There is so much in the world different cultures, but many cultural experts agree that Spain is one of the most amazing countries around the world: from cuisine to traditional annual festivals, which can only be seen on the streets of this country. Many traditions are common throughout Spain, but there are also unique ones inherent in each specific province or region.
The culture of Spain at one time was influenced by several countries and peoples - thanks to the interesting geographical location at the junction of Europe and Africa and some historical events. The Romans left a big imprint on language and religion: in the period from 1000 to 1492, Spain was a Roman Catholic country. Many words in Spanish also borrowed from the Arabs. Jews are also involved in the mixing of cultures.
Architecture of Spain
It’s worth going to Spain just for the architectural ensembles alone.
This is an interweaving of styles and times, the simultaneous existence of pompous pomp and aristocratic restraint, grandeur and modest simplicity. Spain holds the lead in the number of famous cathedrals among all countries in the world. These are the Gothic temples of Seville,
and Moorish Nazareth in Granada,
and also the ascetic Escorial near Madrid,
Renaissance cathedrals of Valencia
Romanesque Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela,
the Terrades house (Casa de les Punches) or the "house with thorns" in Barcelona and many others.
It is impossible not to mention the great Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi, who laid the foundation for the development of Spanish modernism.
The batlo or "house of bones" was designed from an old house for textile magnate Josep Batllo i Casanovas by the architect Gaudí
His work is mainly concentrated in Barcelona, where every building is the creation of this Catalan genius.
Gaudi's last work La Pedrera or "The Quarry"
Art
Spanish painting has left an indelible mark on the world history of fine art. Salvador Dali is a famous Spanish artist of the 20th century, whose talent is known throughout the world thanks to his whimsical and world-shaking surrealist paintings.
The talented engraver and painter Francisco Goya, considered the first of the modern masters of the Romantic era, created the model and paved the way for subsequent works by artists such as Monet and Pablo Picasso. We can confidently conclude that Spain is a cradle of talent.
music and dancing
Music is an important part of Spanish culture. The country has a long history of dressing in various forms of Andalusian and Western classical music, as well as pop music. Spain is rich in various styles of folk music. Moreover, modern Spain has a number of artists in the genres of rock, heavy metal, punk and hip-hop.
However, the most popular form of Spanish folk music is flamenco.
Even someone who knows nothing about Spain, hearing the word “flamenco,” will quickly answer you that we are talking about this country. Sensual and fiery flamenco dance originating from Andalusia. This unity of dance, guitar playing and song is one of the oldest forms of entertainment for the Spaniards. It is a complex pattern of body and leg movements accompanied by a fervent rhythm set by handclaps and castanets. The role of the singer is extremely important in this dance, for which a special guitar was created in 1790.
Festivals and fiestas
If you look at the Spanish holiday calendar, almost everyone will want to stay here forever: their great amount, more precisely about 200. The explanation for this abundance is very simple: the Spaniards are a cheerful and temperamental people. The love of fireworks, the roar of firecrackers, bright outfits, noisy music and rhythmic flamenco is in their blood. The most striking festivals are those held during the New Year and Easter week. The main Spanish holiday is the national day Hispanidad, celebrated annually on October 12.
Dance carnivals with breathtaking costumes add more interest to the hearts of lovers of Spanish culture.
Siesta
Siesta is a very nice and unusual tradition for the Slavs of a mandatory afternoon rest, usually lasting from 14.00 to 15.00. Spaniards spend this time at home with their families or taking an afternoon nap.
Most shops and public institutions close at these hours. In the summer, when it is especially hot, siesta is used as an opportunity to cool down (under a cold shower or at sea) in order to return to work at the end of the day in a more cheerful spirit.
Sport
Football is not only a sport for many Spaniards, but also a passion. Top teams Clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona can attract crowds of over 100,000 people.
The national team found a place among the world elite, and also won the European Championship in 2008, and the FIFA World Cup in 2010.
Traditional bullfight - bullfight, a sporting spectacle in Spain that has existed for many centuries, still takes place in Plaza de Toros throughout the country, although its popularity varies from region to region.
Language
Although almost the entire population of Spain can speak Spanish fluently, there are several other common languages operating within the same region.
For example: "Basque" in the Basque Country and Navarre, "Catalan" in Catalonia, Bolearic Islands and Valencia and "Galician" in Galicia. All of them have official status as a second language, and even some newspapers are published only in them.
Religion of Spain
The bulk of the population of Spain are Catholics. However, they approach religion in their own way and not fanatically.
And even though each month of the Spanish calendar has about a dozen days in honor of saints, this is most likely just another reason for another feast. The holidays here have a mixture of spiritual values with pagan honors.
Spain is a country where same-sex marriage is legalized. Such couples have the official right to adopt children. By the way, the adoption of the law on same-sex marriage was once supported by 67% of Catholics themselves.
The historical and cultural heritage of Spain is rich and diverse. The color of this country, its unique beauty inspired by Picasso, Goya, Velazquez, Dali... Influence various peoples, religions and cultures, the border position between Europe and Africa, the isolation of the Mediterranean and the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean - all this is reflected in the majestic monuments and interesting traditions of Spain.
The architecture of Spain is a bizarre interweaving of the traditions of bygone civilizations, which left the memory of their existence in the monuments of monumental creativity and the dynamically developing art of modern architects.
On Spanish soil, ancient amphitheaters and aqueducts coexist with powerful fortifications of Visigothic fortresses. Magnificent examples of Moorish architecture from the Caliphate era have been preserved - the Alcazar in Seville and the Nazareth Palace in the Alambra castle complex in Granada.
In terms of the number of world-famous cathedrals, no other country in the world can compare with Spain. Among them is the majestic Romanesque cathedral in the city of Santiago de Compostela and the Gothic churches of Seville, Burgas, Toledo, Tarragona. The cathedral in the city of Teruel, built in the unique Spanish Mudejar style, which was formed as a result of the fusion of Gothic and Renaissance elements in architecture with Moorish traditions. The austere monastery-palace (residence of the Spanish kings) - El Escorial near Madrid, built in the ascetic Herreresco style and the intricately decorated Baroque-Renaissance cathedrals of Granada, Murcia and Valencia.
The emergence of Spanish modernism, which established itself as one of the main trends in painting and architecture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, is closely connected with the work of the brilliant Catalan Antonio Gaudi, whose hands created such wonderful creations as the Sagrada Familia Cathedral and Park Güell in Barcelona.
The creative potential of the younger generation is evidenced, in particular, by the postmodernist buildings of the architects Ricard Bofil (Barcelona), Santiago Calatrava (Seville, Valencia) and Rafael Moneo (Madrid).
Spanish painting has left a noticeable mark on the world history of fine art. The brilliant flowering of painting began with the appearance in Spain in 1576 of the painter Domenico Theotocopuli, nicknamed El Greco because he was Greek origin and was born on the island of Crete (1541-1614). El Greco becomes the founder and head of the Toledo school and writes mainly on behalf of the monasteries and churches of Toledo.
Golden age spanish painting represented by the names of José de Ribera, Francisco Zurbaran, B. E. Murillo and D. Velazquez, who already in his youth became the court artist of Philip IV; his famous paintings"Las Meninas" or "The Maids of Honor", "The Surrender of Breda", "The Spinners" and portraits of the royal jesters are in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
Political and social upheavals of the 18th and 19th centuries. reflected in the works of Francisco Goya, for example, his “Execution of the Rebels on the Night of May 3, 1808,” as well as the “Disasters of War” series. The fear-inducing “black paintings,” created shortly before the master’s death, are not only an expression of his own despair, but also evidence of the political chaos of that time.
The period of the 18th and 19th centuries is generally characterized by the decline of Spanish art, closed in imitative classicism, and the revival of the great Spanish tradition occurs in the first half of the 20th century. New paths in world art were paved by the founder and prominent representative of surrealism in painting Salvador Dali (1904-1989), one of the founders of cubism Juan Gris (1887-1921), abstractionist Joan Miro (1893-1983) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) , who contributed to the development of several areas of contemporary art.
Spanish literature is one of the most striking phenomena in the world. artistic culture. Her significant contribution is evidenced by the fact that the two most famous human types - Don Quixote and Don Juan - were created by the Spaniards.
The most famous literary work describing the reconquista is the epic poem "The Song of My Cid" (circa 1140), created by an unknown author, telling about the exploits of Rodrigo Díaz de Bivar, better known as Cid (from the Arabic "sidi") - Lord.
The classics of Spanish theater, the founders of the "golden age" of literature - Felix Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderon de la Barca are known to Russian readers and spectators for their brilliant productions on the Russian stage. Tirso de Molina created the image of Don Juan in literature. The knight of the Sorrowful Image, Don Quixote de la Manche, by Miguel de Cervantes, became just as immortal.
At the end of the 19th century, the “generation of '98”, disillusioned with politics, faced the task of spiritual renewal of Spain. Miguel de Unamuno and Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan joined this movement. In 1927, a group of young avant-garde artists was formed, who entered the history of literature as the “Group of the 27th”. Its most famous member was the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca; the cycle of poems "Gypsy Romanseros" and the dramas "Jerma" and "Bloody Wedding" are closely connected with his native Andalusia. Garcia Lorca was killed near Granada by the Francoists.
In 1989 Nobel Prize received Camilo Jose Cela, whose novel “The Beehive” (1943) was translated into Russian. The novel “Special Marks” by Juan Goytisolo, who led the generation of Spanish writers of the 50s, like all his works, has a clear social position. One of the most significant writers Miguel Delibes, his famous novel"Sinless Saints" (1981) was also translated into Russian. Widely popular today are Carmen Martin Gaite (b. 1925; Spanish Literary Prize 1994) and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (b. 1939; literary prize 1995). His novel “The Loneliness of a Manager,” whose hero is private detective Pepe Corvalho, is also known outside of Spain.
Music of Spain
The flourishing of Spanish musical culture, especially in the genre of church music, began in the 16th century. The leading composers of that era were the master of vocal polyphony Cristóbal de Morales (1500–1553), his student Thomas Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611), nicknamed the “Spanish Palestrina,” and Antonio de Cabezón (1510–1566), famous for his compositions for harpsichord and organ.
In the 19th century, after a long era of stagnation, the initiator of the revival of the national musical culture was Felipe Pedrel (1841–1922), the founder of the new Spanish school of composition and the creator of modern Spanish musicology.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Spanish music gained European fame thanks to composers such as Enrique Granados (1867–1916), Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909), and Manuel de Falla (1876–1946). Modern Spain has produced such world-famous opera singers as Placido Domingo, José Carreras and Montserrat Caballe.
Cinematography of Spain
Spain has a long tradition in cinema. Luis Buñuel shocked audiences in the 1920s with surreal films such as Un Chien Andalou; up to the 80s. he continued to denounce bourgeois hypocrisy, for example, in the film “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”
Outstanding directors of modern cinema Carlos Saura ("Carmen") and Pedro Almodóvar Fernando Trueva Julio Medel in the post-Franco period contributed to the consolidation of the world fame of Spanish cinema.
Festivals in Spain
Every year, dozens of major festivals are held in Spain. Fans of any genre of art will be able to find interesting events throughout the year.
For example, the music festival in Granada, starting in June, brings together outstanding representatives of classical and modern dance, flamenco performers. The July Jazz Festival in San Javier is attended by world stars of this musical genre.
Theater lovers will be interested in the festival in Merida, where they can watch the program. classical Greco-Latin and Mediterranean theaters.
In August, the international vocal festival Habaneras takes place in Torrevieja.
The program of the autumn Madrid music festival is very rich.
Cinema fans are familiar with the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
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Architecture
Spain is the third country in the world in terms of the number of sites declared by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, behind only Italy and China in this ranking. In a number of Spanish cities, entire historical neighborhoods have become World Heritage Sites.
The development of architecture began with the arrival of the Romans on the Iberian Peninsula, who left behind some of the most impressive structures of Roman Spain. The invasion of the Vandals, Saians and Visigoths that followed the fall of the Roman Empire led to a profound decline in the use of technologies that had been introduced by the Romans, and brought with them a number of more rigorous building technologies with religious significance. The appearance of Muslims in 711 radically determined the development of architecture for many centuries to come and entailed significant cultural progress, including in architecture.
At the same time, in the Christian kingdoms, original architectural forms gradually began to appear and develop, not initially subject to European influence, but over time joining the major European architectural movements - Romanesque and Gothic, which reached an extraordinary flowering and left behind numerous examples of religious and civil construction throughout Spanish territory . At the same time, from the 12th to the 17th centuries, a certain synthetic style developed, Mudejar, combining European designs and Arab decorative art.
Painting
Main article: Painting of Spain
Literature
There are four major periods in the history of Spanish literature:
- period of origin;
- heyday - the era of Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon, Alarcon;
- a period of decline and imitation.
- a period of renaissance that promises renewal and a secondary flowering of Spanish literature.
Origin period (XII-XV centuries)
The most ancient work of Spanish literature is “The Song of My Cid” (“El cantar de mío Cid”), which glorifies the great national hero Rodrigo Díaz de Bivar, known in history under the Arabic nickname “Cid”. This poem by an unknown author was written no later than 1200. Typical genres of this period are historical romances, historical chronicles, court literature, chivalric novels. The political, military, religious and literary ties between Spain and Italy, which intensified in the second half of the 15th century, contributed to an increase in cultural exchange between both countries, within which the works of Spanish writers began to be translated and published in Italy, and Italian ones in Spain. The presence of two Valencians in the papal position, Calixtus III and Alexander VI, further strengthened the relations of Castile, Aragon and Catalonia with Rome.
Heyday (XVI-XVII centuries)
Decline period
In the 20th century
With the establishment of Franco's dictatorship, cinematography came under severe administrative pressure. It has become mandatory for all films shown in the country to be dubbed in Castilian. In the 1940s-1950s, the most popular directors were Ignacio F. Iquino, Rafael Gil (Huella de luz, 1941), Juan de Orduña (Locura de amor, 1948), Arturo Roman, José Luis Saenz de Heredia (“Raza”, 1942 - based on Franco’s own script) and Edgar Neuville. The film “Fedra” (1956) directed by Manuel Mur Oti also distinguished itself.
