – he underlines in it not brightness, but the opposite, the features of the “world-pain”. In theatrological sense Asafiev counterposes the images of Chatsky and Famusov as irreconcilable, gives attention to the logic of the dialogues and ensembles, and the tempos of development of the play. He demonstrates, for example, the tones of French “happy” songs, to convey the street and drawing room vulgarity. As a result, characterizing Griboyedov’s famous comedy through music, Asafiev unfolds a broad musical panorama that includes in addition to the mentioned composers works of Bach, Field, and Wagner. The publication of this forgotten article sheds light on the collaboration between Asafiev and Meyerhold in both, the theatrical aspect, as well as the stage in development of the Asafiev’s intonation theory.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.1.66493

Abstract: Предметом рассмотрения стала статья Б.В. Асафьева по поводу постановки комедии А.С. Грибоедова «Горе от ума», осуществленной В.Э.Мейерхольдом в 1928 г. Асафьев, знаменитый российский и советский историк и теоретик музыки, известный композитор, также принимал участие в создании этого спектакля: он подбирал музыку, рисующую внутренний облик героев. Задачей публикуемой статьи стала его аргументация этого подбора, в наибольшей степени того, как складывался психологический облик главного героя - Чацкого. Особо важным доводом стало утверждение Асафьева о музыкальных характеристиках как наиболее действенных в проявлении характера героя. Методы, которыми пользуется автор статьи, - и исторические, и музыкально-аналитические, и театроведческие. Сопоставляются эпоха Sturm und Drang, времена Моцарта. Бетховена, Шуберта, немецкой Lied. Аналитически углубляясь в музыку Бетховена, автор подчеркивает ее многообразие, а обращаясь к Моцарту, выделяет в ней не солнечность, а, наоборот, черты «мировой скорби». В театроведческом плане Асафьев сопоставляет как непримиримые образы Чацкого и Фамусова, уделяет внимание логике диалогов и ансамблей, темпам развития сценического действия. Свойственным Асафьеву методом выступает и интонационный анализ. Он демонстрирует, например, интонации французских «веселеньких» песенок, отобранных для передачи уличной и салонной пошлости. В итоге, характеризуя знаменитую комедию Грибоедова через звучание музыки, Асафьев развертывает широкую музыкальную панораму, куда входят помимо названных композиторов, также И.С.Бах, Фильд, Вагнер. Публикация этой забытой статьи проливает свет на сотрудничество Асафьева с Мейерхольдом и в театральном плане и как этап в развитии интонационной теории Асафьева.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2014.1.12401

Abstract:

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2014.1.65343

Abstract: Предметом авторского исследования является новейшая российская теория музыкального содержания, в которой автор данной статьи выступает одним из создателей. Метод исследования имеет музыковедческую направленность, но соприкасается с философией. Автор считает неприменимой к музыкальному искусству известную философскую диаду «форма/содержание», так как практически эти понятия оказываются в музыке плохо дифференцируемыми и приводят к путанице. Вместо них предлагается дихотомия понятий смыслового порядка, названная автором «специальное и неспециальное содержание» музыки. Содержание (content) – это выразительно- смысловая сущность музыки. Специальное содержание принадлежит только музыке: содержание звука, интервалов, аккордов, ладов и тональности, мелодии, ритма, текстуры, тембра, сонора, тематизма, музыкальной формы и т.д. Неспециальное содержание присутствует и в музыке, и вне музыки: человеческие эмоции, изображаемые предметы (птицы, движение морских волн, журчанье ручья, шум приближающегося поезда, бой часов, движения человека - шаг, бег и т.д.), различные идеи. Новыми являются и сами указанные понятия и термины, и теоретическая разработка возможности анализировать музыкальное искусство с позиции широких смысловых категорий.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2023.6.69555

