Main questions
I. General concept of style in music.
II. The general concept of genre in music.
III. Basic styles in vocal and choral music.
1. Revival.
2. Baroque.
3. Classicism.
4. Romanticism.
5. Impressionism
6. Realism.
7. Expressionism.
IV. Main genres of choral music. Classification.
1. Purely choral.
2. Synthetic.
3. Auxiliary.
Target: Theoretical coverage of the main styles and genres of vocal-choral art and genres of choral music for their further practical application.
Style in music is called the commonality of the figurative system, means musical expressiveness and creative techniques of compositional writing. The word “style” is of Latin origin and translated means a way of presentation. As a category, style began to exist in the 16th century. and was originally a characteristic of the genre. Since the 17th century. the most important factor the definition of style becomes a national component. Later, in the 18th century, the concept of style acquired a broader meaning and was understood as the characteristic features of art of a certain historical period. In the 19th century The individual style of writing of the composers becomes the meaning-forming beginning of the style. The same trend with features of even greater differentiation can be traced in the 20th century, when the stylistics of different periods of creativity are determined within the work of one composer. Thus, based on a brief historical excursion into the formation of style, one should mean by style the stable unity of the figurative principles of artistic movements of various historical eras, the characteristic features of both an individual work and the genre as a whole, as well as the creative manner of individual composers.
Concept genre exists in all types of art, but in music, due to the specificity of its artistic images, this concept has a special meaning: it stands, as it were, on the border of the categories of content and form and allows us to judge the objective content of the work as a complex of means used. The term “genre” (French genre, from the Latin genus - genus, type) is a multi-valued concept that characterizes historically established genera and types of works of art in connection with their origin and life purpose, method and conditions (place) of performance and perception, as well as with features of content and form. The difficulty of classifying genres is closely related to their evolution. For example, as a result of the development of musical language, many previous genres are modified, and new ones are created on their basis. Genres reflect the affiliation of a work to one or another ideological and artistic movement. Vocal and choral genres are determined by their connection with literary and poetic text. They arose in most cases as musical and poetic genres (in the music of ancient civilizations, the Middle Ages, and in folk music of different countries), where words and music were created simultaneously and had a common rhythmic organization.
Vocal works are divided into solo (song, romance, aria), ensemble And choral . They can be purely vocal (solo or unaccompanied choir; choir composition a cappella especially characteristic of polyphonic music of the Renaissance, as well as Russian choral music of the 17th-18th centuries) and vocal-instrumental (especially from the 17th century) - accompanied one (usually a keyboard) or several instruments or an orchestra. Vocal works accompanied by one or more instruments are classified as chamber vocal genres, while those accompanied by an orchestra are classified as large vocal-instrumental genres (oratorio, mass, requiem, passions). All of these genres have a complex history that makes them difficult to classify. Thus, a cantata can be a chamber solo work, or a large composition for a mixed composition (choir, soloists, orchestra). For the XX century. Characteristic is the participation in vocal-instrumental works of the reader, actors, the involvement of pantomime, dance, theatricalization (for example, dramatic oratorios by A. Honegger, “stage cantatas” by K. Orff, bringing vocal-instrumental genres closer to the genres of dramatic theater).
The factor of performance conditions is related to the degree of activity of the listener when perceiving musical works - up to direct participation in the performance. Thus, on the border with everyday genres there are mass genres, such as, for example, the Soviet mass song, a genre that covers the most diverse vocal and choral works in image and content - patriotic, lyrical, children's, etc., written for different groups of performers.
So, differentiating the styles of individual artistic movements and genre differences, let us note their most characteristic features. The styles of artistic movements include the following: Renaissance, Baroque, classicism, impressionism, realism, and expressionism.
Distinctive features Renaissance , or Renaissance (French) Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento, mid-XV - XVI centuries, in Italy from the XIV century), a humanistic worldview, an appeal to antiquity, and a secular character appeared. The features of the early Renaissance were most clearly revealed in the art of Italian Ars Nova XIV century Thus, the largest composer of the Florentine early Renaissance, F. Landino, was the author of two- and three-voice madrigals and ballads - genres typical of Ars Nova. In the conditions of a developed urban culture of a new type, secular professional art of a humanistic nature, based on folk song, took shape here for the first time. Denying Catholic scholasticism and asceticism, monophonic singing is replaced by polyphonic singing, double and triple choirs appear, polyphonic writing of a strict style reaches its heights, the division of the choir into 4 main choral parts is firmly established - sopranos, altos, tenors, basses. Along with music intended for church singing (Mass), choral secular music is asserting its rights (motets, ballads, madrigals, chansons). Based on general aesthetic patterns, schools of individual cities appear (Roman, Venetian, etc.), as well as national schools - Dutch (G. Dufay, J. Okegem, J. Obrecht, J. Depres), Italian (G. Palestrina, L. Marenzio), French (C. Janequin), English (D. Dunstable, W. Bird), etc.
Art style baroque (Italian bArosso - bizarre, strange) was dominant in the art of the late 16th - mid-18th centuries. The Baroque style movement is based on ideas about the complexity and variability of the world. It was a time of contradictions between developing science (the discoveries of Galileo, Descartes, Newton) and outdated ideas about the universe of the church, which severely punished everything that undermined the foundations of religion. Musicologist T.N. Livanova noted on this occasion that over the feelings and aspirations of a person in the Baroque era, “something weighed down that was not fully comprehended by him - unreal, religious, fantastic, mythical, fatal. The world was increasingly opening up to him through the efforts of advanced minds, its contradictions were glaring, but there was still no solution to the enigmas that arose, because a consistent social and philosophical understanding of reality had not yet arrived.” Hence the tension, the dynamism of images in art in general, affectation, contrast of states, and the simultaneous desire for grandeur and decorativeness.
In vocal and choral music, these style features are expressed through the opposition of choir and soloists, the combination of large-scale forms and whimsical decorations (melismas), the simultaneous tendency towards the separation of music from the word (the emergence of instrumental genres of sonata, concerto) and the gravitation of arts towards synthesis (the leading position of the cantata genres , oratorios, operas). Researchers of Western European music history attribute all musical art from G. Gabrieli (polychoral vocal-instrumental polyphonic works) to A. Vivaldi (oratorio “Judith”, Gloria, Magnificat, motets, secular cantatas, etc.) to the single Baroque era, and .S. Bach (Mass in B minor, Passion according to Matthew and John, Magnificat, Christmas and Easter oratorios, motets, chorales, sacred and secular cantatas) and G. F. Handel (oratorios, opera choruses, anthems, ThoseDeum).
The next major style in the art of the 17th - 18th centuries is classicism (lat. Classicus - exemplary). The aesthetics of classicism is based on the ancient heritage. Hence the belief in the rationality of existence, the presence of universal order and harmony. The main canons of creativity, respectively, were the balance of beauty and truth, clarity of logic, and harmony of the architectonics of the genre. In the general development of the style of classicism, classicism of the 17th century, formed in interaction with the Baroque, and educational classicism of the 18th century, associated with the ideas of the pre-revolutionary movement in France, are distinguished. In both cases, classicism does not represent an isolated phenomenon due to contact with various stylistic movements - Rococo, Baroque. At the same time, the monumentalism of the Baroque is replaced by sentimental sophistication and intimacy of images. The most prominent representatives of classicism in music were J. B. Lully, K. V. Gluck, A. Salieri and others, who made a significant contribution to opera reform (especially K. V. Gluck) and rethought the dramatic significance of the chorus in opera.