In the 1950s, two important film festivals began to take place in Spain. On September 21, 1953, the Cinema Festival (El Festival de Cine) was held for the first time in San Sebastian, which has not been interrupted for a single year since then. And in 1956, the first International Cinema Week was held in Valladolid (Semana Internacional de Cine - SEMINCI).
During the Franco regime, many Spanish directors emigrated from the country, some of them returned during Franco's lifetime. For example, Luis Buñuel Moncho Armendariz, the dark humor of Alex de la Iglesia and the crude humor of Santiago Segura, as well as the work of Alejandro Amenábar to such an extent that, according to producer José Antonio Félez, in 2004, “ 5 films collected 50% of the grosses, and 8-10 films accounted for 80% of the total grosses.” In 1987, the Goya Film Award was founded in Spain, a kind of “counterweight” to the Oscars for Spanish cinema.
The content of the article
WESTERN EUROPEAN MUSIC. Western European music refers to the musical culture of Europe - the heir to the cultures of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and the Roman Empire, whose collapse into western and eastern parts occurred in the 4th century.
Cultures also developed in line with Western European culture of Eastern Europe and America. Russian musical culture, which reveals many features similar to the music of Europe, is, as a rule, considered independently. Ancient Greek culture fertilized both the West and the East. But the Ancient East (Egypt, Babylon, Media, Parthia, Sogdiana, Kushans, etc.) had a noticeable influence on the musical development of Europe. During the Middle Ages, a variety of musical instruments, new rhythms and dances spread from the south of Europe to the north, and Muslim Spain was the conductor of Arab musical and literary traditions. Later, the Ottoman Turks became the bearers of the musical professionalism of the Islamic civilization, which in its own way multiplied the wealth of the musical culture of the peoples of the Near and Middle East inherited from antiquity.
Its characteristic features are Western European musical culture emerged in the Middle Ages. At that time, professional musical traditions were formed within the framework of the Christian church, and in the castles of aristocrats, and among knights, and in the practice of city musicians. For many centuries, these traditions were monophonic, and only during the mature Middle Ages did polyphony and musical writing appear, a unified system of church modes and rhythms was born, and European musical instruments (organ, harpsichord, violin) reached perfection. After the Renaissance, music became more independent, separating itself from texts (liturgical, literary and poetic). Individual ingenuity was highly valued, new musical genres of secular content (opera) and forms of instrumental music were born, and ideas about a recorded musical “work” (composition) and the work of a composer appeared. Since the 17th century. the individualization of the creative process intensifies - both in composing music and in the craft of making musical instruments, and later in the performing arts. Court and city musical culture are developing more intensively than church culture. Church modes and the technique of polyphony in the form in which the church developed it (polyphony) give way to new modes (major and minor) and the homophonic-harmonic principle of combining voices.
New processes that developed after the 17th century continued to reveal a common musical “language” that musicians “speaked”, regardless of what part of the European world they lived in. The musical “fashion” that arose in Italy, France, and Germany disseminated the same aesthetic ideas about music and the methods of its creation, which determined the uniqueness of the musical style (norms, musical language) of a particular historical era. The boundaries of these styles, despite the diversity of creative portraits of musicians, were clearly distinguished and formed the same stylistic foundations (baroque, classicism, romanticism, expressionism, impressionism, etc.) as in literature, architecture, and fine arts of the corresponding eras.
As a result of the constant change of musical styles as certain “techniques” of composing music, semantics changed, various facets of its ability to express dynamic, behavioral, rational-mathematical, and psychological abilities of a person were opened. The need of Europeans to create something new in the field of music, unlike what came before, led to a variety of individual styles of composers, and from the 20th century. – on the one hand, to the “compilative” method of creativity, using known techniques to create a new musical work, and on the other, to the complete denial of all known stylistic norms in the field of creating and performing music, to experimental creativity (avant-garde), to the search for novelty in materials related to modern ideas about music (noise and specific sounds environment), and with new electronic instrumental sounds, to technical methods of processing any kind of sound (on synthesizers, tapes, computers), to the abandonment of methods of fixing a musical work on paper using a musical notation writing system.
MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
Over the course of a long period, a new type of culture was formed in Western Europe, in which cult (church), knightly (aristocratic) and burgher (urban) traditions were distinguished. Their specificity and interaction contributed to the development of unique features of Western European musical culture.
Music of the Catholic Church in the Early Middle Ages (4th–10th centuries).
Western European music first of all formed its professional features in the bosom of Christian Catholic church practice, which began to reveal its specificity starting from the 4th century. Monasteries were centers of learning and musical professionalism. The music of worship was distinguished by the nature of detachment from everything vain, humility and immersion in prayer. If in the earliest Christian communities everyone gathered sang, then after the Council of Laodicea (364) only professional singers began to sing in the church.
Gregorian chant.
The origins of musical liturgy of the Christian type are seen in the ancient chants of Egypt, Judea, and Syria. For clergy, the authority in the field of music was the ancient Jewish king David. He appears frequently in the Middle Ages: either in a biblical legend, casting out demons from King Saul with his playing on a musical instrument, or depicted playing various instruments (psaltery, harp, bells). However, the church formed new musical traditions based on the singing of sacred texts: “David sang in the psalms, and we sing with David to this day. David used a cithara, the strings of which are lifeless, but the church uses a cithara with living strings; our tongues are strings: they proclaim different sounds, but one love” (from the church interdict of the Council of Laodicea).
Singing, which became the basis of Christian worship, remained monophonic for a long time. In most churches, it was carried out according to the type of psalmody, which was similar to a recitation: a small range and practically unchanted words of the text were sung by one person, and the worshipers responded with the same monotonous recitation. The text dominated the music, which followed the rhythm of the words, and melodic intonations should not distract from the meaning of the text. In the 5th–7th centuries. There were various monastic traditions that developed parallel to the Roman one. In Lyon, Britain and northern Italy, Gallican singing arose, in Spain (Toledo), which was under the influence of Arab-Muslim culture, Mozarabic singing. From 5th–6th centuries. In Italy, it became customary to perform sacred texts in the manner of singing hymns, which were distinguished by vocal chant and melody. The creator of this type of singing was Bishop Ambrose in Milan, who used poetry in the form of ancient Roman poetry (Ambrosian chant).
With the strengthening of the institution of the papacy, the spiritual authorities selected ritual tunes and carried out their canonization. From the 6th century A singing school (Schola cantorum) was founded in Rome. With the emergence of the Gregorian type of chant, there was a unification of the church singing tradition, the creator of which was Pope Gregory I. He compiled a huge set of chants (antiphonary), which included many local tunes. The main part of the chants made up the “moving” part of church services: the initial psalm, the psalm for a given day of the year, prayer during communion, etc. Strict, dispassionate and severe chorales, in which the melody was subordinated to the rhythm of the words, were selected for divine services. The texts (Old and New Testaments) were sung only in Latin in the form of monody - single-voice male singing, either in choir (in unison) or by one singer. The only musical instrument that began to be heard in the church since 660, along with singing, was the organ, introduced by Pope Vitalian. Coming from the East, the organ was common in everyday life, but the church gave it the status of a “divine musical instrument” and improved its design until the 17th century, constructing huge organs along with the construction of the church and developing the technique of playing this instrument.
Monotonous psalmodic singing had no rhythm (a prosaic text was sung). The melody smoothly rose upward to higher tones, stayed there and descended down to the original level. The texts and melodies were contained in special books and updated. The range of main modes-melodies, emphasizing the spiritual structure of the prayer ritual, was limited to eight. They composed the structure of the Octoechos - a system of eight church modes that dominated the practice of training singers and music theory. Medieval theorists prescribed each mode its own emotional structure: 1 – mobility, dexterity; 2 – seriousness and deplorable solemnity; 3 – excitement, impetuosity, anger and severity; 4 – calmness and pleasantness, talkativeness and flattery; 5 – joy, tranquility and fun; 6 – sadness, touching and passion; 7 – lightness of youth, pleasantness; 8 – senile seriousness, majesty.
Among the set of Gregorian chants there were chants that differed from everyday ones and constituted a special type of service - the mass. This is a cycle of chants on the occasion of the main liturgical holidays from 5–6 sections. Each was named according to the initial words of the text: Kyrie eleison (Lord have mercy); Gloria… (Gloria); Credo… (I believe in one God); Sanctus… And Benedictus (Holy is the Lord God of hosts); (Blessed is he who comes in the name of God); Agnus Dei... (Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world).
The birth of polyphony.
In the 9th century in the centers of “musical learning” (the monastery of St. Gallen, the cathedrals of Reims, Lüttich, Chartres, etc.), where there were good singing forces, new types of monophonic Gregorian chant arose, which led to the emergence of polyphony in the church. Until the 12th–13th centuries. Two-voice singing predominated (diaphony). The melody of the Gregorian chant itself did not change. It sounded as a supporting voice, receiving the names “even tune” (cantus planus), “strong tune” (cantus firmus). There were no voice chants in the chorales; the tones of the melody replaced each other on each new syllable (syllabic chant). Over time, the performance of the chorale was filled with innovations: in places where the choir alternated with solo singing, a more colorful melody began to appear. More often this happened when each stanza of the text was preceded by a kind of melodic refrain (antiphon), and when at the end of the text, when chanting exclamations (such as “Hallelujah!”), specially decorated melodic devices (melismas) and ornamented chants (anniversaries) appeared. This is how the style of melismatic singing arose. In services, in addition to the main chorale, additional texts with rhyme began to be performed - in special tunes (sequences, tropes). They sounded at Christmas and Easter. Then the author's creativity began to manifest itself (Notker Zaika and Totilon - monks of the monastery in St. Galen) and the acting talent of the monks, who began to compose and act out episodes from the Gospel to music (the worship of the shepherds, gifts to the baby Jesus, mourning the babies killed by order of Herod, etc. ). A unique genre of liturgical drama arose, which would reveal itself later in the oratorio. The introduction of diverse musical and poetic material enriched Gregorian chant and attracted believers, but it still remained essentially monophonic.
The first steps in the formation of polyphony were such singing, when the tones of the chorale melody were duplicated by another voice accompanying the chorale (organum). Each tone (note) sang only one syllable, and singing with syllable tones “thickened” the choral melody vertically, but the melody itself moved in one direction. Here the artistic and acoustic effect that was created in the church by the sound of voices in different registers turned out to be important. It made it possible to evaluate the quality of the combination of tones vertically (not in melody, but in harmony) - as euphonious (consonance) and dissonant (dissonance). In the premises of the Catholic cathedral, a special resonance was achieved, the “echo” effect was enhanced, which was facilitated not by all intervals that appeared in joint singing, but primarily by those that were perceived as the same tone (perfect): octaves, fifths and fourths. Over time, the sound of both voices will become less parallel, i.e. more free in the directions of melodic movement: two simultaneously sounding voices will either diverge, then merge, or cross. This early type of polyphony covered almost all of Europe, including England. Organum is the leading genre of polyphonic music of the Middle Ages.
Music during the mature Middle Ages.
In the 11th–12th centuries. (the era of Saint-Martial), a special style of two-voice singing spread, which originated from the southern French monastery in Limoges and the northern Spanish monastery of Santiago de Compostela. Here melismatics flourished - decorating the main tune of a chorale with an independent and more mobile melody. In certain places, the soloist, while other singers were performing one drawn-out syllable, introduced his own chant of this syllable (from three to ten tones). The melismatic style disrupted the parallelism of the two-voice sound " note-for-note"and created the preconditions for a feeling of independence of both voices. Nowadays, it has received the name “Gothic” polyphony, since it was the pinnacle in the development of Gregorianism. Under the influence of developed polyphony (polyphony), Gregorian chant would exhaust itself in the era of the mature Middle Ages.
Music theory. Notation.
The development of music theory in Western Europe was carried out within the framework of church scholarship. Inheriting the traditions of the ancient Greeks, philosophers considered music in the system of seven “liberal arts”, where it coexisted with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy (as part of the “quadrium”). Following the Roman philosopher Boethius, there were mainly three types of music: world music - the movement of the celestial spheres, human - the combination of human voices, instrumental - the manifestation of numerical patterns. Knowledge of music, based on an understanding of the laws of beauty of number and proportions, was valued above practice: “A musician is one who has acquired knowledge of the science of singing not by slavery to the practical path, but by reason through inferences” (Boethius). However, the practical development of music “corrected” the theory, which, after the Renaissance, developed in the direction of individual musical languages, styles, performance techniques and improvement of instruments, in clarifying musical terms and author's interpretations of musical languages.
The specificity of Western European musical culture is associated with the emergence of musical notation, which owes its birth to church musical practice. Ensemble performance of music could not for long be satisfied with only written down verbal text. The memory of the singers, who memorized certain “tones” (modal melodies) suitable for certain theological texts, was overloaded. The alphabetic notation was used, known as Ancient Greece, and in the Islamic world, but it required precise indications of the course of melodic development and the rhythm of the chant.
Until the 11th century singers used special icons (neumas), which were placed above the words of the text. Non-numerical writing did not record rhythm, but only the relative pitch of tones and the direction of the melody.
The musical theoretical works of the Arabs (Al-Farabi), translated into Latin in Muslim Spain, became the source of many innovations in the music of Western Europe. Along with the practice of playing the “lute” that came from the Arabs (the abbreviated, without article, Arabic name “al-ud” - “laud”, “lut”), Europeans will borrow from eastern treatises the form of recording music: the outline of four (later - five) oud strings indicating the tones in Arabic letters where they are pressed with the fingers (tablature). Church musicians also drew lines to indicate different pitch positions of tones, but the number of lines reached up to 18, conveying the entire range of singing. Basics of modern musical notation was created by the head of the singing chapel, Guido of Arezzo (c. 995–1050), introducing a system of four musical lines (staff) with letter designations of tones. Guido's reform also affected musical theory; he brought the tradition of writing treatises about music closer to the “technique” of creating music, rejecting “philosophizing” about music (in the spirit of Boethius). Guido is also responsible for introducing the famous names of European tones: do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si. According to one version, they are associated with the letters of the Latin alphabet and appeared as a way of chanting tones (solmization) without a verbal text in a Latin rhyme specially invented by Guido. According to another version, the names of European tones were borrowed from the Arabs and correspond to the names of letters in the Arabic alphabet: dal-ra-mim-fa-sad-lam-sin. ()
Early polyphony (polyphony).