EDN: QTGXUI

Abstract: The subject of this study is a later orchestral work by the greatest Russian composer P.I. Tchaikovsky – a symphonic ballad based on A.S. Pushkin's poem "Voivode". The object of the research is the features of the composer's orchestral style, his artistic transformation in the late period of his work, an irresistible craving for development, self-improvement, and cognition. The score, destroyed by the author and restored by voices, conceals many interesting professional details, discoveries, and intensely echoes the sonorous ideas of the twentieth century. The author examines in detail the compositional structure of the ballad, its tonal and harmonic plan, the dynamic instructions of the author, and its orchestration. Special attention is paid to Tchaikovsky's innovative compositional methods, his skill, his attention to the smallest instrumental details, to everything that should help the performer to reveal the creator's intention, to read the work as it was conceived by the author. The article uses the following methods of scientific research: comparative analytical, structural and functional, as well as cultural method. The author of the article draws literary-textual and musical-textual methods to the study, and also relies on the fundamental provisions of the general historical methodology of scientific research, in particular, socio-cultural, historical-chronological, biographical. The main conclusions of the conducted research are the idea of the inexhaustibility of the symphonic score as an author's text, as an artistic statement requiring careful and comprehensive study, as a book that must be carefully read before starting the rehearsal process. The author's special contribution to the research of the topic is the analysis of Tchaikovsky's symphonic ballad through the prism of modern performance perception. The point of view and professional assessments of a practicing conductor, reliance on the smallest and most subtle signs and symbols of a musical text are extremely important in our time, when the quality of performance of a symphonic work does not always correspond to the author's intention. The novelty of the research lies in a close examination of the previously insufficiently studied part of the creative heritage of the brilliant Russian composer. Tchaikovsky's symphonic ballad "Voivode" was difficult to create, but deserves the attention of musicians and music researchers no less than his other well-known orchestral program compositions.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.2.17167

Abstract: The subject of study in this article is a vocal-symphonic concept trilogy Hector Berlioz oratorio "The Childhood of Christ" Op. 25, considered as a special phenomenon of artistic thinking era (mid XIX century.) And in terms of the analysis of a musical composition, musical drama, the fundamental themes and images of Christianity, as well as the emotional and psychological side of music content.On the basis of letters and memoirs of Berlioz in the article the hypothesis about the origins of artistic design work, given the facts of the history of its creation and execution. Scene motives poetic libretto by Berlioz presented as units of the general structure of a literary text; Fine designated dialogue aspects of the literary program of works of Berlioz with images of the same scenes in the paintings of masters of Western painting XIV - XVI centuries. The author analyzes the features of oratorio-theatrical incarnation spatiotemporal spiritual concept of the eternity of Christian love, considering the connection of spiritual and secular elements in the semantics of a literary text, draws attention to the particular composition, musical drama, to the principles of polyphonic thinking of the composer, the synthesis of genre elements (oratorio, symphony , an ancient mystery, and others.), reveals the ratio of innovative thinking Berlioz's music with the artistic practice of psychological realism in literature and art in France 1850.Research methods:- Musical and philosophical hermeneutic reconstruction of the formation of the artistic design and features of its realization in the program's vocal-symphonic oratorio trilogy concept.- Linked to the philosophy of music analysis of the musical text (the score), "Childhood of Christ" as the artistic canon, which reflected the phenomenon of path topology, as well as the category the poetics of space.- Analysis of musical and aesthetic aspects of psychological realism in intonation and the dramatic development of the product.The novelty of the study is- In the detection of individual attitudes Berlioz's critical understanding of Christianity in France 1850- The analytical justification provisions: composer's interpretation of the spiritual values ​​of Christianity in particular - the eternity of Christian love, presented in oratorio trilogy "Childhood of Christ" - is relevant in the XXI century.- To identify the musical-aesthetic phenomenon realistic vocal intonation, which is in line with the development of psychological and critical realism in French literature and art of the 1850s.- In the musical and philosophical understanding of spiritual functioning, semantic concepts of the Christian "storge" and Christian "agape" in the musical drama parts of the work: "Herod's Dream," "Flight into Egypt" and "The arrival at Sais"Main conclusions:1. Features of the individual composer's understanding of the psychological mystery of communion of the soul with God reflected in the deep structure of the trilogy oratorio "The Childhood of Christ" - the concept of the eternity of Christian love2. Perception called the concept of relevance to the contemporary Christian world, it leads to a change in attitude to the fate of the creative heritage and Berlioz.3. "The Childhood of Christ" - the highest example for French composers XIX - XX centuries, created the oratorio-theater works and major forms of vocal and symphonic music based on the synthesis of the arts, genre characteristics; among them - works by Gounod, Massenet, Franck, Debussy V. d'Indy, A. Honegger, Poulenc, Olivier Messiaen.