Classical tendencies are found among Russian composers of the 18th century. M.S. Berezovsky, D.S. Bortnyansky, V.A. Pashkevich, I.E. Khandoshkin, E.I. Fomin.
Rococo (French) rococo, Also rocaille - from the name of the ornamental motif of the same name; rocaille musicals - musical rocaille) is a style movement in European art of the first half of the 18th century. Conditioned by the crisis of absolutism, Rococo was an expression of an illusory escape from life into the world of fantasy, mythical and pastoral subjects. Hence the gracefulness, whimsicality, ornamentality, and elegance of small forms characteristic of musical art. Representatives of the Rococo style direction were composers L.K. Daquin (cantatas, masses), J.F. Rameau (chamber cantatas, motets), G. Pergolesi (cantatas, oratorios, Stabat Mater) and etc.
The highest stage of classicism was Viennese classical school, The outstanding works of its composers have made a significant contribution to world choral culture. As an example, let us refer to some compositions, such as the oratorios “The Creation of the World”, “The Seasons” by I. Haydn, the Requiem and masses of W. Mozart, the masses and the finale of L. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, in order to imagine the enormous role that composers paid to choir.
Romanticism (romanticism) - artistic movement, originally formed at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. in literature. Subsequently, the romantic was understood primarily as a musical principle, which is due to the sensual nature of music. The features of this direction in musical art are personal position, spiritual sublimity, folk identity, relief imagery, and a fantastic vision of the world. Due to the indicated characteristic features, lyric poetry receives paramount importance in romantic art. The lyrical beginning determined the interest of composers in chamber forms.
The thirst for perfection and renewal of romantic art led, in turn, to an increase in modal-harmonic beauty through the comparison of major and minor systems, as well as the use of dissonant chords. The pathos of personal and civil independence explains the desire for “free” forms. The endless contrast of impressions causes the romantics to turn to cyclicality. Special meaning in the art of romanticism, the idea of a synthesis of arts acquires, which, for example, can be seen in the principle of programmaticity, as well as in the vocal melody, which sensitively follows the expressiveness of the poetic word. Representatives of romanticism in music were F. Schubert (mass, Stabat Mater, cantata “Miriam’s Song of Victory”, choirs and vocal ensembles for mixed composition, female and male voices), F. Mendelssohn (oratorios “Paul” and “Elijah”, symphony-cantata “Song of Praise”), R. Schumann (oratorio “Paradise” and Peri”, Requiem for Mignon, music for scenes from Goethe’s “Faust”, for Byron’s “Manfred”, ballads “The Singer’s Curse”, male and mixed choirs a cappella), R. Wagner (opera choirs), J. Brahms (German Requiem, cantatas, female and mixed choirs with and without accompaniment), F. Liszt (oratorios “The Legend of St. Elizabeth”, “Christ”, Grand Mass, Hungarian Coronation mass, cantatas, psalms, Requiem for male choir and organ, choirs for Herder’s “Prometheus Unbound”, male choirs “The Four Elements”, participation women's choir in the symphony “Dante” and male in the “Faust Symphony”), etc.
Impressionism (impressionisme) as an artistic movement arose in Western Europe in the last quarter of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Name impressionism comes from French impression - impression. A characteristic feature of the impressionist style is the desire to embody fleeting impressions, psychological nuances, and to create colorful genre sketches and musical portraits. Despite the obviousness of the innovative musical language, the impressionists continued the ideas of romanticism. The common features of the two movements include interest in the poeticization of antiquity, the form of miniatures, coloristic originality, and improvisational freedom of composition. At the same time, the impressionistic direction has a number of stylistic differences - restraint of emotions, transparency of texture, kaleidoscopic sound images, watercolor softness, mystery of mood. Musicologist V. G. Karatygin characterized the features of impressionism in music as follows: “Listening to impressionist composers, you mostly revolve in a circle of hazy, iridescent sounds, tender and fragile to the point that the music suddenly dematerializes... only leaving in your soul for a long time echoes and reflections of intoxicating ethereal visions.” The means of expressiveness of the impressionists were the complexity of colorful chord harmonies in combination with archaic modes, the elusiveness of rhythm, the brevity of phrases-symbols in the melody, and the richness of timbres. The movement of impressionism in music found its classical expression in the works of C. Debussy (mystery “The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian”, cantatas “The Prodigal Son”, the poem “The Chosen Virgin”, Three Songs of Charles d’Orléans for unaccompanied choir) and M. Ravel (mixed choirs a cappella, chorus from the opera “The Child and Magic”, chorus from the ballet “Daphnis and Chloe”).
Realism - creative method in art. Realis - word of late Latin origin, translated - real, real. The most complete disclosure of the essence of realism as a historical and typological specific form of creative thinking is seen in the art of the 19th century. The leading principles of realism were: objectivity in depicting the essential aspects of life in conjunction with the obvious author’s position, typification of characters and circumstances, interest in the problem of the value of the individual in society. In the works of Western European composers of the second half of the 19th century. realism is visible in the works of J. Wiese (opera choirs, cantatas, symphony-cantata “Vasco da Gama”), G. Verdi (opera choirs, Four sacred works - “Ave Maria” for mixed choir a capella, "Praise to the Virgin Mary" for women's choir a cappella, Stabat Mater For mixed choir with orchestra, ThoseDeum for double choir and orchestra; Requiem) etc.
The founder of the realistic school in Russian music was M. I. Glinka (opera choirs, youth cantata “Prologue”, Polish for mixed choir and orchestra, Farewell songs of students of the Catherine and Smolny Institutes for soloists, women’s choir and orchestra, “Tarantella” for the reader, ballet, mixed choir and orchestra, “Prayer” for mezzo-soprano, mixed choir and orchestra, solo songs with choral chorus), whose traditions were developed in the works of A. S. Dargomyzhsky (opera choirs), A. P. Borodin (opera choirs), M. P. Mussorgsky (opera choruses, “Oedipus Rex” and “The Defeat of Sennacherib” for mixed choir and orchestra, “Joshua” for choir with piano accompaniment, arrangements of Russian folk songs), N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (opera choirs, cantatas “Svitezianka”, “Song of the prophetic Oleg”, prelude-cantata “From Homer”, “Poem about Alexei”, female and male choirs a cappella), P.I. Tchaikovsky (opera choirs, cantatas “To Joy”, “Moscow”, etc., choirs from the music to A. Ostrovsky’s spring fairy tale “The Snow Maiden”, choirs a cappella), S.I.Taneev (choruses from “Oresteia”, choirs based on poems by Polonsky, etc.), S.V.Rachmaninov (opera choirs, 6 women’s choirs with piano accompaniment, cantata “Spring” and poem “Bells” for mixed choir, soloists and orchestra, “Three Russian Songs” for partial choir and orchestra), etc.
A separate page in Russian choral culture of the 19th - 20th centuries. - professional sacred music. Based on national spiritual and musical traditions, many compositions were created for church services. For example, to create only the “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom" was addressed at different times by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, P.I. Tchaikovsky, S.V. Rachmaninov, A.D. Kastalsky, A.T. Grechaninov, P.G. Chesnokov, A.A. Arkhangelsky , K.N.Shvedov, etc. The work of the largest Russian composers in the genres of sacred music contributed to its active development, which was interrupted in the 1920s. in connection with social reorganization in Russia.