In the work of musicians (Leonina, 2nd half of the 12th century, and Perotina, 12th–13th centuries), who served in the Singing School of the Chapel of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, a new type polyphony. From the 12th century The style of the Notre Dame school was distinguished by characteristic features: the appearance of three and four voices, the melodic mobility of the upper voice (treble), the freedom and contrast of additional voices in relation to the chorale, the transformation of the chorale melody into a measured sounding background - a sustained voice. The harmony of musical sound was now achieved not so much through text caesuras, but through repetitions of melodic chants and rhythmic phrases. In the works of Perotin, nicknamed “The Great,” a system of musical rhythmic modes independent of the text is formed (there were 6 of them, later 8) and a new development technique (canon, imitation) appears, based on the repetition of the same melody in a different voice. The principles of polyphony of the Notre Dame school, based not only on the vertical, but also on the linear movement of voices, are spreading everywhere. The slowness of church ritual, expressed in the sound of the chorale, began to be combined with the colorfulness of melodic fantasy.
Secular musical tradition in the Middle Ages.
For a long time, secular musical creativity lay outside the professional sphere. Its formation was facilitated by the formation of court (knightly) traditions in the culture of Europe, their interaction with the musical culture of the burghers, with the folk culture of the medieval city. Back in the 9th century. (Carolingian era) a “palace academy” was organized (modeled on the ancient one), where scientific disputes were held and competitions of poets and musicians were held. With the advent of new cultural centers (universities), along with large cathedrals, where there were schools for training singers, learning was concentrated not only in the circles of the clergy, but also in the circles of the enlightened nobility.
Trouvères and troubadours.
The ideology of chivalry played an important role in the formation of secular musical traditions. The Crusades to the East and acquaintance with the Arab (Islamic) court culture - solo singing of composed poems to the accompaniment of the oud, which flourished in Muslim Spain, expanded the worldview of the knights, contributed to the formation of norms of “peaceful” behavior and a code of honor. The special character of the knight’s dialogue with the “beautiful lady”, devoted service to her and the ideals of courtly love, developed in the 11th–12th centuries. in the musical and poetic creativity of troubadours and trouvères (as troubadours were called in the north) - the first examples of secular poetry with music recorded in writing. The creation of poems with singing glorifying the Beautiful Lady was in demand by the enlightened nobility. In castles and at social celebrations, the knight turned from a “courageous barbarian” into a “tender connoisseur of female charms.” Provençal troubadours wrote poetry not in the spoken language, but in the sophisticated “koine”.
The names of many troubadours and trouvères indicate that they came from different social strata: Guillaume VII, Count of Poitiers, Duke of Aquitaine; Count of Angoulême; the poor Gascon Marcabrun, who served at the Catalan court, Bernart de Ventadorn; Bertrand de Born. Peire Vidal - expansive and quick-tongued, served at the court of the Hungarian king, he and Girouat de Borneil were close to the rulers of Barcelona; Guiraut Riquier served at the same court for many years, whose melodies (48) have been preserved best of all; Folke of Marseilles, from the family of a wealthy Genoese merchant, and Goselm Fedi, who lost his fortune and became a juggler. In the 12th century Troubadours enjoyed success at the Castilian court in northern Spain. Most Trouvères originated from Arras (north of Laura). Among the Trouvères there are many untitled townspeople and knights-errant (Jean de Brienne) and participants in the crusades (Guillaume de Ferrieres, Bouchard de Marly). Famous were Canon de Bethune, the son of a count, author of many songs about the Crusades; a poor juggler, but an educated and subtle poet, Colin Muset, as well as Thibault, Count of Champagne, King of Navarre (59 melodies have survived).
In the art of troubadours and trouvères, characteristic genres are formed: alba (song of the dawn), servera (song from the perspective of a knight), ballad, rondo, canzona, dialogue songs, march songs of the crusaders, laments (on the death of Richard the Lionheart). The lyrics of songs expressing “tender” feelings are strophic, the melody is composed for one stanza and repeated in a new one. The form was generally varied - sometimes with repetitions of sections, refrains, sometimes without them, the phrases were clearly divided and distinguished by danceability. The connection between the melody and the verse was manifested in rhythm, because the melody “fit” into one of six rhythmic modes (“patterns”) - “artificial” rhythmic figures.
In the 12th–13th centuries, the work of the troubadours came to Germany, texts from French were translated into German, and their own poems appeared to already known tunes. Here the poet-singers are called minnesingers. Minnesang flourished at the courts - imperial, ducal (Vienna), landgrave (Thuringia), Czech royal (Prague), where singing competitions were held. The largest representatives of the Minnesang of the 12th–15th centuries: Dietmar von Aist, Walter von der Vogelweide, Nidgart von Rowenthal, Oswald von Wolkenstein. Oswald von Wohl, the owner of the family castle, was a groom, a pilgrim, a cook, and a minnesinger knight. Henry of Meissen was nicknamed "Frauenlob" ("Praiser of Women"). Adam de la Halle is the last of the trouvères, an educated poet and renowned musician who spread the creative principles of the troubadours to Italy. He wrote polyphonic rondos and ballads and laid the foundations of the musical theater genre - he was the first to create a court comedy performance with music Game about Robin and Marion(about the love of a knight for a shepherdess).
City musicians ( jugglers, minstrels, shpilmans). From the 9th century information appears about folk musicians, whose song and instrumental repertoire will form the basis of secular musical lyrics in the 12th–13th centuries. Jugglers, minstrels, shpilmans are artisan musicians. Most of them wandered from city to city, they performed at festivals. Some settled down and became city trumpeters and drummers, singers, mimes, actors, performers of various musical instruments (viele - a type of violin, harp, flute, shawl - a type of oboe, organ, etc.). They often found employment with lords. Among the traveling apprentices, the singer, poet and playwright Hans Sachs became famous, who traveled through the cities of Germany and led the Meistersinger movement in Nuremberg.
The Catholic Church did not recognize all music, developing “perfect art” (ars perfectum) - those musical forms that corresponded to worship. Resolutions of church councils and statements of major theologians, concerned with the pious education of believers, contained prohibitions on the entry into the church of women's singing, dancing and folk rituals, wandering singers and musicians, calling them histrions. By cultivating the morals of clergy and parishioners, the church protected itself from the life of the laity. Musical culture was stratified into two layers: cult and secular, church and secular. However, from the 12th-13th centuries. “wandering people” begin to participate in spiritual performances, in those episodes of the service where performance was required comic roles, or where services were conducted in local languages.
Cult and secular music in the 13th–14th centuries.
Features of the secularization of church music begin to appear in the 12th–13th centuries. Secular images penetrate into spiritual themes, and the forms of liturgy become more spectacular. Gregorian chant remains an obligatory component of the church service, but the possibilities of its polyphonic presentation are revealed depending on the individuality of the author. Regional polyphonic schools are being created. The term “musica composita,” close to the future term “composition,” appears (J. de Grogeo, early 14th century), meaning, by analogy with that used by Muslims since the 9th century. the term “tarkib” (Arabic – “composition”) - “composed music”. There is a combination of the technique of church art with the features of secular art.
New forms of sacred music are developing, in which the lyrical principle is manifested. In Italy, hymnical praises (lauda) spread, and short rhymed prose, close to secular lyrics, was introduced. With the development of spiritual heresy (the Franciscan Order), spiritual chants appeared in the local dialect. In France, Archbishop P. Corbeil composed the now popular “donkey prose,” which praised the donkey and was intended for the feast of circumcision. In Spain in the 13th century. At the court of King Alfonso X the Wise of Castile, a poet, musician, patron of sciences, spiritual lyricism flourished: a collection of hymns (cantigs) dedicated to the Virgin Mary appeared (over 400 songs in the Galician dialect). They express a folk song basis, have choruses, and are performed by an instrumental ensemble.
Motet. Gimel.
The emergence and development of the treble style of singing in church practice was influenced by folk musical traditions, their intonations and elements of folk “discordant” singing. In the 12th century the spirit of the French court culture of the era of Louis IX gives birth to a new genre - the motet, developing multi-tiered polyphony. The motet became the leading genre, the “Gothic miniature of the Middle Ages.” Growing tendency to express realistic images, to their individualization was best manifested in this genre, which turned out to be suitable for creating sacred and secular music. In addition to the new melody, new words also began to sound in it. To the chorale sung in Latin, another tune (several tunes) was added with text in a common language, often with humorous, playful or erotic content. Repetitions (rhythmic, motivic) and song-verse form became characteristic. Distinguished by its miniature, playful and lyrical nature, the motet complemented the grandiose polyphonic “canvases” with more virtuoso technique and contributed to the development of individual creativity. Motets were played at festivals, tournaments, entertainment and ceremonies. Outside the church they were performed accompanied by some instrument, and from the second half of the 13th century. instrumental motets appeared.
The flourishing of polyphony in France led to the emergence of mature polyphonic writing, which did not immediately achieve that combination of several independent (both in rhythm and melody) voices, which will be known, in the 16th–18th centuries. (from J. Palestrina or J.S. Bach). One of the impulses that brought the polyphonic style closer to its heights was the style of singing that spread in England (gimel, later fabourdon). Manner folk singing The British introduced into church singing combinations of voices that formed vertical intervals of thirds and sexts, considered imperfect in church theory. They identified the “problem” of forming new (non-church) modes – major and minor, in which the third interval would dominate. The medieval practice of polyphonic singing seemed to strive, on the one hand, to “move away” from the combination of voices vertically and began to increasingly develop their linear (less dependent on each other) movement - counterpoint. But, on the other hand, the “search” for tertiary adjustments that satisfy the ear (in a vertical, and not in a progressive melodic combination - in a harmonic) will continue. During the mature Middle Ages, the major-minor modal system will begin to crystallize, which will constitute the specificity of Western European musical thinking in modern times, based on the homophonic-harmonic technique.
FEATURES OF THE RENAISSANCE IN MUSIC
"New art" (ars nova).
The image of a professional musician, formed during the Middle Ages in the church, at the turn of the 13th–14th centuries. complemented by the image of an enlightened aristocrat composing music for the church and for secular society. A professional had to have knowledge of musical laws, erudition unknown to the commoner music lover. There was an understanding of the independent significance of music, its ability to “build” according to its own laws and be a source of pleasure. The specificity of the interaction between cult and secular musical professionalism was manifested in the delimitation of musical and poetic art into: “new art” (ars nova) and “old art” (ars antiqua). The theorist of ars nova was the French musician, poet and philosopher Philippe de Vitry (1291–1361), author of the treatise Ars nova(c. 1320). This work defined a new “vector” for the development of music, which differed from the cult one that had been established before that time. This was expressed not only in the recognition of semitone intervals as “unfalse”, and thirds as euphonious (consonance), but also new metro-rhythmic divisions – bilobeds, complementing the trilobeds that dominated the church. With the creation of miniature lyrical motets, rondos, and ballads, the figurative structure of professional music changed. In the works of composers, the isorhythmic technique (ostinato-variational principle) appears: enlargement of the durations of the tones of the lower fundamental voice (melodic ostinato or repetition - “cantus prius firmus”) with the upper voices forming a mobile light superstructure above it. Repetitive chorale the melody no longer plays a figurative-melodic role, but becomes a factor of the harmonic vertical - it rhythmically co-organizes all the voices.
The three-voice motets of the poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300–1377), who served as cantor of Notre Dame Cathedral and secretary to King John of Luxembourg of Bohemia, became very famous. Music has ceased to be a “divine science”, it becomes an exponent of the earthly principle: “Music is a science that strives for us to have fun, sing and dance” (Machaud). Composers who continued to work for the church borrowed from ars nova music. expressive style. In the 14th century In Italy, a number of bright musical individuals appeared who wrote music based on inspiration and composed their own melodies for polyphonic masses. Masses and church motets dominated, but secular genres also appeared - madrigal, caccia, ballad. The creative path of the troubadours continued, but with a different professional technique - polyphonic, with a wider range of artistic images. Among the outstanding musicians of that era is the blind virtuoso organist Francesco Landini (1325–1347), the author of the famous two- and three-voice madrigals and languidly lyrical ballads.
Dutch (French-Flemish) polyphonic school of the 15th–16th centuries.
From the beginning of the 15th century. The northern part began to play an active role in the musical culture of Europe. After the inclusion of the Netherlands into the domains of the Dukes of Burgundy, the interaction of the French, Burgundian and English musical traditions intensified, giving rise to a new professional school of masters of polyphony, which spread its influence to Italy, Spain and the colonies of the New World. In the 15th–16th centuries. Dutch musicians worked in almost all major urban centers in Europe. Their music clearly expressed the spirituality associated with the sublime ideas of the Catholic faith. Relying on the achievements of the Roman school of church music, they were able to fertilize this tradition with new impulses of the ars nova era, giving church music an extraordinary power of artistic beauty and perfection. The mathematically rational mastery of polyphonic technique was manifested in the sound of polyphonic choirs singing unaccompanied (a capella). The new choral polyphony is the result of many phenomena adopted by the Dutch: the orthodox chorale, polyphonic secular motets, singing “in thirds” of the English, Flemish folk song and the melodic Italian frotolla. This polyphony revealed such a one-dimensional sound in the choir that can only be achieved on the organ. The balance of 4 or 5 voices and the wide range of their sound (due to the involvement of low voices that replaced falsettos) created a continuous flow of music, where one voice “layers” on another. This was the pinnacle of choral linear polyphony.