In the music of the 20th century. realism took on more complex forms, reflecting significant changes in the new social order. After the October Revolution, new trends began to appear in art towards the scale of forms, politicization and ideologization of the content of works, a new fundamental understanding of realism in the meaning socialist realism as a stylistic direction based on the exaggerated positivity of images. Many Soviet composers were forced to adhere to this attitude, which led to the appearance of “pro-Soviet”, as we now call it, works, such as the cantatas “For the 20th Anniversary of October”, “Alexander Nevsky”, and the oratorio “On Guard of Peace” by S.S. Prokofiev, oratorios “Song of the Forests” and “Native Fatherland”, cantata “The sun shines above our Motherland”, “Poem about the Motherland”, Poem “The Execution of Stepan Razin”, 10 poems for mixed choir a cappella based on the poems of revolutionary poets D. D. Shostakovich, the symphonic poem “Ode to Joy” by A. I. Khachaturyan, etc.
Since the 1950s. bright works began to appear by G. G. Galynin (oratorio “The Girl and Death”), G. V. Sviridov (“Pathetic Oratorio”, “Poem in Memory of Sergei Yesenin”, cantatas “Kursk Songs”, “Wooden Rus'”, “It’s Snowing” ", "Spring Cantata", etc., choral concert in memory of A. Yurlov, concert for the choir "Pushkin's Wreath", choirs a cappella), R.K. Shchedrin (cantata “Bureaucratiada”, “Stanzas from Eugene Onegin”, choirs a cappella) and etc.
And finally, let's look at the direction in European art of the early 20th century. - expressionism (expressionism), word of Latin origin, translated means expression. The movement of expressionism was based on the tragic feeling of humanity on the eve of the First World War, as well as during the war itself and in the post-war years. The focus of art, including music, is a feeling of doom, a depressive state of mind, a feeling of world catastrophe, “extreme pain” (G. Eisler). A representative of the expressionist trend in music was A. Schoenberg (oratorio “Jacob’s Ladder”, cantatas “Songs of Gurre”, “Survivor from Warsaw”, choirs a cappella, three German folk songs) and his followers. By the end of the 20th century. the number of stylistic trends coming from expressionism has increased significantly. Many modern composers work in an expressionist style, using atonality, dodecaphony, broken melody, dissonance, alleatorics and a variety of compositional techniques.
Genres of choral music
It is known that according to the general genre classification, all music is divided into vocal And instrumental. Vocal music can be solo, ensemble, or choral. In turn, choral creativity has its own varieties, which are called choral genres:
2) choral miniature;
3) large choir;
4) oratorio-cantata (oratorio, cantata, suite, poem, requiem, mass, etc.);
5) opera and other works related to stage action (independent choral number and choral scene);
6) processing;
7) arrangement.
1. Choral song (folk songs, songs for concert performance, choral mass songs) - the most democratic genre, characterized by a simple form (mainly verses) and simplicity of musical expressive means. Examples:
M. Glinka “Patriotic Song”
A. Dargomyzhsky “The Raven Flies to the Raven”
"From a land, a distant land"
A. Alyabyev “Song about a young blacksmith”
P. Tchaikovsky “Without time, without time”
P. Chesnokov “Not a flower withers in a field”
A. Davidenko “The sea moaned furiously”
A. Novikov “Roads”
G. Sviridov “How the song was born”
2. Choral miniature - the most widespread genre, which is characterized by the richness and diversity of forms and means of musical expression. The main content is lyrics, conveying feelings and moods, landscape sketches. Examples:
F. Mendelssohn “Forest”
R. Schumann “Night Silence”
"Evening Star"
F. Schubert “Love”
"Round dance"
A. Dargomyzhsky “Come to me”
P. Tchaikovsky “Not the Cuckoo”
S. Taneyev, “Serenade”
"Venice at night"
P. Chesnokov “Alps”
"August"
Ts. Cui “Everything fell asleep”
"Lighted in the distance"
V. Shebalin “Cliff”
"Winter road"
V. Salmanov “As you live, you can”
"Lion in an Iron Cage"
F. Poulenc “Sadness”
O. Lasso “I love you”
M. Ravel “Nicoletta”
P. Hindemith “Winter”
R. Shchedrin “Silent Ukrainian Night”
3. Kodai “Evening Song”
Y. Falik “Stranger”
3. Large choir - Works of this genre are characterized by the use of complex forms (three-, five-part, rondo, sonata) and polyphony. The main content is dramatic collisions, philosophical reflections, lyrical-epic narratives. Examples:
A. Lotti “Crucifixus”.
C. Monteverdi “Madrigal”
M. Berezovsky “Don’t reject me”
D. Bortnyansky “Cherub”
"Choral Concert"
A. Dargomyzhsky “The storm covers the sky with darkness”
P. Tchaikovsky “For Sleep”
Yu. Sakhnovsky “Feather grass”
Vic. Kalinnikov "On the old mound"
"The Stars Are Fading"
S. Rachmaninov “Concerto for Choir”
S. Taneev “At the Grave”
"Prometheus"
"The ruin of the tower"
“There are two gloomy clouds on the mountains”
"Stars"
“The volleys fell silent” A.
Davidenko “At the tenth mile”
G. Sviridov “Herd”
V. Salmanov “From Afar”
C. Gounod “Night”
M. Ravel “Three Birds”
F. Poulenc "Marie"
3. Kodai “Mourning Song”
E. Kshenek “Autumn”
A. Bruckner “Te Deum”
4. Cantata-oratorio (oratorio, cantata, suite, poem, requiem, mass, etc.). Examples:
G. Handel Oratorio: “Samson”,
"Messiah"
I. Haydn Oratorio “The Seasons”
B. Mozart "Requiem"
I.S. Bach Cantatas. Mass in B minor
L. Beethoven “Solemn Mass”
Ode "To Joy" in the finale of the 9th Symphony
J. Brahms “German Requiem”
G. Mahler 3rd symphony with choir
G. Verdi "Requiem"
P. Tchaikovsky Cantata “Moscow”
"Liturgy of John. Chrysostom"
S. Taneyev Cantata “John of Damascus”
Cantata "After the Reading of the Psalm"
S. Rachmaninov Cantata “Spring”
"Three Russian Songs"
Poem "Bells"
"All Night Vigil"
S. Prokofiev Cantata “Alexander Nevsky”
D. Shostakovich 13th symphony (with bass choir)
Oratorio “Song of the Forests”
"Ten Choral Poems"
Poem "The Execution of Stepan Razin"
G. Sviridov “Pathetic Oratorio”
Poem “In Memory of S. Yesenin”
Cantata “Kursk Songs”
Cantata "Night Clouds"
V. Salmanov “Swan” (choral concert)
Oratorio-poem “The Twelve”
V. Gavrilin “Chimes” (choral performance)
B. Briten "War Requiem".,
K. Orff “Carmina Burana” (stage cantata)
A. Onneger “Joan of Arc”
F. Poulenc Cantata “The Human Face”
I. Stravinsky “Wedding”
"Symphony of Psalms"
"Sacred spring"
5. Opera-choral genre. Examples:
X. Gluck “Orpheus” (“Oh, if in this grove”)
B. Mozart “The Magic Flute” (“Glory to the brave”)
G. Verdi “Aida” (“Who is there with victory to glory”)
“Nebuchadnezzar (“You are beautiful, O our Motherland”)
J. Bizet “Carmen” (Finale of Act I)
M. Glinka “Ivan Susanin” (“My Motherland”, “Glory”))
"Ruslan and Lyudmila ("Lel the mysterious")
A. Borodin “Prince Igor” (“Glory to the Red Sun”)
M. Mussorgsky “Khovanshchina” (Meeting scene of Khovansky)
"Boris Godunov" (Scene near Kromy)
P. Tchaikovsky “Eugene Onegin” (Ball Scene)
"Mazepa" ("I will curl a wreath")
“The Queen of Spades” (Scene, in the Summer Garden)
N. Rimsky - “Woman of Pskov” (Veche Scene)
Korsakov “Snow Maiden” (Farewell to Maslenitsa)
“Sadko” (“Height, height under heaven”)
"The Tsar's Bride" ("Love Potion")
D. Shostakovich. “Katerina Izmailova” (Convict Choir)
S. Prokofiev “War and Peace” (Militia Choir)
6. Choral arrangement (treatment folk song for choral, concert performance)
A) The simplest type of song arrangement for choir (verse-variation form preserving the melody and genre of the song). Examples:
“Shchedrik” - Ukrainian folk song arranged by M. Leontovich “Told me something” - Russian folk song arranged by A. Mikhailov “Dorozhenka” - Russian folk song arranged by A. Sveshnikov “Ah, Anna-Susanna” - German folk, song being processed
O. Kolovsky
“Steppe, and steppe all around” - Russian folk song arranged
I. Poltavtseva
B) Expanded type of processing - with an unchanged melody, the author's style is clearly expressed. Examples:
“How young, baby I am” - Russian folk song arranged
D. Shostakovich “The Gypsy Ate Salted Cheese” - arrangement 3. Kodály
B) Free type of song processing - changing the genre, melody, etc. Examples:
“On the hill, on the mountain” - Russian folk song arranged
A. Kolovsky
“The bells were ringing” - Russian folk song arranged by G. Sviridov “Jokes” - Russian folk song V arranged by A. Nikolsky “Pretty-young” - Russian folk song arranged
It is known that according to the general genre classification, all music is divided into vocal And instrumental. Vocal music can be solo, ensemble, or choral. In turn, choral creativity has its own varieties, which are called choral genres:
2) choral miniature;
3) large choir;
4) oratorio-cantata (oratorio, cantata, suite, poem, requiem, mass, etc.);
5) opera and other works related to stage action (independent choral number and choral scene);
6) processing;
7) arrangement.
Choral song (folk songs, songs for concert performance, choral mass songs) - the most democratic genre, characterized by a simple form (mainly verses), simplicity of musical expressive means. Examples:
M. Glinka “Patriotic Song”
A. Dargomyzhsky “The Raven Flies to the Raven”
"From a land, a distant land"
A. Alyabyev “Song about a young blacksmith”
P. Tchaikovsky “Without time, without time”
P. Chesnokov “Not a flower withers in a field”
A. Novikov “Roads”
G. Sviridov “How the song was born”
Choral miniature - the most widespread genre, which is characterized by the richness and diversity of forms and means of musical expression. The main content is lyrics, conveying feelings and moods, landscape sketches. Examples:
F. Mendelssohn “Forest”
R. Schumann “Night Silence”
"Evening Star"
F. Schubert “Love”
"Round dance"
A. Dargomyzhsky “Come to me”
P. Tchaikovsky “Not the Cuckoo”
S. Taneyev, “Serenade”
"Venice at night"
P. Chesnokov “Alps”
"August"
Ts. Cui “Everything fell asleep”
"Lighted in the distance"
V. Shebalin “Cliff”
"Winter road"
V. Salmanov “As you live, you can”
"Lion in an Iron Cage"
F. Poulenc “Sadness”
O. Lasso “I love you”
M. Ravel “Nicolette”
P. Hindemith “Winter”
Large choir — Works of this genre are characterized by the use of complex forms (three-, five-part, rondo, sonata) and polyphony. The main content is dramatic collisions, philosophical reflections, lyrical-epic narratives. Examples:
A. Lotti “Crucifixus”.
C. Monteverdi “Madrigal”
M. Berezovsky “Don’t reject me”
D. Bortnyansky “Cherub”
"Choral Concert"
A. Dargomyzhsky “The storm covers the sky with darkness”
P. Tchaikovsky “For Sleep”
Yu. Sakhnovsky “Feather grass”
Vic. Kalinnikov "On the old mound"
"The Stars Are Fading"
S. Rachmaninov “Concerto for Choir”
S. Taneev “At the Grave”
"Prometheus"
"The ruin of the tower"
“There are two gloomy clouds on the mountains”
"Stars"
"The volleys fell silent"
G. Sviridov “Herd”
V. Salmanov “From Afar”
C. Gounod “Night”
M. Ravel “Three Birds”
F. Poulenc "Marie"
Cantata-oratorio (oratorio, cantata, suite, poem, requiem, mass, etc.). Examples:
G. Handel Oratorio: “Samson”,
"Messiah"
I. Haydn Oratorio “The Seasons”
W.A. Mozart “Requiem”
I.S. Bach Cantatas. Mass in B minor
L. Beethoven “Solemn Mass”
J. Brahms “German Requiem”
G. Mahler 3rd symphony with choir
G. Verdi "Requiem"
P. Tchaikovsky Cantata “Moscow”
"Liturgy of John. Chrysostom"
S. Rachmaninov Cantata “Spring”
"Three Russian Songs"
Poem "Bells"
"All Night Vigil"
S. Prokofiev Cantata “Alexander Nevsky”
D. Shostakovich 13th symphony (with bass choir)
Oratorio “Song of the Forests”
"Ten Choral Poems"
Poem "The Execution of Stepan Razin"
G. Sviridov “Pathetic Oratorio”
Poem “In Memory of S. Yesenin”
Cantata “Kursk Songs”
Cantata "Night Clouds"
V. Salmanov “Swan” (choral concert)
Oratorio-poem “The Twelve”
V. Gavrilin “Chimes” (choral performance)
B. Briten "War Requiem".,
K. Orff “Carmina Burana” (stage cantata)
A. Onneger “Joan of Arc”
F. Poulenc Cantata “The Human Face”
I. Stravinsky “Wedding”
"Symphony of Psalms"
"Sacred spring"
Opera-choral genre. Examples:
G. Verdi “Aida” (“Who is there with victory to glory”)
“Nebuchadnezzar (“You are beautiful, O our Motherland”)
J. Bizet “Carmen” (Finale of Act I)
M. Glinka “Ivan Susanin” (“My Motherland”, “Glory”))
"Ruslan and Lyudmila ("Lel the mysterious")
A. Borodin “Prince Igor” (“Glory to the Red Sun”)
M. Mussorgsky “Khovanshchina” (Meeting scene of Khovansky)
"Boris Godunov" (Scene near Kromy)
P. Tchaikovsky “Eugene Onegin” (Ball Scene)
"Mazepa" ("I will curl a wreath")
“The Queen of Spades” (Scene, in the Summer Garden)
N. Rimsky-Korsakov “Woman of Pskov” (Veche Scene)
“Snow Maiden” (Seeing off Maslenitsa)
"Sadko" ("Height, height under heaven")
"The Tsar's Bride" ("Love Potion")
D. Shostakovich. Katerina Izmailova” (Convict Choir)
Choral arrangement (arrangement of a folk song for choral and concert performance)
A) The simplest type of song arrangement for choir (verse-variation form preserving the melody and genre of the song). Examples:
"Shchedrik" - Ukrainian folk song arranged by M. Leontovich "Told me something" - Russian folk song arranged by A. Mikhailov "Dorozhenka" - Russian folk song arranged by A. Sveshnikov "Ah, Anna-Susanna" - German folk, song arranged by O. Kolovsky
“Steppe, and steppe all around” - Russian folk song arranged by I. Poltavtsev
B) Expanded type of processing - while the melody remains unchanged, the author's style is clearly expressed. Examples:
“How young, baby I am” - Russian folk song, arranged
D. Shostakovich “The Gypsy Ate Salted Cheese” - arrangement 3. Kodály
B) Free type of song processing - changing the genre, melody, etc. Examples:
“On the hill, on the mountain” - Russian folk song arranged by A. Kolovsky
“The bells were ringing” - Russian folk song arranged by G. Sviridov “Jokes” - Russian folk song V arranged by A. Nikolsky “Pretty-young” - Russian folk song arranged by A. Loginov
Choral arrangement
- arrangement from one choir to another (from mixed to female or male)
A. Lyadov Lullaby - arrangement by M. Klimov
- arrangement of a solo song for choir with soloist
A. Gurilev The swallow flutters - arrangement by I. Poltavtsev
- arrangement of an instrumental piece for choir
R. Schumann Dreams - arrangement for choir by M. Klimov
M. Oginsky Polonaise - arrangement for choir by V. Sokolov
S. Rachmaninov Italian polka - arrangement for choir by M. Klimov
11 Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education “Rostov State Conservatory (Academy) named after. S.V. Rachmaninov" of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
The article is devoted to the evolutionary processes in choral miniature, which were the result of transformations of the ideological, philosophical, ethical and sociocultural order of the first half of the twentieth century. The panorama of profound changes in society was complemented by a tendency to intensify artistic reflection on the dynamically developing picture of the world. In this work, the task is to consider in this context how the miniature expands its musical-associative, meaningful volume. In order to illuminate the problem, the concept of evolution in art is used. Revealing its essence and starting from it, the author examines the miniature from the point of view of evolutionary processes in art. The author notes significantly significant directions in the development of musical art that influenced the choral miniature, namely: a more detailed and subtle rendering of the emotional and psychological gradations of the image and the development of associative layers that generalize the artistic context of the work. In view of this, attention is directed to the expanding possibilities of musical language. In this regard, different parameters of the evolutionary flexibility of choral tissue are emphasized. As a result of a comparative analysis of the choirs of V.Ya. Shebalin and P.I. Tchaikovsky concludes: a wide range of innovations, reflecting the increased expressiveness of melodic-verbal structures, the emergence of a contrasting polyphony of textured plans led to a new level of information content in the choral miniature.