In a church service, the mass becomes central and acquires the status of an independent musical genre. In the work of Guillaume Dufay (1400–1474), the four-voice mass transformed from disparate numbers into a work of art, when the grouping of parts of the service and their intonational unity formed a special musical integrity. Paying tribute to secular motets, the composer “weaves” folk melodies into the voices of the mass, highlighting them in relief, often relying on the chord structure. The master of polyphonic technique was Jan Ockeghem (1428–1495), who had many followers. He developed techniques for imitation (repetition) of melody in different voices (reversal, compression, overlay, etc.). Effectively alternating between the full sound of the choir and its groups, he achieved a continuous fluidity of the musical fabric. The music did not lose its religious character, but the chorale lost its role as a foundation in polyphony, because his melody could move from voice to voice and be sung both from below and from above. Often, instead of a chorale, the function of the main tune (cantus firmus) was performed by a melody composed by the author or a famous song. In this case, the mass received a special name or did not have one at all (Okegem - Mass without title, J.Depres – La-Sol-Fa-Re).
Remarkable masters of Flemish polyphony were also Heinrich Isaac (c. 1450–1517) and Jacob Obrecht (c. 1430–1505). But special role in the organic combination of church and folk-secular melodic principles in choral polyphony, Josquin Despres achieved. He wrote spiritual masses, secular madrigals, and chansons. His music was recognized by his contemporaries as the ideal of the “perfect art” of the church, since he did not complicate the polyphonic technique, but created a strict “enlightened style” of polyphonic writing. This fact was of great importance for the development of church music, because the independent significance of music was not welcomed by church ministers, who assigned it the function of “exciting minds with singing, so that they, excited, would better understand the meaning of these chants” (Melanchthon).
Polyphonic technique in the “strict” style of contrapuntal writing reaches its peak in the works of O. Lasso and G. Palestrina. Lasso combined the technique of church polyphonic mastery with secular imagery, special theatricality and emotionality, carnivalesque and wit (composition Echo for two choirs). He combined polyphonic and harmonic principles of sound, introduced expressive chromatisms, melodic ornaments, and dramatic recitations (similar to operatic ones) into secular and sacred works. Palestrina, who worked in the largest chapels in Rome and participated in the reforms of the Council of Trent, was recognized as the “savior of church music” in the era of the “offensive” of secular professionalism. The author of many masses, motets, magnificats, hymns, madrigals (secular and sacred), he became an example of the style of strictly contrapuntal writing, when the continuity and constant alternation of different voices in the choir and the transfer of melodic initiative from voice to voice were artistically significant. This skillful “weaving” of voices did not obscure the words and was effectively emphasized by the beginning of a new melodic line or a change of registers. The musical works of other Renaissance masters were artistically significant: the Italian G. Allegri, the Englishman T. Tallis and others.
Instrumental music of the Renaissance.
In the 15th–16th centuries. instrumental music begins to emerge as an independent tradition and quickly spreads in everyday life, salons, courts and churches. The lute is becoming increasingly popular in everyday life. Along with spiritual works, the first printed music collections offered instrumental pieces for the lute (three lute tablatures were compiled by O. Perucci in 1507–1509). However, the material of the instrumental repertoire was mainly of vocal origin - these are arrangements of motets, chansons, folk melodies and chorales. In playing the organ, lute, and early claviers, the principles of variant execution of one theme-melody are formed (for example, organ and clavier works by the Spanish composer F. Antonio Cabezon (1510–1566)). But the church, allowing instrumental sounds, commanded: “Let the bishops curb the playing of the organ, so that the words that are sung can be heard, and so that the souls of those who listen are turned to the praise of God with sacred words, and not with curious, interesting melodies” (Resolution of the Council of Toledo , 1566).
Madrigal.
Appeared in the 14th century. The madrigal genre most clearly expressed the new secular vector of development of musical culture. Based on folk songs ny origins, music united with the work of poets of the Renaissance. Madrigals are poems, mainly of love content, intended for singing in the native language, written by F. Petrarch, G. Boccaccio, P. Bembo, T. Tasso, L. Ariosto and others. The desire for sensuality distinguished this genre, which became popular not only in Italy, but also in France, Germany, England. It consolidated new homophonic-harmonic principles of musical language, since new dramatic possibilities of melody were intensively developed, its ability to “express” human tears, complaints, sighs or blowing wind, flow of water, birdsong. Finding historical continuity with the lyrics of troubadours and trouvères, the madrigal developed until the beginning of the 17th century. and learned the principles of polyphony developed in secular genres: motet, kachce, frotolla. In the 16th century individual voices in the madrigal began to be replaced by instruments, which contributed to the birth of a homophonic-harmonic structure of music - the primacy of melody with instrumental accompaniment. At the same time, a theatrical play with music appeared - a madrigal comedy (O. Vecchi, G. Torelli, etc.), close to the commedia dell'arte, where typical, as in early operas, musical characteristics of the characters appeared: gaiety, anger, sorrow, jealousy , deceit, etc. A recognized master of the madrigal was the Italian Carlo Gesualdo di Venosa (c. 1560–1615), who achieved special melodic expression, being carried away by new intonations based not on diatonic, but on chromatic intervals. There was also a genre of chanson, close to madrigal, which was widespread in France. Scenes of city life, sketches of nature ( Birdsong, Screams of Paris, Women chatting while doing laundry) are presented in the famous chansons of Clément Janequin (c. 1475 - c. 1560) - the leader of the chapels in Bordeaux, Angers, Paris and the singer of the Royal Chapel. He visited Italy in his youth, accompanying his lord during the “Italian Wars” (1505–1515), which contributed to the spread of the secular aristocratic traditions of Italy to France and the emergence of its own court musical culture here. The madrigal genre penetrated to England, where the work of John Dowland stood out.
Florentine Camerata. Drama per musica
(“drama through music”)
The ideas of the Renaissance took hold of the minds of musicians later than in other areas of art. The musical world “split” in ideas about how the ancient Greek principle should be embodied in the music of the 16th century. Many scientists admired the Dutch polyphony of J. Depres and opposed the innovations of other musicians. In the court circles of Italy in the 2nd half of the 15th century. Independent associations of scientists, poets, and musicians (academies) arose, where new ideals were proclaimed, rejecting church art and focusing on antiquity. Composer, lutenist and mathematician Vincenzo Galilei (1520–1591) inspired the artists and scientists who made up the Florentine Camerata - an aristocratic community of like-minded people, including poets, musicians, and artists. In progress Dialogue about ancient and modern music(1581) he opposed polyphony, for a homophonic style of writing, proclaiming that in the “perfect art” of the church there was nothing from the ancient classics and calling the Netherlands “medieval barbarians.” For members of the camerata, human experiences were central, which they valued as “creative novelty” (inventio). A collection of madrigals and arias that were in one voice, Giulio Caccini (1550–1618) called New music(1601). The composer became famous as the inventor of the “expressive” monophonic style and recitative singing, which had an emotional overtones. The final separation of the church (polyphonic) and secular (homophonic) types of music was proclaimed by him in the form of a new creative credo of the musician: to compose music “at his own discretion” and allow “exceptions to all the rules” that were established by church canons.
The flourishing of court culture was expressed in musical and theatrical genres. Having put forward the idea of reviving ancient Greek tragedy, the aristocracy did not rely on the dramas of Sophocles or Euripides, it gravitated towards divertissement images, towards a hedonistic interpretation of mythological plots. The Florentines managed to create what would be from the 18th century. characterize the opera. In their first theatrical productions - “dramas through music” ( Daphne, Eurydice J. Peri), the melody began to dominate (aria), the synthesis of music with words in the recitative-declamatory style of singing was realized. The world of pastoral, alien to tragedy and spiritual conflicts, expressed in the musical dramas of the Florentines, was complemented by the creative genius of Claudio Monteverdi. He put forward the idea of a "new method" in art of an "excited and militant style". His work was not fashionable, but in madrigals and arias he was able to vividly embody both pictures of nature and the mental states of the heroes, especially in productions that he called “tales on music”: Orpheus ( Orpheus), Seneca and Ottavia ( Coronation of Poppea), Ariadne's complaint ( Ariadne). Opera takes its origins in Monteverdi's work, for the first time achieving a synthesis of music, words and stage action in characteristic operatic forms: arias, recitatives, duets, choruses, instrumental ritornellos. Opera is the grandiose musical culmination of the Italian Renaissance.
Music of the Baroque era (17th – early 18th century)
Early 17th century - the time when the features of the Baroque style revealed themselves in the arts. In secular forms, music becomes closer to literature and loses touch with mathematics. The art of music is no longer considered in the quadrium system, but is moving closer to rhetoric and, together with grammar and logic, is included in the trivium. The development of instrumental genres separates music from poetry and dance. A three-volume treatise by the German organist and composer Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) is published Syntagma musicum(1615–1619), which examines the forms of sacred and secular music, musical instruments (granography) and musical terms that define the essence of vocal genres characteristic of their time (motet, madrigal) and instrumental (concert, prelude, fantasy, fugue, toccata, sonata , symphony), popular dances (allemande, chime, galliard, volta), etc.
Specifics of the musical language of the 17th century. manifests itself in confusion different techniques, styles, images, in the combination of “old” and “new”. Polyphonic technique predominated, but recitative-declamatory, textural-fantasy techniques are crowding it out. Combining church service with service to the lords, the musicians relied on various styles, comparing them in one composition: a song aria with a Gregorian chant, a madrigal with a spiritual motet and a concerto. The ability to amuse, delight a person, and at the same time glorify God, rising above everyday life, is the task of a musician of this era. What is to be assessed is the author's skill, the professional craftsmanship of a musical “thing” (composition), which does not disappear in momentary performance (improvisation), but is preserved in writing in music manuscripts and publications (music printing - from the end of the 15th century). From the end of the 16th century. in Italy the term “composer” appears.
Features of Baroque in Italy.
In Italy, new secular musical genres are forming and gaining strength. Opera, which originated in aristocratic salons, is democratizing and spreading across various cities in Italy and beyond. In the 17th century a type of opera seria (“serious opera”) was developed, based on mythological and historical-heroic subjects. The Venetian (M.A. Chesti, F. Cavalli) and Neapolitan (A. Scarlatti) opera schools gained fame. Along with vocal and theatrical music, new genres are emerging: ensemble-instrumental concert, solo - sonata, large-scale vocal-instrumental cycle - oratorio, small organ and clavier pieces - fantasies, toccatas, preludes; new polyphonic forms are born (in the technique of free counterpoint) - ricercar, fugue; Preference is given to everyday rhythms and melodies - dance in suites, songs in arias, canzones, serenades. Baroqueness is manifested in a passion for contrasts (dynamic, textured, instrumental) and figurative pathos, expression, heroism and pathos, a comparison of the clownish and the sublime. The basic principle of musical thinking begins to change - from polyphonic to homophonic-harmonic, when the main thing becomes the gravity of unstable chords to stable ones. There is a transition from the medieval mode system (modal) to the new one - major-minor). At the turn of the 16th–17th centuries. modal sound was different from the modern one, the selection of certain intervals, scales, chords was just underway, but the artistic expressiveness of not only consonance, but also dissonance (thirds, seconds) began to be recognized.
The features of the Baroque are most clearly represented in the works of Italian composers and organists. The Venice polyphonic school put forward Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli, who compared vocal and instrumental sounds and introduced chord texture. G. Gabrieli (1557–1612/13) began to use dynamic instructions, introduce thematic and rhythmic repetitions, and created instrumental works close to the emerging new secular genre of the concert.
Features of Baroque in Northern Europe.
The music of the northern part of Europe revealed the same stylistic features, but somewhat differently. Secular musical traditions, which developed rapidly in Italy with the onset of the 17th century, developed more slowly here and, due to the Protestant movement, remained constrained by the framework of the church for a long time. The Dutch polyphonic school was forgotten, but its principles were used on Austro-German soil, in the music of the Protestant church. Spiritual works were filled with the operatic style that came from Italy and the logic of tonal and harmonic development. Indicative is the work of Heinrich Schütz (1585–1672), who preferred the spiritual concert and oratorio to church masses, motets, and Magnificats ( Sacred symphonies, Passions according to Matthew and etc.). As a court musician and church minister at the courts of German electors and landsgraves, he contributed to the formation of the Protestant liturgy. Based on the combination of the theater and madrigal of the Italians with the counterpoint of the Dutch, his glorification of God in music was filled with vitality without losing sublime chastity. Thus, the church music of northern Europe became saturated with secular features. The continuity between Schutz and the masters of choral creativity of the 18th century is obvious. – J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel, for whom the genre of oratorio and cantata became central. As contemporaries, these composers developed the musical imagery of Protestant culture. And although their creative biographies took place in the first half of the 18th century, the style of their writings was associated with a bygone era, defined by the features of the Baroque. It is no coincidence that contemporaries valued the works not of the great Bach more, but of his sons. Philip Emmanuel Bach was a great success - an excellent cymbal player; he composed fashionable sonatas for which the new musical style classicism. The scale of creativity and skill of J. S. Bach was appreciated only in the 19th century, when F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy organized a public performance St. Matthew Passion(Berlin, 1829). Bach’s mastery shocked everyone: “Not “Stream” [German “der Bach” is the composer’s surname], but “Sea” should call him!” - this is how L. Beethoven figuratively assessed the greatness of Bach’s music.