evolutionary process
information level
musical-associative content layer
musical language
structural-linguistic semantic formations
musical stanza
melodic-verbal structures
1. Asafiev B.V. Musical form as a process. – 2nd ed. – M.: Music, Leningrad branch, 1971. – 375 p., P. 198.
2. Batyuk I.V. On the problem of performing New choral music of the 20th century: abstract. dis. ...cand. claim: 17.00.02.. – M., 1999. – 47 p.
3. Belonenko A.S. Images and features of the style of modern Russian music of the 60–70s for a capella choir // Questions of theory and aesthetics of music. – Vol. 15. – L.: Muzyka, 1997. – 189 pp., p. 152.
5. See for more details: Mazel L. A. Questions of music analysis. Experience of convergence of theoretical musicology and aesthetics. – M.: Soviet Composer, 1978. – 352 p.
6. Khakimova A.Kh. Choir a capella (historical, aesthetic and theoretical issues of the genre). – Tashkent, “Fan” Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 1992 – 157 pp., p. 126.
7. See in more detail O. Cheglakov Evolutionary art [Electronic resource]. -- Access mode: http://culture-into-life.ru/evolucionnoe_iskusstvo/ (accessed April 26, 2014).
8. Shchedrin R. Creativity // Composer's Bulletin. – Vol. 1. – M., 1973. – P.47.
Since the second half of the 20th century, choral art has entered a new period of development. This is due to new sentiments in society during the 60s and a perceived need to return to original forms musical culture and spirituality. The intensive development of choral performance, both professional and amateur, and the increase in the level of performing culture have become an incentive for the creation of many innovative works. The stabilization of the genre of choral miniature and its artistic potential required an expansion of the range of expressive possibilities. Evidence of this was the formation of choral cycles. The flourishing of choral miniatures and the formation of the principles of unity became “a consequence of the general intellectualization of creative thinking, reinforcing the moment of a meaningful and rational beginning.”
Being in line with evolutionary processes, custom styles characterized by the growth of integrative qualities, had the ability to “involve vast areas of associative knowledge and emotional and psychological experiences in the context of artistic perception.” And this, in turn, made it possible to create a qualitatively new level of information content of the choral work. In this regard, the words of the great modern artist Rodion Shchedrin are especially noteworthy: “in order to convey this or that information, people of the future will make do with significantly fewer words and signs. Well, if we translate this into music, then, apparently, this will lead to brevity, concentration of thought, and, consequently, to a concentration of means and some kind of greater saturation of musical information...”
The criterion for evolution in art is not only the “call to exaltation of the spirit,” but also, of course, the “artistic level,” which ensures an increase in the precision and filigree of technology, the details of which form the deep multidimensionality of the image.
Let us consider the evolutionary processes of a capella choral music through the prism of these criteria. The history of the development of musical art indicates that processes aimed at expanding the expressive capabilities of language go in two directions: “deepening the contrast and further polarization of the stable and unstable in all expressive systems of music and are associated with an increasingly detailed and subtle grading of emotional and psychological transitions from the pole of tension to relaxation and vice versa." A person’s feelings do not change, but their experiences are enriched, which means that when he becomes an object of musical embodiment, “his image requires an increasingly broader justification - a social background, a historical perspective, plot and everyday specificity, moral and ethical generalization.” In essence, we are talking about the deployment of a wide palette of new musical-associative content layers - complementing, shading, deepening, expanding, generalizing the artistic context of the work, making it infinitely capacious, far beyond the scope of “plot imagery”.
These evolutionary processes, closely related to the main feature of the miniature - its ability to correspond with the outside world, with other systems, originated in the internal structures and elements that form the fabric of the choral work. Organically intertwined, they have different abilities for transformation and reflection of the extra-musical, that is, mobility, and therefore evolutionary flexibility. The sound volume of choral parts and the choir as a whole has perfect stability. Structural and linguistic formations are relatively stable - carriers of certain semantics and corresponding associations. And finally, musical language has mobility and the ability to create endlessly new internal structural connections.
The polyphonic system of the choir has a synthesis of verbal and non-verbal components within the musical language. It is due to their specific properties that the musical language is characterized by internal mobility and opens up limitless possibilities for reorganization for the entire system.
Let us turn to the expressive speech elements of musical language. Based on B. Asafiev’s concept that intonation is “comprehension of sound,” we conclude that within its framework the entire spectrum of characteristic shades of content is formed. Let us add to this that the nature of the sound reproduced by man has a unique ability to integrate the expressive capabilities and qualities of different instruments. Let us conclude: the moving elements of the verbal component of a polyphonic choral system: emotional coloring and sound creation (articulation). That is, in the intonation of the human voice we capture the emotional and semantic component, and in the articulatory features of the created sound we can catch additional, deep colors of the content organically fused with meaning.
In the interaction of words and music in the second half of the twentieth century. the most complex relationships emerged, characterized by increasing attention to the pronunciation of the verbal text along with its intonation. The nature of singing diction began to change with the specifics of choral writing. Sound creation, that is, articulation, began to include a triune task in conveying verbal meaning: a clear, precise presentation of the word, expanding the methods of pronunciation and intonation, and combining verbal microstructures into a single semantic whole. “...The singer becomes a “master of artistic expression”, able to use the “speech of timbres”, the timbre-psychological color of the word.”
The development of means of speech personification, keeping pace with the development of expressive means of music, has become one of the reasons for the emergence of a tendency towards contrasting stratification of texture layers. This was due, in particular, to the appeal to new themes, to different “historical styles” of music, the melody of modern instrumentalism, romance lyrics, and so on.