The work of J. S. Bach is the pinnacle of free polyphonic writing, the basis of which was a fugue (literally “running”), when the voices entered alternately with the same short but expressive theme, repeating it (imitation) in different registers and in different tones. The voices (two, three or four) developed simultaneously, proving their equivalence. Bach reached heights by combining the rational “construction” of music according to the laws of counterpoint and artistic expressiveness of images, harmonic and tonal development, and timbre discoveries. The figurative structure of his works - choral (cantatas, oratorios, masses, magnificata, which occupy the largest part of his creative heritage) and instrumental (toccatas, fugues, preludes, organ arrangements of chorales, inventions, fantasies, etc.) is highly dramatic, full of oratorical pathos. The composer's creative efforts were aimed at reforming the Christian type of worship in the Protestant church. He was a Lutheran, and the Protestant chorale became the basis of his work. An outstanding virtuoso organist, in the last period of his life he held the humiliating position of cantor at the Thomas Church in Leipzig, directing the boys' choir. He eventually achieved the desired post of "composer of the royal court chapel", assigned to him by Elector Augustus III. Creating mainly music for the church, Bach wrote many secular works, performing the duties of a court composer for the dukes in Weimar and Ketten in different years. He created masterpieces of a keyboard suite based on ancient dances (English and French suites), an orchestral concerto grosso (6 Brandenburg Concerts) solo and ensemble instrumental music - sonatas, concertos, variations, polyphonic pieces (for organ, cello, violin, viola, flute, etc.).
The language of music of the German composer George Frideric Handel combined the features of Baroque with early classicism. Fascinated by writing Italian opera seria, he cast his lot in with England. But the English public did not recognize his operas. Then the composer was able to “apply” operatic theatricality and entertainment in oratorios ( Messiah, Judas Maccabee, Samson). He wrote these spiritual works not for the church, but for the concert hall (they were performed in the opera house). Thus, music with biblical stories and heroes acquired a secular status, coloring church images with dramatic and heroic individual experiences and a bold interpretation of spiritual intent.
Classicism in music of the 17th–18th centuries.
In the 17th–18th centuries. the center of musical professionalism moved from the church to the palaces of kings and nobles, and by the mid-18th century. – to public city institutions: opera houses (the first - in Venice in 1637), concert halls(the first - in London in 1690) and outdoor areas, aristocratic salons, musical societies, educational institutions (academies, conservatories, schools). Western European culture is engaged in an active “dialogue” with the culture of Ancient Greece, which began in the era of the Italian Renaissance. Philosophical and artistic ideas emerge, driven by a return to the aesthetic ideals of antiquity, but with an emphasis on the ability of the human mind to create harmony and beauty. A new musical aesthetics is being formed in reference to antiquity, which is considered the model of all arts. Their essence is the identification of beauty not in God, but in nature, in man, and authorship and artistic handicraft are now subject to evaluation. The musical language of the era is being formed - classicism, echoing the language of literature and architecture. A special place in the history of music was occupied by the “Viennese classics” (J. Haydn, W. Mozart, L. Beethoven), who emerged as an independent musical movement.
The ideas of the Enlightenment gave rise to new ideas about the properties of music - its ability to imitate the sounds of nature and the nature of human speech, and the temperaments of people. The ability of music to express the sound characteristics of different peoples and creative individuality is highlighted: “the styles of musicians vary as much as the styles of different poets.” This led to the fact that not just a music connoisseur, a craftsman, but a “musical genius” would be capable of “searching for his own paths” in art (H. Schubart, treatise Ideas for the aesthetics of musical art, 1784). Unlike speech and poetry, music is considered as an independent art form - “the art of sounds” (M. Chabanon About music in the proper sense of the word and in connection with its relation to speech, languages, poetry and theater, 1785); its laws and purpose are comprehended. Musicians are faced with the task of getting closer to people: in order to “restore the wonders of the ancients,” they must “arouse passions in the soul,” evoke certain “affects” in listeners and experience them themselves (A. Kircher. Treatise Musurgia universalis, 1650). Under the influence of rhetoric, a theory of musical affects arises - a consideration of certain “figures”, which, “as in genuine speech, should have been divided according to their purpose and application” (I.N. Forkel General history music, 1788). Mental states (nobility, love, jealousy, despair, suffering, etc.) were classified, and those elements of music (tempo, timbre, mode, qualities of intervals, etc.) that were capable of expressing one or another affect (changeable mental states) were considered. . This applied to both the creation and performance of music, since it was perfect when “one affect replaces another, passions flare up and subside in a continuous sequence” (C. P. E. Bach Experience the true art of keyboard playing, 1753–1762). Composing music (writing tablature and notes) differed from performing it in the same way as written and oral speech (declamation) differed. Music theory emerges, separated from musical practice. Belief in the power of the mind, comprehending the laws of nature, leads to a rational explanation of the laws of music based on a new understanding of harmony as the basis of mode-tonal thinking: “Music is a science that must have certain rules” (treatises by J.F. Rameau New system of music theory, 1726; Proof of the principle of harmony, 1750, etc.).
Classicism rejects the polyphonic style and the choral culture associated with it (“ancient classics”). Blooms instrumental creativity and styles are born: solo violin, clavier, organ, ensemble, orchestral, concert, etc. Secular forms associated with opera and the homophonic-harmonic structure of instrumental music triumph. The dispassionate system of church modes, based on ethos (a generalized static character) and devoid of affects, was discarded and replaced by a new one - major-minor. And the transfer of the melody to the upper voice meant its dominance. The figurative and thematic expressiveness of instrumental themes began to be achieved as a result of combining melodic intonation with words, visual images, and the characters of the characters in opera, madrigal, arias, pieces for harpsichord and lute. The melody began to determine homophonic-harmonic thinking, but not by itself. Musical professionalism has mastered the experience of church polyphony and developed a sense of “expanded sound space” - in complex harmonic (vertical chord) complexes and various textural layers. The melody (theme) began to rely on this kind of harmony as a foundation.
The homophonic-harmonic structure was formed no earlier than the mid-17th century. In the process of transition from the old style of music to the new, the practice of performing a musical work based on the general bass was of great importance, when the work was not created in advance (the composition was not recorded), but was improvised, focusing on one recorded bass voice, to which numbers were signed. The remaining voices were played “as they were” according to these instructions. This practice, common in playing the organ and clavier, contributed to the formation of new harmonic (chord) thinking. Well-known polyphonic techniques (subvoices, repetitions, imitations of themes) were now based not on the choral voice, but on the “sound core” “compressed” at one point in time, on chord harmony. Therefore, the homophonic-harmonic structure is not so much a triumph of monophony, but rather a multi-tiered combination of tones subordinate to one voice and revealing the harmonies hidden in it. Harmony itself began to be understood as a system of new modal thinking, based on the psychological sensations of “stable” (tense) and “unstable” (calming) tones and chords. Changing tonalities in one work served as a source of musical development and ensured the play of affects, transitions from one “mental state” to another. The contrast and “eventfulness” of the sound, achieved by changing melodic intonations, rhythms, tempos, textures, were complemented by the contrast of modes - transferring the entire sound into a new tonal sphere. It is no coincidence that the creation of a tempered musical system, “aligned” by semitones, became a natural achievement of the 18th century. The major and minor scales formed from each of the 12 semitones turned out to be equivalent and made it possible to transfer the melody from one to another key without distortion. Temperament formed the basis of the Western European sound system as one of the varieties of sound (interval) systems (scales). The cycle of 24 preludes and fugues created by J.S. Bach Well-tempered clavier(part 1 – 1722, part 2 – 1744) – a brilliant artistic embodiment of the general musical concept of the New Age.
Italian opera in Europe.
The source of secular musical tradition in the 17th–18th centuries. Italy remained. Italian opera spread throughout Europe (even to Russia). Italian musicians were invited to the courts of Spanish, French, and Austrian monarchs, and were taken as servants to the houses of noble aristocrats. For example, the famous virtuoso harpsichordist, who competed in Rome with Handel, Domenico Scarlatti, the author of the first keyboard sonatas, served at the court in Lisbon as a teacher of Queen Maria Barbara of Portugal, the composer and cellist Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805) served in Madrid, and the position composer Antonio Salieri (1750–1825) served as conductor of the Vienna opera company and court musician. Rich European courts sought to create their own musical entertainment. In the middle of the 17th century. German musicians master opera productions in Hamburg (G.F. Telemann, R. Kaiser). Opera buffe, which appeared in Italy, is based on everyday, folk and comedy stories ( Maid-mistress G.B.Pergolesi, 1733, Cecchina N. Piccini, 1760), spreads in its varieties to France (comic opera), to England (ballad opera), to Vienna (singspiel).
Reform of the opera seria aimed at enhancing dramatic experiences musical means, carried out by the German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. He expressed his views in prefaces to operas staged in Vienna ( Orpheus and Eurydice, 1762, Alceste, 1767): “music should enhance the expression of feelings and give great interest to scenic situations.” Gluck’s revolutionary ideas, aimed at “breaking the laws” of decorative and musical Italian and French opera, had a positive influence on the further development of the genre, although they caused a fierce struggle between “Gluckists and Piccinists.”
Following Italy, France is creating its own opera style. The features of early classicism were best expressed in the work of the French court musician Jean Baptiste Lully. Possessing artistic and musical abilities, Lully attracted the attention of Louis XIV, began to lead the court orchestras, and received the titles of “court composer of instrumental music” and “master of music of the royal family.” The musician composed ballets and divertissements for court festivities, arias for the plays of J.B. Molière, and he himself danced and performed in productions. As the head of the Royal Academy of Music, he received a monopoly right to stage operas in France. He created a musical lyrical tragedy, transferring it to opera compositional features tragedies of P. Corneille and J. Racine. The love for mythological plots and heroic characters with sublime feelings clearly revealed classicist features in her: pastoral and idyll contrasted with pathos and heroism; in dramaturgy contrasting parts were compared and the principle of “musical symmetry” prevailed - introduction (overture) and conclusion; Expressively elevated intonations of vocal parts and various choirs (from folk to decorative and picturesque) prevailed; included many instrumental numbers performed by the orchestra. It was a triumph of social entertainment and homophonic-harmonic style. In 1750, the “War of the Buffons,” led by J.-J., broke out in France against the courtly aristocratic operas of Lully and his closest follower Rameau. Rousseau and D. Diderot were adherents of the Italian comic opera buffe, whose democratic features were welcomed on the eve of the revolution.
Instrumental music of the first half of the 18th century.
The brightest representatives of French classicism were Francois Couperin and Jean Philippe Rameau. The keyboard works of Couperin, Rameau, L.-C. Daquin serve as an example of a gallant style, akin to Rococo in painting, since they are based on miniature plays of a portrait, visual and dance nature ( Reapers, Gossips Couperin, Tambourine Ramo, Cuckoo Daken), characterized by a large number of melodic ornaments and decorations (melismas). The repertoire beloved by aristocratic circles (pieces for lute by the French lutenist Denis Gautier and the English lutenist Dowland, harpsichord sonatas by Scarlatti, F.E. Bach, numerous operas and ballets based on divertissement Gallant India Rameau and others) cultivated sensual, tender, elegant, playfully erotic images. To obtain musical pleasure, a special manner of performance was required: sophistication and grace were achieved by expressive pauses, the play of ornaments with “aspiration” (French aspiration), “hanging” (suspension) - all that brings music closer to breathing, increases its declamatory expressiveness ( Couperin's treatise The art of playing the harpsichord, 1716).
The suite form, which came to Europe in the 16th century, became widespread. from the Muslim East (its analogue is nuba among the Arabs and Persians from the 9th century). The suite was based on the alternation in one key (mode) of dance pieces, varied in tempo, rhythm, and character. Since then, the lute borrowed from the Arabs has become popular, on which the repertoire underlying the suite was performed with pairs of contrasting dances. In suites for harpsichord and its variety virginal, dances become characteristically imaginative pieces (W. Bird, G. Purcell, L. Marchand, etc.). Under the influence of opera, the melodic expressiveness of instrumental music intensifies and the role of instrumental variations increases - a form in which one melodically expressive theme dominates, transformed upon repeated appearances. In the second half of the 18th century. In the development of one theme, its tonal change will be important. The comparison of contrasting themes and their tonal movements is the leading principle in the creation of classical sonatas, symphonies, and concerts. Therefore, the “announcement” of the main (original) key in which the sonata or symphony is written is of particular importance.
The era of the organ and lute fades into the background, leaving a noticeable mark in the formation of a new instrumental culture. But organ creativity receives new powerful development (J. Sweelink - in Amsterdam, I. J. Froberg - in Vienna, A. Reincken - in Hamburg, G. Böhm - in Luneburg, I. Pachelbel in Erfurt, D. Buxtehude - in Lübeck). “Scholarly” polyphony comes closer to the parishioners, complemented by folk melodies, based on German, French, English, Polish songs and dances, a household repertoire is created for home playing music on the organ. The main interest of musicians focuses on symphonic and keyboard music. They best realized the homophonic-harmonic principles of musical language in combination with large-scale spatial-register sound and tonal-modal transitions. The lute was driven back by the Europeans. The instrument did not satisfy the new aesthetic demands - she was able to remain in only one key for a long time. The range of the lute was also insufficient - complex chord harmonies were difficult to sound on it and a wide arrangement of voices was impossible. The claviers replaced the lute, but they themselves required technical improvement. A significant step was the invention at the beginning of the 18th century. hammer piano (grand piano and upright piano), when hitting the keys of which not only effective comparisons of loud (forte) and quiet (piano) sounds became possible, but also dynamic rises and falls. Masters from Italy, Germany, and France improved this instrument throughout the 18th century. and the beginning of the next one. The piano, having become a symbol of modern European culture, replaced both the lute and other claviers. In the second half of the 18th century. The first schools of pianists appeared in Vienna and London (W. Mozart, L. Beethoven, J. Hummel, K. Czerny, M. Clementi, J. Field).
Music of the Viennese classics (2nd half of the 18th century)
Music for orchestras sounded in churches, family castles and palaces, opera houses, gardens and parks, “on the water”, masquerades, processions ( Music for fireworks Handel was performed by 56 musicians in London's Green Park in 1749). The instruments varied and were often not set exactly by the composers. The flourishing of bowed strings prepared the birth of the symphony orchestra (“24 Violins of the King” at the court of Louis XIV in Paris, “Royal Chapel of Charles II” in London, etc.). The orchestra could only include one wind instrument ( Big serenade Mozart's B major for winds and double bass or played with a counterbassoon during walks). In opera and church orchestras, “singing” bowed strings predominated; an organ and harpsichord could also be included and woodwinds (flutes, oboes, bassoon) or copper (trumpet, horn), as well as percussion (timpani – borrowed from the Ottoman Turks). With the improvement of the designs of horn, clarinet, bassoon, trombone Beethoven finally formed the composition of the classical large symphony orchestra.
The features of late classicism were best expressed in the works of the Viennese classics. In the Austro-Prussian lands, a transition took place from the aesthetics of imitation to the aesthetics of pure music. In Bavaria, the Mannheim Orchestra Chapel (led by J. Stamitz) stood out. The manner of playing of the musicians of the Mannheim school bore the features of sentimentalism - expressive increases and decreases in sonority, ornamental decorations - “sighs”. The symphonies they performed, although they had something in common with the opening overture-“symphony” in Italian operas, turned into independent works, consisting of 4 different parts: fast (Allegro) – slow (Andante) – dance (minuet) – fast (finale) . The same parts formed the basis of the symphonic cycle of Haydn and his followers. In the 18th century Vienna became the largest music center in Europe. The work of Viennese composers (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) is distinguished by rationalism in the construction of form, lapidary and expressive themes, proportionality of the elements of musical structure, combined with generous melodic richness, inventiveness and dramatic pathos. Symphonies, sonatas, trios, quartets, quintets, concerts of Viennese classics are examples of pure music, not associated with words, theater, or figurative programs. The principles of classicism are expressed through purely musical means, obeying the laws of the genre and revealing the logic of the plan and the completeness of the form. The style of the Viennese classics inherent clarity in the construction of the entire work and each of its parts, expressiveness and completeness of each theme, imagery of each motive, richness of the instrumental palette. Like the architecture of the times of classicism, musical proportionality and symmetry reveal themselves in exact or varied repetitions of the theme, in clearly defined caesuras, in cadences - stops similar to deep bows in dances, in a series of contrasts, comparison of themes and motives, in distances (modifications) from familiar intonations and return to them, etc. These principles are strictly required for the first and last parts of sonatas and symphonies , built according to the rules of sonata allegro, as well as for other forms beloved by classicists: variations, rondos, minuets, scherzos, adagios.
The Austrian composer Joseph Haydn is recognized as the “Father of Symphonies”. He wrote not only instrumental music, but also operas, songs, and oratorios. He created more than a hundred symphonies, cheerful, with humor and folk melodies. Symphonies performed in the palaces of Vienna, Paris, and London lost their palace aesthetics, but were filled with poeticized images of folk life and nature. Of particular importance was the new danceability of themes (minuet, gavotte), which helped to strengthen the form and clearly separate the theme and its variations. The classical (small) composition of the symphony orchestra was established: a string quintet (first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses), timpani and pairs of wind instruments (flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, horns, trumpets). A four-part cycle has been established with a deep contrast between the fast first and slow lyrical second, the dance third and the stormy finale. Haydn inventively gave his symphonies a figurative uniqueness. The listeners, but not the author, came up with names for them:
Farewell (№ 45), Mourning (№ 49), Military (№ 100), With tremolo timpani (№ 103), Philosopher (№ 22), Hallelujah! (№ 30), Hunting(No. 73), etc.
The musical genius of Wolfang Amadeus Mozart manifested itself from the age of 4. Fashionable Italian opera captivated the young Mozart; he devoted part of his talent to it and created bright comedies based on it. The Marriage of Figaro), dramatic ( Don Juan), fabulous-philosophical ( magical flute) musical dramas. The musical expressiveness of the opera characters determined the composer’s style and influenced the creation of theatrically expressive instrumental melodies (the tender and tender opening theme of Symphony No. 40 g-moll; majestic Symphony No. 41 C major,Jupiter and etc.). He remained unattainable in the richness of melodicism, in the ability to create a melodious cantilena, understanding musical development as a natural “flowing” of one theme into another. His ability, by combining instruments, to reveal the fullness of the harmonic vertical and to convey the harmonic coloring of the melody through orchestral means is amazing. In Mozart's music, all voices, even harmonic ones, and all instrumental “sings” are melodized. The slow movements in his divertimentos, symphonic and sonata cycles are especially impressive. They contain an inescapable tenderness expressed in music. Brightness and relief of themes, proportionality of musical structures, both small (duets, trios, quartets, quintets, serenades, nocturnes), and large ones (symphonies, concerts, sonatas) Mozart combines with inexhaustible imagination in the variable development of one theme (in rondos, variations, minuets, adagios, marches). Gradually he moves away from the serene moods of his early works (orchestral serenades, divertissements) to deeply expressive ones - lyrical and dramatic, sometimes tragic ( Sonata Fantasia C minor, Requiem). Mozart is one of the founders of the performing art of piano playing and the founder of the classical concerto for solo instrument and orchestra.
Ludwig van Beethoven became the first "free artist" among composers. His work ends the era of classicism, opening the era of romanticism, but the composer is too individual, and his style hardly meets the norms of classicism. Beethoven thought large-scale and universally in comparison with the hedonistic-divertissant attitudes of the classics. Sophistication and ornamentation disappeared in his music, it did not please the ear and was perceived as “unsmoothed,” similar to the appearance of the composer, who walked without a wig, with a “lion’s mane” and a sullen look. The graceful minuet in the 3rd movement of his symphonies was replaced by a scherzo. In general, Beethoven's work corresponded to the structure of thought of the classicists and was inextricably linked with previous German (Handel, F.E. Bach, Gluck, Haydn, Mozart) and French (A. Grétry, L. Cherubini, G. Viotti) composers. Beethoven's Heroics (opera Fidelio, symphonic overtures Egmont, Coriolanus, Symphony No. 3) was generated by the French Revolution. A musician in life and in his work, he absorbed the ideals of the “Declaration of Rights and Freedoms of the Citizen.” The call for equality, freedom and brotherhood of all peoples is brilliantly embodied in the 4th movement of Symphony No. 9, where the verses of Schiller’s ode are heard To joy. The main theme of the final today became the anthem of the European Union. The will of Beethoven, who despised violence and tyranny, manifested itself everywhere. He proved his own rebellion to fate, resisting the deafness that overcame him, and independence from the aristocracy and power. The specificity of his style was manifested in the erosion of classicist principles of musical development, in the violation of proportions and symmetry. He was free to “stop” the serenely flowing time with the persistent repetition of one sharp loud chord (as in the 1st movement of Symphony No. 3). The musical form of his compositions became freer, and the emotional power was brighter: from lyrical intonations (Piano Sonata No. 14 Lunar, Symphony No. 6 Pastoral) to the rebellious (Sonata for piano Passionata, Kreutzer Sonata for violin), pathetic (Sonata No. 8 Pathetic, Symphonies No. 3, No. 5) to the tragic (funeral march in the second movements of Sonata No. 12 and Symphony No. 3).
ROMANTISM IN MUSIC OF THE 19TH CENTURY
19th century - the century of the heyday of the musical culture of Western Europe. New modes of musical expression are emerging, revealing the deep individual potential of composers. The essence of romanticism is best expressed in music. The works of romantic composers, conveying the richness of the world of human emotional experiences and the shades of his personal feelings, form the basis of the modern concert repertoire. Romanticism is not just lyrics, but the dominance of feelings, passions, spiritual elements, which are known only in the corners of one’s own soul. A true artist identifies them with the help of brilliant intuition. In the 19th century music is revealed not in statics, but in dynamics, not in abstract concepts and rational constructions, but in emotional experience human life. These emotions are not typified, not generalized, but are subjectified at every moment of musical playback. For romantics, “thinking in sounds” is higher than “thinking in concepts”, and “music begins when words end” (G. Heine).
The musicians emphasize their connection with their homeland and draw inspiration from folk layers of musical culture. This is how national music schools are formed, revealing the nationality of each romantic composer and the originality of his style: Carl Maria Weber, relying on German folk melodies and fairy tales, created a national opera ( Free shooter, 1821); Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka - Russian ( Life for the Tsar, 1836); Franz Schubert's instrumental and vocal works are filled with Austrian melodies and everyday dances (Ländler, waltz), and in the field of vocal music, he, like Robert Schumann, are the creators of the new genre of German song Lied; not only mazurkas and polonaises for piano, but all the works of Fryderyk Chopin, who settled in Paris, are permeated with the intonations of his homeland - Poland; being a Hungarian, Franz Liszt, in constant travels throughout Europe, created Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano and translated the rhythms of Hungarian dance camelcat; Richard Wagner's work is based on German mythology and philosophy; Edvard Grieg drew inspiration from Norwegian imagery, dance and song; Johannes Brahms drew on the traditions of German polyphonists and created German Requiem; Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak - in Slavic melos, Isaac Albeniz - in Spanish.
The turning point that occurred in European culture after the French Revolution brought forward a new layer of music consumers - the burghers. The culture of the court and nobility was relegated to the background. The elite environment of listeners was replaced by a mass environment of city dwellers; manufacturers, businessmen, and intellectuals became consumers of musical works. It now includes composers, whose creative connection with the audience is in the hands of entrepreneurs. Music was heard in public concert halls, theaters, cafes, educational institutions, and musical societies. Citizens were increasingly attracted to entertaining music, and professional genres that were “easier” to perceive – operetta – flourished. (J. Offenbach - in France), orchestral dance waltzes (I. Strauss - in Vienna). In addition to patronage, composers also received their livelihood from their own conducting, pianistic, and teaching activities. The journalistic activities of the composers themselves are gaining significance. Thus, Berlioz and Schumann declared in their articles a “war” on vulgarity, frivolity and routine, which flourished in the person of the untalented “public favorites” around them. Schumann created the “New Musical Newspaper”, publishing it on behalf of fictional characters - members of the “David Union”, which supposedly united his like-minded friends. Since that time, composers not only create music, but also express in writing their thoughts about it and about art (books Art and revolution, Opera and drama Wagner).
Music is again getting closer to the word. The term “romanticism” that arose in literary circles (introduced by Novalis) fully corresponded to the specifics of the work of composers of the 19th century. and the beginning of the 20th century. Literature and music “betrothed” to each other “in the union of sacrament”: “The world is just enchanted, / in every thing there is a sleeping string. / Wake up with a magic word - / music will be heard.” (J. von Eichendorff). The philosophical thought of Herder, Schelling, Schopenhauer brought music closer to poetry and separated both from other types of arts due to their temporary nature: process, transformation, change, tireless movement - the basis of music and verbal creativity. An important place in the writings of the romantics is occupied by the desire to connect music with certain subjects and images (literary, poetic, pictorial): Margarita at the spinning wheel, Forest king Schubert; Tasso Leaf; Dreams, Rush, Carnival Schumann). Musicians prefer to create miniature vocal “dramas” based on texts by G. Heine, W. Muller, L. Relshtab, F. G. Klopstock, I. V. Goethe, F. Schiller and others: Forest king, Serenade, Double, song cycles Beautiful miller's wife, 1823, winter journey, 1827 Schubert; Poet's love, 1840 Schumann). Despite the connection with literary creativity, romantics reveal new sides musical expressiveness, which manifest themselves in its highest forms - instrumental (“pure”), not related to the word. Therefore, the deeply emotional imagery of Chopin's preludes and nocturnes for piano or Brahms's sonatas, intermezzos and concertos is not diminished by the absence of program titles in them.
Musical drama continued to develop in Italy, and the “fashion” for Italian opera productions continued everywhere. The opera idols were: in the first half of the century Gioachino Antonio Rossini, in the second - Giuseppe Verdi. In the art of opera, a direction close to literary emerges - verism (P. Mascagni, R. Leoncavallo, G. Puccini). However, to the north, opera appears in a new form, colored by a national epic, fairy tale, and myth. A type of romantic opera is being created ( Undine E.T.Hoffman, 1813, Free shooter Weber, 1820, tetralogy Ring of the Nibelung Wagner, 1852–1874) - opposite to Italian and French operas of realistic, lyrical, comic and historical plans ( Barber of Seville Rossini, 1816; Norm V. Bellini, 1831; Huguenots J. Meyerbeer, 1835; Romeo and Juliet C. Gounod, 1865; love potion G. Donizetti, 1832; Rigoletto, 1851, Traviata, 1853, Aida, 1870, Falstaff, 1892 Verdi; Carmen J. Bizet, 1875).
Romantic composers felt discord with reality and sought to “hide” from a world hostile to them in fiction or a beautiful dream. The music begins to record subtle emotional fluctuations, passionate pores, and changeable moods - a reflection of the real worries and life destinies of the musicians, which were sometimes tragic. The instrumental miniature became close to composers; new piano genres were created: impromptu, etude, nocturne, prelude, cycles of program pieces, ballads, which received special development in the works of outstanding pianists (Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms).
19th century - the century of triumph of piano “literature”. Not only the design of the piano is improved, but also the technique of playing it, its ability to create a singing cantilena, expressive melodic lines. The rhythm of the composers freed itself from the “shackles” of classicist caesuras and the strict regularity of dance figures. Romantic compositions filled with improvisational ease, when the melody follows the variability of movements of feelings, as the author intended and as the performer is able to feel. The role of nuance and the role of musical performance are increasing.