The textured plans were intended to reveal the coloristic properties of the vertical in order to achieve the timbre characteristic of the choral sound. The essence of these innovations was various combinations methods of presenting material that reflect the desire for diversity and colorfulness. The range of creative experiments in this area was quite wide: from “sharp contrast, comparison of types of choral textures” to “emphatically ascetic black and white graphics of two-voices.”
Let us turn to the musical component of the choral sound. Let us determine the mobility of elements in the musical component of a polyphonic fabric. In the developments of the fundamental research “Issues of music analysis” L.A. Mazel says that means of expression, forming combined complexes, have the possibility of “great variability of emotional and semantic meanings.”
Let's draw a conclusion. Strengthening the processes of mutual influence of verbal-speech and musical components in the light of expanding topics, addressing different musical styles, the latest compositional techniques, led to the renewal of musical semantics, the intensification of interaction between various structural and semantic plans and was decisive in the accumulation of informativeness of artistic content, capacity, and artistic versatility of the choral miniature.
In this regard, let us turn to the work of Russian choral composers of the second half of the twentieth century, in particular to the works of V.Ya. Shebalina (1902-1963). The composer belonged to that branch of choral artists who created their works in line with romantic traditions, carefully preserving the foundations of the Russian choral school. V.Ya. Shebalin enriched choral art with a fundamentally new type of subvocal-polyphonic vocal performance, associated with the performing tradition of peasant lingering song. In order to more clearly identify new composer techniques and their significance for the evolutionary processes in general for choral miniatures, we will make a comparative analytical sketch of P.I.’s choral scores. Tchaikovsky and V.Ya. Shebalin, written on one text - a poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "The Cliff".
Let's start from the embodiment of a single verbal text. Tchaikovsky's entire work is written in a strict chord texture. The composer achieves the expressiveness of a poetic text by clearly dividing the musical stanza into microstructures, each of which has an intonation-specific peak (see example 1). Emphasis on significant words (see bar 3) occurs due to the special arrangement of the chord (sixth chord with a double fifth in the soprano and alto parts), and an intonation jump in the upper leading voice.
Example 1. P.I. Tchaikovsky “The golden cloud spent the night”, stanza No. 1
Micro melodic-verbal structural elements in V.Ya. Shebalin are organically integrated into the musical and poetic stanza (see example 2), which represents a single syntax characteristic of a Russian drawn-out song.
Example 2. V.Ya. Shebalin “Cliff”, stanza No. 1
Considering the texture-functional interaction of voices, we will trace the following differences. As noted above, the work of P.I. Tchaikovsky is written in strict chordal polyphony with single-level sounding of voices. This is a homophonic warehouse of coloristic content with a leading soprano. In general, the semantic coloring of the texture is associated with the spiritual music of Russian religious chants (see example 1).
Genre and stylistic coloring of “The Cliff” by V.Ya. Shebalina reflects a special tradition of performing Russian folk songs, in particular the alternate entry of voices. Their textural interaction is not equally expressed in sound: attention switches from one voice to another (see example 2). IN choral composition the composer uses different types of textured designs, which allows us to talk about the colorfulness of texture solutions in general. Let's give examples. The artist begins the work by arranging the musical fabric in the style of subvocal polyphony with characteristic choruses, then he uses a homogeneous chord texture (see volume 11), in the last phase of dramatic development he creates contrasting textural layers, using the timbre coloring of different choral groups. The stratification of the texture occurs due to the isolation of the viola part, endowed with the main information load, and the group of bass and tenor parts, forming the background layer. The composer achieves the artistic effect of volumetric emotional content by isolating various structural and semantic planes of sound. This is achieved in the background layer by a single rhythmic and dynamic nuance, compaction of the choral sound due to the division of parts into divisi, the appearance of an ostinato tonic in the second bass part, which has a low overtone range, and the use of sonorous sound techniques. These characteristics form a gloomy phonic color of sound. In the same part of the work, as an element of intensifying expression, we observe the technique of imitating the picking up of the leading voice in the soprano part (vol. 16).
Dramaturgy of the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov is built on the antithesis of two images. How does P.I. draw out his characters? Chaikovsky? Taking advantage of the expressiveness of the choral-chord texture, the composer, highlighting key words, enhances the sonority of all voices, “takes” them into a high tessitura, and also uses stopping on sustained sounds as a method of increasing sound energy when approaching the climax. Key semantic moments, for example, where the information content is refocused from the pictorial plane to the plane of the hero’s internal psychological state, the composer writes long pauses between words, giving them a significant semantic load. The artist highlights them with bright harmonic shifts, dynamic nuances, and a special tempo.
For example, in the poetic line “... but a wet trace remained in the wrinkle of the old cliff,” Tchaikovsky creates the following syntactic construction highlighting the supporting tones of intonation cells.
Example 3. P.I. Tchaikovsky “The golden cloud spent the night”, stanza No. 3
The composer introduces unexpected syncopation into the last micro melodic-verbal structure, which emphasizes the peculiarity of the key word as the pinnacle of a musical phrase.
Having various texture types in his arsenal, Shebalin “regulates” the variability of sound content, activating its vertical or horizontal coordinates. The composer constructs his musical stanza differently. He begins it using a characteristic genre-stylistic chorus (introduction of the bass line, then pick-up of the altos), carrying an impulse of horizontal melodic energy, but then to highlight the word “in a wrinkle” he changes the textural position. The author builds a polyphonic structure into a chord vertical and in this musical staticity the declamatory clarity and significance of the key word “pops up”. In the statics of musical development, other colors of the word appear: articulatory presentation, timbre-register background of its sound, harmonic color. Thus, by changing the textured perspective, the composer “highlights” the small details of the image, while maintaining the overall sound movement.
Unlike P.I. Tchaikovsky, V.Ya. Shebalin uses a wide timbre-register range of choral parts, switching on and off various voices, and the timbre dramaturgy of choral groups.
Example 4. V.Ya. Shebalin “Cliff”, stanza No. 3
To summarize: the path from P.I. Tchaikovsky to V.Ya. Shebalin is a path to concretizing the word by means of music, finding an increasingly subtle parity relationship and interaction with the musical component, built on unity and balance. This is finding a balance in a polyphonic sound movement between the dynamic unfolding of events and staticity, highlighting the main milestones of the semantic context. This is the creation of an enveloping textured background that creates an emotional depth of content, allowing the listener to perceive the beauty of the facets of the image, the gradation of the sensual palette. The evolutionary processes of the second half of the twentieth century increasingly asserted in choral miniature its leading root, genre feature - the collapse of meaning in the diffuse interaction of musical and poetic text.
Reviewers:
Krylova A.V., Doctor of Cultural Studies, Professor of the Rostov State Conservatory. S.V. Rachmaninov, Rostov-on-Don;
Taraeva G.R., Doctor of Art History, Professor of the Rostov State Conservatory named after. S.V. Rachmaninov, Rostov-on-Don.
The work was received by the editor on July 23, 2014.
Bibliographic link
Grinchenko I.V. CHORAL MINIATURE IN RUSSIAN MUSIC OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE XX CENTURY // Fundamental Research. – 2014. – No. 9-6. – P. 1364-1369;URL: http://fundamental-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=35071 (access date: 10/28/2019). We bring to your attention magazines published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural Sciences"
9. Genres of choral music
Choral singing has the same ancient history, as well as monophonic singing. Let us remember that ancient ritual songs are sung collectively. True, everyone sings the same melody, sings in unison. For many centuries in a row, choral singing remained unison, that is, in fact monophonic. The first examples of choral polyphony in European music date back to X century.
IN folk music have you encountered polyphony in lingering songs. From folk polyphony came the tradition of singing songs in chorus. Sometimes these are simply transcriptions of single-voice songs for choir, and sometimes songs specifically intended for choral performance. But choral song this is not an independent genre, but one of varieties genre songs.
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Choral miniature
Choral miniature is a small piece for choir. Unlike a song, in a choral miniature the polyphonic choral texture is more developed, and polyphony is often used. Many choral miniatures were written for unaccompanied choir (the Italian term is used to refer to unaccompanied choir a cappella“a cappella”).
This is how the Russian composer uses choral texture in the choral miniature “Winter Road” based on poems by A. S. Pushkin (original in B-flat minor):
Allegro moderato. Leggiero [Moderately fast. Easily]  |
Here the composer singles out the soprano part as the main melody, and the other voices “echo” their phrases. They sing these phrases with chords that support the first soprano part like an instrumental accompaniment. In the future, the texture becomes more complex, and at times the leading melodic line will appear in other voices.
Choir concert
Despite such a “concert” name, this genre not intended for concert performance. Choral concerts were performed in Orthodox Church during a solemn, festive service. This is a genre Russian Orthodox sacred music.
A choral concert is no longer a miniature, but a large multi-part work. But not a series of miniatures either. It can be called a musical “story” in several “chapters”; each new part of the choral concert is a continuation of the previous one. There are usually short pauses between parts, but sometimes parts flow into each other without interruption. All choral concertos are written for choir a cappella, since musical instruments are prohibited in the Orthodox Church.
The great masters of the choral concert of the 18th century were.
In our time, secular choral concerts have also appeared. For example, in the works of G.V. Sviridov.
Cantata
You probably already felt that this word has the same root as the word “cantilena”. “Cantata” also comes from the Italian “canto” (“singing”) and means “a piece that is sung.” This name arose in the early 17th century, along with the names “sonata” (a piece that is played) and “toccata” (a piece that is played on keyboard instruments). Now the meaning of these names has changed a little.
WITH XVIII century under cantata They don’t understand every piece they sing.
In its structure, the cantata is similar to a choral concert. Like choral concerts, the first cantatas were spiritual works, but not in the Orthodox, but in Catholic Western European Church. But already in XVIII century appear and secular cantatas intended for concert performance. J. S. Bach wrote many spiritual and secular cantatas.
In the 19th century, the cantata genre became less popular, although many composers continued to write cantatas.
In the twentieth century, this genre is being revived again. Wonderful cantatas were created by S. S. Prokofiev, G. V. Sviridov, an outstanding German composer, a modern St. Petersburg composer.
Oratorio
The word “oratorio” originally did not mean a musical genre at all. Oratories were rooms for prayer in churches, as well as prayer meetings that took place in these rooms.
The service in the Catholic Church was held in Latin, which no one spoke anymore. Only educated people understood him, mainly the priests themselves. And so that the parishioners also understood what was being said in the prayers, theatrical performances on religious subjects were organized liturgical dramas. They were accompanied by music and singing. It was from them that arose in XVII century genre oratorios.
As in the cantata, the oratorio takes part solo singers, choir And orchestra. An oratorio differs from a cantata in two ways: much larger size(up to two, two and a half hours) and a coherent narrative plot. Ancient oratorios were created, as a rule, on biblical the plots were intended both for church, and for secular execution. In the first half, #null became especially famous for his oratorios #null a German composer who lived in England for many years. At the end of the 18th century, interest in oratorio waned, but in England Handel’s oratorios are still remembered and loved. When the Austrian composer Haydn visited London in 1791, he was captivated by these oratorios and soon wrote three huge works in this genre himself: "Seven Words of the Savior on the Cross", "Seasons" And "World creation".
In the 19th century, composers created oratorios, but they were not successful, just like cantatas. They were supplanted by opera. In the twentieth century, significant works of this genre appeared again, such as "Joan of Arc at the stake" French composer, Pathetic oratorio Sviridov based on the poem “Good”. In 1988, a significant event musical life Petersburg was the performance of the oratorio "The Life of Prince Vladimir" on an ancient Russian plot.
-- [ Page 1 ] --
Federal State Educational Institution
higher education
"Rostov State Conservatory
named after S.V. Rachmaninov"
As a manuscript
Grinchenko Inna Viktorovna
CHORAL MINIATURE IN RUSSIAN MUSICAL CULTURE:
HISTORY AND THEORY
Specialty 17.00.02 – art history
Thesis
for the degree of candidate of art history
Scientific director:
Doctor of Cultural Studies, Candidate of Art History, Professor Alexandra Vladimirovna Krylova Rostov-on-Don
IntroductionChapter 1. Choral miniature in historical and cultural context.
philosophical foundations
1.2. Choral miniature in the context of the traditions of Russian art.................. 19
1.3. Research approaches to the study of choral miniatures........... 28 1.3.1. A textual approach to the study of the choral miniature genre
1.3.2. Choral miniature: a structural approach to the analysis of poetic and musical texts.
Chapter 2. Choral miniature in the works of composers of the Russian school: historical and cultural background, formation and development of the genre
2.1. Musical and poetic mutual influence and its role in the formation of the genre of choral miniature
2.2. Choral miniature as a theoretical definition.
2.3. Crystallization of the features of the choral miniature genre in the works of Russians composers of the 19th century century
Chapter 3. Choral miniature in the musical culture of the twentieth century.
3.1. Genre situation of the 20th century:
sociocultural context of the genre’s existence.
3.2. The evolution of the choral miniature genre in the second half of the 20th century
3.3 Main vectors of development of the genre.
3.3.1. Choral miniature cultivating classical reference points.
3.3.2. Choral miniature, focused on Russian national traditions.
3.3.3. Choral miniature influenced by new stylistic trends of the 60s
Conclusion
Bibliography.
INTRODUCTION
Relevance research. Choral art is a fundamental part of Russian culture. The abundance of bright groups is direct evidence of the vitality of domestic choral traditions, confirmed today by many festivals and competitions of choral music at various levels. Such “bubbling content” of choral performance is a natural source of unabated composer interest in this genre area.In the variety of genres of choral music, choral miniature occupies a special place. Its development and demand for practice are due to a number of reasons. One of them is reliance on the root basis of the entire array of choral genres - the primary genre of Russian folk song, representing the basic small form from which other, more complex genre types developed. The other is in the specificity of miniature forms, with a characteristic focus on one emotional state, deeply felt and meaningful, with a finely detailed nuance of feelings and moods conveyed through an exquisite sound-colored choral palette. The third is in the peculiarities of perception of the modern listener, endowed, as a result of the influence of television, with a clip consciousness, gravitating towards fragmentation, the short length of sound “frames”, and the beauty of the “surface”.
However, the demand for the genre in performing practice has not yet been supported by scientific justification of its nature. It can be stated that in modern Russian musicological literature there are no works devoted to the history and theory of this phenomenon. It should also be noted that in contemporary art the desire to miniaturize form with depth of content is one of the characteristic general trends, predetermined by a new round of understanding of the philosophical problem of the relationship between the macro and micro worlds.
In the genre of choral miniatures, this problem is particularly acute due to the fact that the embodiment of the macroworld within this genre is the choral principle, but, thanks to the special laws of compression of form and meaning, it turns out to be collapsed into the format of the microworld. Obviously, this complex process requires its own study, since it reflects the general patterns of modern culture. The above determines the relevance of the research topic.
The object of research is Russian choral music of the twentieth century.
Subject of study– formation and development of the genre of choral miniatures in domestic musical culture.