Works of composers of the first half of the 19th century. still has connections with the traditions of the Viennese classics, but violates the laws of classicist genres: in France, Hector Berlioz created an autobiographical A fantastic symphony or an episode from the life of an artist(1830) of 5 parts, including not only a march (4th part), but also a waltz (2nd part); Schubert wrote symphonies for orchestra, of which the most striking was the “non-normative” symphony, consisting of 2 parts (symphony in B minor Unfinished, 1822). Musicians are not interested in the beauty of the musical proportions of the sonata-symphonic cycle, but in the sound brilliance of the orchestra, its ability to “draw” images. Thus, the orchestral “image” of evil spirits flocking to a feast in the night is impressive. Fantastic Symphony Berlioz (part 5 Coven), where violinists strike the strings with the shaft of the bow to convey the “clanging bones”. Sensuality is in the foreground in the symphony of the romantics. They replaced the intellectuality of the classical symphony with a symphonic overture and a poem, where there is only one movement, and everything is subordinated to the literary program: the magical fairy-tale atmosphere of W. Shakespeare’s comedy - in F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy A dream in a summer night (1826), philosophical drama J.V. Goethe – from Liszt in Tasso.Complaint and Triumph(1856), Shakespeare's tragedies - by P.I. Tchaikovsky in Romeo and Juliet(1880). In the works of the late romantics (Liszt, Wagner), the role of the leitmotif (“leading motive”) as a repeatable, recognizable characteristic of the image is strengthened. The orchestra in Wagner's operas acquires special significance, striking not only with its colorfulness, but also with the additional semantic load acquired through the system of leitmotifs developed by the author (the motif of the Grail kingdom in the opera Lohengrin, 1848). Sometimes the musical fabric of the orchestra is “woven” from them, and they are consciously or subconsciously “deciphered” by the listeners, as in the scene of Tristan’s meeting with Isolde ( Tristan and Isolde, 1865), where motives replace each other: “thirst for a love date”, “hope”, “triumph of love”, “jubilation”, “doubt”, “anxious presentiment”, etc.). The technique created by Wagner of combining not complete theme-melodies, but small and varied in expressiveness of its intonation-harmonic “segments” (melodies-“shreds”), will become leading in thematicism of composers of the early 20th century.
Music at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.
In France romantic traits acquired a new colorfulness, were saturated with decorative elements, exotic “motifs” of the colonial East (S. Frank, C. Saint-Saens). At the end of the 19th century. The style of musical impressionism and symbolism arose here. Its creator is the composer Claude Achille Debussy, whose works for orchestra Prelude to a Faun's Afternoon (1894), Nocturnes(1899), performed after the first exhibitions of impressionist artists, secured his fame as an impressionist musician. Debussy remained faithful to the programmatic ideas of the Romantics ( Afternoon of a Faun, Girl with flaxen hair, Steps in the snow, Fireworks etc.), but did not strive for the tangibility of images, but for their visibility. He wrote some of his works “from life”, “in the open air” (symphonic sketches Sea, 1905). His music is devoid of human passions. Its symbolic significance increases (opera Pelias and Melisande, 1902): she is self-sufficient, and, “created for the inexpressible,” “emerges from the shadows in order to return from time to time” (Debussy). By achieving this, the composer creates a new musical language, leading to the destruction of the norms of classicism and romanticism. Intonationally, Debussy is close to French melodies, but relies on the contemplative beauty of the East, which he was fond of, impressions from communication with nature, with the literary bohemia of France, from the playing of the Javanese “gamelan” orchestra, brought to Paris for the World Exhibition in 1889. Debussy’s orchestra, in The opposite of German orchestras, it is reduced in the number of instruments, but is saturated with new combinations. Motifs-colors, textures-colors, harmonies-colors dominate, like replaceable “sound spots”, sharpening the expressive meaning of the principle of sonority in music (sound or sound-timbre coloring, caloricity). The sound fabric becomes more transparent (the layers of each voice are clearly audible) and is freed from the “pressure” of normative harmonic and tonal structures (the endings of melodies - cadences - disappear). The features of impressionism, as one of the leading musical movements of the early 20th century, found expression in the works of M. Ravel, F. Poulenc, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, O. Respighi.
MUSICAL CULTURE OF THE 20TH CENTURY
Music of the 20th century is distinguished by an extraordinary diversity of styles and trends, but the main vector of its development is a departure from previous styles and the “decomposition” of the language of music into its constituent microstructures. Changes in the social and cultural spheres of Europe contribute to the involvement of new non-European musical phenomena, and the consumption of music products on audio media is changing attitudes towards music. It is beginning to be understood as a global phenomenon, and its consumer and entertainment function is strengthening. The role of mass culture and popular musical genres is increasing; they are separated from the culture of the elite, Western European musical classics and professional academic composing activities. In the 1950s and 1960s, a new youth culture emerged, positioning itself as a “counter-culture” in which rock music played a leading role. Changes in musical technologies and aesthetic guidelines are compressed in time and the appearance of everything new is perceived as a sharp rejection of the previous one (alternative music of the late 20th century).
Music of the first half of the 20th century.
In France, new trends are emerging that reject impressionism as too “sluggish”, devoid of real life style. Eccentricity, buffoonery, and outrageousness are in fashion. The subverter of previous styles, Erik Satie, shocks with the novelty of his opuses (ballet Parade for the troupe of S. Diaghilev, 1917 3 pear-shaped pieces And Dried embryos for piano). He introduces the sounds of a typewriter, beeps, knocking, propeller hum, and jazz into his compositions. An aesthetics of music emerges, playing the role of “musical wallpaper”—furnishing. Inspired by the ideas of J. Cocteau (manifesto Rooster and Harlequin, 1918), the ideologist of the new “healthy and full of screams of the streets and parades” music, composers unite in various communities. The “Six” (“French Six”) community stands out, which included Arthur Honegger, creator of an urban piece for orchestra celebrating the power of the new locomotive Pacific 231(1913) and a number of neoclassical opuses (oratorio-mystery Joan of Arc at the stake, 1935); author of eccentric ballets ( Bull on the roof, 1923), who drew inspiration from Brazilian folklore Darius Milhaud; Francis Poulenc, Debussy admirer and opera reformer (mono opera Human voice, 1958).
Expressionism in the musical culture of Germany.
Melodic and harmonic language of German and Austrian composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Wagner, Brahms, A. Bruckner, G. Mahler, R. Strauss, G. Wolf, M. Reger) became more complex, the orchestra increased in size, and the musical notation was oversaturated with the author’s instructions in the field of nuances. The interest of musicians in inner experiences and exalted images is intensifying (opera Salome R. Strauss, 1905), tragic and grotesque (2 symphony in c minor by Mahler, 1894). German late romanticism “prepared the ground” for a new style – expressionism . The role of the artist’s personality is strengthened, his individual experience and prophetic vision of the world gain significance. “The composer discovers the inner essence of the world and expresses the deepest wisdom in a language that his mind does not understand; like a somnambulist makes conclusions about things about which she has no idea in the waking state” (A. Schopenhauer). The ideas of musical globalism are beginning to be realized: “Music is capable of transmitting a prophetic message that reveals that higher form of life to which humanity is moving.” Thanks to this, she “appeals to people of all races and cultures” (A. Schoenberg, article Music evaluation criterion).
Atmosphere cultural life Germany and Austria at the beginning of the 20th century. was filled with tragic forebodings of future world wars. Here there was a conscious destruction of the tonal thinking of previous eras - the basis of the musical language of the classics and romantics.
The rejection of the tonal center (tonic) that is noticeable in a certain area of the work and the attraction of other tones and harmonies to it was generated by the process of chromatization of the sound series, the emancipation of all twelve semitones of the tempered scale. The tonic as a stable (final) musical-psychological support is avoided, the feeling of constant movement of unstable sounds, the psychological tension of waiting for a tonic that does not exist, intensifies. The introductory tone intensifies, which transfers one non-continuity to another - from a new key. A parity of possible tonics is established, none of which is preferred. This technique, already characteristic of Wagner and post-Romantic composers (R. Strauss, A. Bruckner), led to the emergence dodecaphony(lit. - “twelve sounds”) - “a system of twelve sounds correlated only with each other,” as defined by its founder, the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. He is also responsible for the creation of a new style of “speech singing” or “speaking singing” (“Sprachgesang”), where the exact height of intoned tones is absent. Followers of the dodecaphonic method (or “series technique”) formed a new Viennese school(Schoenberg and his students Alban Berg (1885–1935) and Anton Webern). Since all twelve tones are in the scale were declared equal, the method of creating dodecaphonic music was based on new “meaningful units”, which each individual sounding tone became. Tone and combinations of several different tones ( series), but not the melody, not the melodic-harmonic complex began to perform the function of a “musical theme”. The expressiveness of such themes was achieved using techniques that limited the repetition of tones and series. Music began to express emotions of loss, anxiety, chaos, fragmentation of consciousness - signs of expressionism. The creed of expressionist musicians is expressed in the words of Schoenberg: “Art is the cry of those who fight against fate.” The serial technique found its highly artistic embodiment in Schoenberg’s post-war cantata Survivor from Warsaw(1947), concerto for violin and orchestra ( In memory of an angel, 1935) and Berg's opera ( Wozzeck, 1925). Webern’s work revealed features of musical pointillism, when “eventfulness” in musical development is reduced only to a change in the tones themselves - their duration, timbre and dynamic coloring change. The works are distinguished by their unprecedented brevity (the total duration of all 31 of Webern’s opuses is three hours of playing time) and the extreme saturation of musical tone (point) “information.” The principles of serial writing technique (an expanded dodecaphony method) will dominate the works of many composers.
In the first half of the 20th century. phenomena are emerging in Europe that create the preconditions for avant-gardeism. Composers turn to unusual timbres, rhythms, intonations (folklore, jazz, exotic oriental instruments, noise), expanding the scope of the music material itself and increasing the arsenal of means used. A special update is observed in the area of rhythm, which becomes tougher, more aggressive, more diverse in character and is saturated with elements of the exotic and archaic. Interest in dance, plastic, stage and oratorio genres is increasing. Myth, fairy tale and authentic (or stylized) musical folklore becomes material for the creation of new works based on modern writing techniques. The new folklore direction (neo-folklore) was preferred by Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, and Carl Orff.
A characteristic sign of the times is that many composers “try” themselves in various styles, giving preference to one or another technique in different periods of their work: from “Russian folklorisms” (early ballets Sacred spring, Firebird, Parsley, staged in 1910–1913 in Paris) – to polystylistics (ballet Pulcinella, 1920) and neoclassicism ( Symphonies of Psalms, 1948 and Funeral chants, 1966) – this is the range of Igor Stravinsky. Different styles are sometimes combined in one essay in the form of a special creative method - polystylistics. Its progenitor was the American composer Charles Ives, who, within one composition, combined psalms, ragtimes, jazz, patriotic and work songs, military marches, and choral harmonies. Such types of polystylistics as quotation, allusion, and collage begin to be used.
The fashion for toneless (atonal) music prevailed, although not all composers followed it. Some, on the contrary, defended the artistic significance of the tonal foundations of the melody and showed interest in non-classicism. Many of the works of the German composer Paul Hindemith, including his teaching on composition, emphasized the importance of, if not the mode, then at least the tonal center as an expressive means of music. It doesn’t matter whether a work is written in major or minor, it is called according to the main tone with which it ends (Symphony in B for winds, 1951; cycle of pieces for piano Ludus tonalis, 1942). Reliance on major-minor thinking also characterizes the work of Honegger, Poulenc, Italian composer Alfredo Casella (1883–1947), etc.
The work of the French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) is distinguished by its stylistic originality. The composer managed to subordinate the rhythmic and timbre innovations he found, which were the result of studying Indian culture ( Turangalila, 1948), high spiritual thoughts of a theological and pantheistic nature. He “talks” to concert hall audiences about eternal values in a simple musical form ( Three small liturgies for the divine presence, 1941, Twenty views of the baby Jesus, 1944).
Music of the second half of the 20th century.
Culture of the 2nd half of the 20th century. marked by a sharp rejection of previous style trends. The twelve-tone writing technique remained the most modern and basic for most serial composers of the 1940s and 1950s. Significant for the 1950s was the reaction to serial technique expressed in an article by the French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez Schoenberg is dead!(1952). He, like the Italian composer L. Berio, criticizes the creation of music using series, since this method “has no relation to real music.” The musical heritage of composers of the 20th century. contains a lot of opposing phenomena: neo-romanticism and sonorism, serialism and aleatorism, electronic constructivism and minimalism. The emergence of neo-romanticism (string quartets by V. Rome; 2nd symphony and 2nd concerto for cello and orchestra by Krzysztof Penderecki, 1980, 1982; concerto for piano and orchestra by Zygmunt Krause, 1985) became a conscious return of some musicians to the romantic ideals of the past, a rejection of musical experimentation and constructivism, which became the basis of professional musical creativity of the 20th century.
A radical break in the Western European musical tradition occurred in the mid-20th century, when a movement called avant-garde took shape in central Europe. The forerunner of musical avant-gardeism can be considered various individual manifestations of the search for a new musical language, united by the idea of renouncing previous traditions. In the birthplace of futurism, in Italy, composer and painter Luigi Russolo Manifesto of Musical Futurism(1913) called: “Direct water from the canals into the museum crypts and flood them! And let the current carry the canvases away!”, “We can no longer restrain our desire to create a new reality, excluding violins, pianos, double basses and mournful organs. Let's break them! Russolo declared natural or mechanical noises to be the ideal of the new reality (book The art of noise, 1961): “We will cross the big city with our eyes and ears open and we will enjoy the sound of bubbling water, air, gas in metal pipes, the grinding of trains on rails..., the fluttering of curtains and flags in the wind.” This idea was embodied in the work of the American composer Edgard Varèse (French by birth), who in the works of the 1920s ( Integrals, Hyperprism, Density) brought sound and noise together, using foundry noises, the sound of a working sawmill, and sounds such as sirens.
The new method of composing music was experimental in nature. The main goal of creativity was the search for new means of expressiveness by “mastering” the source material from which the very ideas of “music” could be “built”: the focus of composers’ attention was not interval or rhythm, but sound, its timbre, amplitude, frequency, duration , as well as noise, pause. These parameters of musical structure have no ethnic or national attachment - “the sounds are no more American in nature than Egyptian” (J. Cage). Since it was recognized that the language of music is completely exhausted, one can “start from the very beginning, without looking back at the ruins” (Stockhausen). Composing music became “an exploration of the possibility of connecting matter” (György Ligeti). An experiment in music was not about creating a work of art, it was “an action whose results cannot be foreseen” (Cage).
On the one hand, it was argued that the basis of music is discursively ordered thinking. Therefore, priority was given to musical technologies, and the “formal order” extending “into the depths of music, to the level of microstructure” (Boulez). New rational methods musical work attracted many who were associated with mathematical and physical-technical education (Boulez, Milton Babbitt, Pierre Schaeffer, Yanis Xenakis - the inventor of his own computer for creating electronic compositions with essay programs based on mathematical formulas and physical laws). On the other hand, fascinated by the philosophy of Buddhism, the American composer John Cage put forward the aesthetics of “silence in music” (book Silence, 1969), proving that music is not created on paper, but “is born from emptiness, from silence”, that “even silence is music.” He translated this idea into his famous silent opus, instructing the musician to “be silent for 4 minutes and 33 seconds” before starting to play the instrument ( 4"33"" tacet, 1952). "Silent music" led to the creation of a new musical genre - instrumental theater(in the works of the German composer Maurizio Kagel (b. 1931), Stockhausen, Italian composer Luciano Berio, b. 1925, etc.).
Many composers turn to the work of their classical predecessors, not only as musical quotations, but as a musical reference to the works of Bach, Debussy, Berlioz, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, using the technique of “montage” (in the works of Kagel).
Composers' interest in folklore is acquiring new features. They not only rework their own musical folklore, but also increasingly turn to authentic musical documents of non-European cultures - ethnic and religious music of different peoples, wide access to which was provided by the achievements of modern musical ethnography (especially American ethnomusicology) and the trips of composers to African and Asian countries, their study “on the ground” of traditional musical practices (Americans - Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Frenchman Jean-Claude Elois, etc.). In the work of some musicians, modern writing techniques are successfully used to express political ideas or philosophical, cultural preferences (oratorio Dies irae. In memory of the victims of Auschwitz, 1967, Penderecki, vocal-electronic composition No need to trade Marx, 1968, Italian composer Luigi Nono, b.1924).
One of the significant figures of the Western European avant-garde is the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, who, in his works, in his books, and in his active work, formulated the special role of the composer: “ contemporary artist“This is a radio receiver, whose self-awareness is in the sphere of the superconscious.” Widely using all modern types of avant-garde, he strives to express deep philosophical ideas inspired by his interest in Indian mysticism ( Mantra, 1970), to astrology ( Zodiac, 1975–1976), to an esoteric interpretation of his creative role, as the ability to embody the sounds of the Cosmos or interpret biblical stories (operas Thursday from Light, 1978–1980, Saturday from Light, 1981–1983, Monday from the light, 1985–1988).
Interest in the spectacle of musical and concert performances, such as “shows,” is intensifying: actors, mimes, costumes, light and sound effects are involved. Concert conditions for performing music are changing, when musicians can be lowered into a cave to achieve circular resonance, and listeners can be placed in suspended chairs above the abyss. Special concert halls are being built (Beethoven Hall in Bonn, 1970, La Geod hall, a structure in the suburbs of Paris in the form of a ball of mirror-polished steel 36 m in diameter). Special electronic studios equipped with synthesizers are opened, which become international centers for teaching new music (Center Georges Pompidou in Paris). Experimentation in music is recognized as the main goal of the composer's creative act. The First International Decade of Experimental Music is held (Paris, 1958), International Summer Courses for New Music are opened and held in Darmstadt (Germany), and a summer music school in Darlington (Great Britain). Composers not only master new techniques and methods of creating music, but also give lectures, write works on experimental music, analyze and comment on their own works. The creation of the music itself and the creation of texts about this music (the works of Messiaen, the multi-volume publications of Stockhausen, the articles of Cage, etc.) are a characteristic feature of composer creativity in the 20th century.
The avant-garde trend in music created Electronic music. In the early 1950s, the mastery of sounds, noises and the construction of new electronic instruments began. Electronic music studios are springing up: in Cologne, where Stockhausen writes; in Paris on French radio, where a group of researchers works - Boulez, Messiaen, Pierre Henri, P. Schaeffer. The founder of the new electronic movement, first called concrete music, Schaeffer, author of the publication Towards the study of concrete music(1952), performed his compositions for magnetic tape in concerts (Paris, 1948). Created by Schaeffer together with Henri Symphony for one person(1951) demonstrated the artistic expressiveness of electronic music. Based on electronic spatial sound effects Electronic poem Varese (1958), performed in the Phillips Pavilion at the World's Fair of 425 loudspeakers with 11 channels each. Cage's compositions became striking opuses in this area ( March No. 2 for 12 radios, 1951) and Stockhausen ( Hymns 1966–1967).
Sonoristics - a direction that puts the timbre (timbre-texture) capabilities of musical art at the forefront. The expressiveness of the interval (melodic-thematic relief) fades into the background, giving way to sound coloring and saturation. A sound whole may not have a pitch. The area of musical nuances and methods of sound production is expanding incredibly. Now “timbre becomes the most essential category in composition” (Boulez). Experiments with sound lead to unusual glissanding, playing stringed instruments at the bridge, on and behind the bridge, hitting the neck, the body of the piano, singing while exhaling, whispering, shouting, singing without vibration, playing with a bow on a cymbal or vibraphone, playing on one mouthpiece, to the sounds of silver trays, a toilet flush tank, etc. ( Atmospheres Ligeti, 1961; Collisions G.-M. Guretsky, 1960; De natura sonoris Penderecki, 1970). The prepared piano came into practice, with which Cage conducted experiments ( Book of music for 2 prepared pianos, 1944). The instrument changed its timbre in the process of special preparation - clamping the strings with special keys, placing various objects on the strings or inserting between them various objects (metal, rubber, wood), etc.
Aleatorics (Latin: “dice”, “lot”) is a method that was a reaction to a fixed composition, where all means and parameters are regulated for the performer. The work appears as a particular moment or stage of the composition process, in which “methods are more important than results” (Carl Dahlhouse). By concentrating interest on a musical event, the performer and listener are involved in a certain action, take part in it and share the “responsibility” of the author for the momentary work being created. Aleatoric practice led to the creation of incomplete musical notation, conventional, schematic, graphic, script-text forms of image. Not fixed in the recording, the mobile “text” of a musical composition gained the opportunity to create new performance versions of it, carry out internal rearrangements of parts, etc. (Boulez Piano Sonata 3 – 1957, Venice Games Witold Lutosławski, 1962.) The extreme form of manifestation of aleatorics was the happening.
At the end of the 1950s, the technique of minimalism (in France - “rehearsal” music) was born, based on the repetition of the simplest thematic structures, but in a special way, borrowed from observations of technical “interference” in radio engineering, of acoustic discrepancies. The idea of working with the simplest thematic formations was put forward by Cage ( Lectures on Nothing, 1959), but the founder of the new experiment was the American composer Steve Reich. In the essay Pendulum music(1968), the main “instrument” turned out to be a suspended microphone, pulled back and swinging like a pendulum in the space of the acoustic system. The basis of development in minimalism is the non-synchronous sound of the same thematic model in its exact or minimally modified repetition. This creates the effect of “converging” in unison and “diverging” sound in an ensemble sound ( Piano phase, 1967). IN in a broad sense minimalism in music began to determine the technique of creating a work based on the minimum expressive means– one or more melodic figures developed using psychophysiological effects: numerous repetitions, technical-acoustic overlays, dynamic build-ups, contrasts, tempo accelerations, etc. In America, this style was also called the “New York School of Hypnosis.” Representatives of the first wave of minimalism were American composers T. Riley, F. Glass, Morton Feldman and others.
By the end of the 20th century. Avant-gardeism exhausts itself, influencing other types of musical culture - jazz, rock, film music. Its result can be considered a new understanding of music developed by contemporaries and a new attitude towards the material from which it is made, which now includes the widest range of all known historical and geographical styles and instrumental and sound technologies. Being, like the high musical art of Europe, an elitist phenomenon, the avant-garde is lost in the culture of everyday life, which triumphs to this day. Its inherent new musical forms of creating music with the help of computer programs and high sound technologies give rise to a new type of non-academic musical activity, accessible to an amateur musician who masters the laws of constructing a musical work outside the walls of traditional musical professional institutions.
Tamila Jani-Zadeh, Walida Kelle
Literature:
Buchan E. Music of the Rococo and Classical eras. 1934
Druskin M.S. Keyboard music of Spain, England, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany of the 16th-18th centuries. L., 1960
Musical aesthetics of the Western European Middle Ages and Renaissance. M., 1966
Musik der Altertums. Musikgeschichte in Bildern. Bd. 2. Leipzig, 1968
Salman W. Haus-und Kammermusik/ Privates Musizieren im Gesellschaftlichen Wandel zwischen 1600 und1900. Musikgeschichte in Bildern. Musik der Mittelalters und der Renaissance. Bd.4. Leipzig, 1969
Schneerson G. French music of the 20th century. Edition 2. M., 1970
Kholopova V.N. Issues of rhythm in the works of composers of the first half of the 20th century. M., 1971
Schwab H.W. Konzert. Musikgeschichte in Bildern. Musik der Neuzeit. Bd. 4. Leipzig, 1971
Druskin M.S. About Western European music of the 20th century. M., 1973
Musical aesthetics of France. M., 1974
Kholopov Yu.N. Essays on Modern Harmony. M., 1974
Music of the 20th century. Materials and documents. M., 1975
Dubravskaya T.N. Music of the Renaissance. 16th century. M., 1976
Salman W. Musikleben in 16. Jahrhundert. Musikgeschichte in Bildern. Musik der Mittelalters und der Renaissance. Lief. 9. Leipzig, 1976
Livanova T.N. Western European music of the 17th-18th centuries among the arts. M., 1977
Musical aesthetics of Western Europe in the 17th-18th centuries. M., 1977
Yarocinsky S. Debussy, impressionism and symbolism. M., 1978
Rosenschild K.K. Music in France in the 17th and early 18th centuries. M., 1979
Druskin M.S. History of foreign musical culture. 2nd half of the 19th century. M., 1980
Evdokimova Yu.K., Simakova N.A. Renaissance music. M., 1982
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Musical aesthetics of Germany in the 19th century. Vol.1, 2. M., 1981, 1982
Evdokimova Yu.K. Polyphony of the Middle Ages of the X-XIV centuries. History of polyphony. Issue 1. M., 1983
Livanova T.N. History of Western European music until 1789. XVIII century. Volume 1. 2nd ed. M., 1983
Filenko G.T. French music of the first half of the 20th century. L., 1983
Music of the 20th century. Essays. Part 2: 1917-1945. Book 4. M., 1984
Bogoyavlensky S.N. Italian music of the first half of the 20th century. M., 1986
Zhitomirsky D.V., Leontyeva O.T., Myalo K.G. Western musical avant-garde after World War II. M., 1989
Konen V.D. Third layer. New mass genres in the music of the twentieth century. M., “Music”, 1994
Lobanova M.N. Western European musical baroque. M., 1994
Barsova I.A. Essays on the history of score notation (XVI - first half of the XVIII century). M., 1997
Konen V.D. Essays on the history of foreign music. M., 1997
Musical culture: XIX-XX. Vol. 2. M., 2002
Saponov M. A. Minstrels. A book about the music of medieval Europe. M., 2004
Fortunatov Yu.A. Lectures on the history of orchestral styles. M., 2004
Spanish art. Musical culture. Outstanding performing musicians. The compositional work of I. Albéniz, E. Granados, F. Pedrel,
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) - an outstanding Spanish composer, representative of impressionism. Creative path. Vocal cycle "Seven Spanish Folk Songs". Implementation of folk song and dance intonations. Piano and operatic creativity. Musical-critical activity.
The significance of the work of M. de Falla.
Musical culture and art of Hungary. Musical performance. New operetta school. The work of Franz Lehár (1870-1948) and Imre Kalman (1882-1953).
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) – an outstanding composer, pianist, teacher. A variety of genres in his work. Processing of folk songs, theoretical work on folklore. Opera creativity. Impressionist and expressionist tendencies. Piano works. Cycles of works based on folklore. "Microcosmos".
Czech and Slovak literature. Performing culture. Musical Science.
Creative path Leosha Janacek (1854-1928) .
Creation Boguslava Martinu (1890-1959) .
§ 15. American musical culture of the late XIX - first half of the XX century
Literature. Music. The work of performers-composers, creators of the first classical jazz opuses. Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington. The origins of the musical genre. The works of Jerome Kern, Richard Rogers, Cole Porter.
Frederick Law and his musical My Fair Lady.
George Gershwin (1898-1937) . Musical heritage. “Rhapsody in Blue”, its outstanding significance in the development of new trends in American music (jazz symphonization). Variety of genres (blues, swing, ragtime). An American in Paris is a brilliant orchestral suite. Opera "Porgy and Bess". The originality of operatic dramaturgy. Vocal symphonic characteristics of the characters.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) – composer, conductor, pianist, music publicist. The musical "West Side Story". A new interpretation of the genre.
The works of Samuel Barber (1910-1981), Aaron Copland (1900-1990), John Cage (1912-1992).
§ 16. Musical culture and art of England, France, Italy and Poland at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century
National English composers. E. Elgar, R.V. Williams, S. Scott, G. Holst.
The work of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). Opera creativity. Genre diversity. "War Requiem". The originality of the author's concept. A grandiose composition of the essay. Leitmotifs, leitrhythms, leitintervals of the Requiem. Tradition and innovation.
French art, literature, music. Performers, composers. French "Six" and its representatives : Louis Durey (1888-1979), Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), Germaine Taillefer (1892-1983), Darius Milhaud (1892-1974), Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), Jean Cocteau (1899-1963).
Creation F. Poulenc . Opera creativity. Monodrama "The Human Voice". Musical dramaturgy. Other writings.
The Young France group and its representatives : Andre Jolivet (1905-1974), Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).
Development of art, literature, music science in Italy. Study of song and dance folklore. The works of Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1968), Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973), Alfredo Casella (1883-1974).
Musical art. Creative Association of Composers “Young Poland”. Creativity, K. Szymanowski, V. Lutosłowski, M. Karlovich.
Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) – a prominent representative of Polish musical avant-garde. Genre diversity of creativity.
"Luke Passion" - a monumental oratorio work. Musical dramaturgy. Serial-intonation logic of the development of musical images, the principle of installation of contrasting layers.