The purpose of the study is to substantiate the genre nature of choral miniatures, allowing for the identification of small-volume choral works with the principles and aesthetics of miniatures. The set goal determined the following tasks:
– to identify the genesis of miniatures in the traditions of Russian culture;
– characterize the main parameters that allow one to attribute the genre;
– consider the choral miniature as an artistic object of art;
– explore the path of evolution of the genre in the context of Russian musical culture of the 20th century;
– analyze the features of the individual interpretation of the choral miniature genre in the works of Russian composers of the second half of the twentieth century.
Goal and tasks The works determined its methodological basis. It is built comprehensively on the basis of theoretical scientific developments and works of scientists - musicologists and literary critics, as well as an analysis of the work of composers of the 19th - 20th centuries. The dissertation uses methods of cultural-historical, structural-functional, axiological, and comparative analysis.
Research materials. Due to the breadth of the problem field of the stated topic, the scope of the dissertation research is limited to consideration of the process of development of choral miniatures in Russian secular art of the 19th – 20th centuries. The empirical material was a cappella choirs, as they most clearly embody the idea of miniaturization in choral music. The work used works by M. Glinka, A. Dargomyzhsky, P. Tchaikovsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov, M. Mussorgsky, S. Taneyev, A. Arensky, P. Chesnokov, A. Kastalsky, V. Shebalin, G. Sviridov, V. Salmanova, E. Denisova, A. Schnittke, R. Shchedrin, S. Gubaidullina, S. Slonimsky, V. Gavrilin, Y. Falik, R. Ledeneva, V. Krasnoskulov, V. Kikty, V. Khodosha.
The degree of scientific development of the topic. Problems of the history and theory of the choral miniature genre have not been sufficiently developed in musicology.
In modern scientific research there are no works that make it possible to identify a small choral work with the principles and aesthetics of a miniature. However, art criticism, literary studies, cultural studies and musicology works of various problematic orientations contain a number of ideas and provisions that are conceptually significant for this dissertation.
In this work, a philosophical generalization of the phenomenon, positioning the choral miniature as a semblance of a macrosystem and allowing us to determine its place in culture, its role in human experience, was formed on the basis of the works of M. Bakhtin, H. Gadamer, M. Druskin, T. Zhavoronkova, M. Kagan, S. Konenko, G. Kolomiets, A. Korshunova, Y. Keldysh, I. Loseva, A. Nozdrina, V. Sukhantseva, P. Florensky.
Identification of the stages of assimilation of the experience of miniaturization by various types of Russian art required turning to the works of musical, historical and cultural content by B. Asafiev, E. Berdennikova, A. Belonenko, G. Grigorieva, K. Dmitrevskaya, S. Lazutin, L. Nikitina, E. Orlova, Yu . Paisov, V. Petrov-Stromsky, N. Sokolov. The sociological aspect was included in the problem area, which led to the involvement of the ideas of A. Sokhor and E. Dukov.
The presentation of the genre as a multi-component gene structure, with interdependent and interdependent levels, was based on the multi-aspect approach to the category of genre that had emerged in musicology, which entailed turning to the research of M. Aranovsky, S. Averintsev, Yu. Tynyanov, A. Korobova, E. Nazaikinsky, O . Sokolov, A. Sokhor, S. Skrebkov, V. Zuckerman.
The analysis of musical works, with the help of which the features of the vocal-choral form were identified, was carried out based on the works of K. Dmitrevskaya, I. Dabaeva, A. Krylova, I. Lavrentieva, E. Ruchevskaya, L. Shaimukhametova. Valuable clarifications were gleaned from the work of A. Khakimova on the theory of the a cappella choir genre. The means of expressiveness of choral texture were considered on the basis of the works of V. Krasnoshchekov, P. Levando, O. Kolovsky, P. Chesnokov, and collections of scientific articles edited by V. Protopopov, V. Fraenov.
When studying samples of choral music from the position of the musical and poetic nature of the genre and their close interaction with other types of arts, we used the provisions and conclusions contained in the works of S. Averintsev, V. Vasina-Grossman, V. Vanslov, M. Gasparov, K. Zenkin, S. Lazutin, Y. Lotman, E. Ruchevskaya, Y. Tynyanov, B. Eikhenbaum, S. Eisenstein.
Scientific novelty The research is that for the first time:
– a definition of the genre of choral miniatures has been formulated, allowing for genre attribution of small-form choral works;
– a study of the nature of the choral miniature genre was carried out through the prism of philosophical knowledge about the macro and micro worlds, revealing endless semantic possibilities for the embodiment of artistic ideas in a compressed content field, up to the reflection of significant attributes of the image of culture in the miniature phenomenon;
– small forms of various types of Russian art are considered in order to identify their generic characteristics and features, which in a melted and indirect form constitute the genotype of the genre.
– the role of various musical genres – historical predecessors of choral miniature – in its formation is revealed genre features;
– the historically changing configuration of genre features of choral miniatures in the socio-cultural context of the 20th century has been studied.
Submitted for defense the following provisions:
– The genre of choral miniature is a small-scale musical work a sarpella, based on a multi-level syncresis of words and music (background, lexical, syntactic, compositional, semantic), providing a time-concentrated, deep disclosure of the lyrical type of imagery, reaching symbolizing intensity.
– A miniature is a kind of analogy to the macrosystem in which it is inscribed - art, culture, nature. Being a microcosm in relation to the actually existing macrocosm of man, it is capable of reflecting the complex properties of living matter as a result of the concentration of multifaceted meanings in a small literary text. As a result of the process of miniaturization, a compression of the sign system occurs, where the sign acquires the meaning of an image-symbol. Thanks to semantic coding, the possibility of operating with entire “semantic complexes”, their comparison and generalization is created.
– The genetic roots of choral miniatures are inextricably linked with examples of small forms of various arts, their poetics and aesthetics. Within the framework of miniature genres and forms of Russian art, significant features for choral miniature were formed, such as the refinement of a small form, a high level of artistry stemming from the filigree, refined craftsmanship of the manufacturer, the specificity of the content - emotional and ideological concentration, the depth of understanding of the world and human feelings, functional purpose .
– The process of crystallization of the genre took place on the basis of active inter-genre interaction, as well as increasing mutual influence of the musical and poetic arts. As a result of these processes, at the beginning of the twentieth century, a genre was formed in which the musical element reaches the limit of artistic expressiveness in synthesis with the poetic form.
– The author’s approaches to creating a new type of imagery in choral miniatures of the second half of the twentieth century are characterized by the expansion of genre boundaries due to transformations of the musical language and the saturation of the genre model with extra-musical factors. Use by composers different types technique in synthesis with old traditions, giving genre elements a new semantic coloring formed the modern facets of the choral miniature genre.
Theoretical significance The research is determined by the fact that a number of developed provisions significantly complement the accumulated knowledge about the nature of the genre under study. The work provided a detailed argumentation and analytical evidence base for questions that underpin the possibility of further scientific search for the features of this genre type. Among them are the analysis of the phenomenon of miniaturization in art from the point of view of philosophical knowledge, the identification of the poetics of miniatures in various types of Russian art, the justification of the genre characteristics of choral miniatures in its difference from small forms, the special role in the process of crystallization of the genre of individual interpretation of the genre model by Russian composers of the second half of the twentieth century and others.
Practical significance research is due to the fact that the presented materials will significantly expand the possibilities of applying scientific knowledge in the field of practice, since they can be an integral part of courses in the history of music and analysis of forms of music schools and universities, in music programs for secondary schools, and will also be useful in the work of choirmasters.
Dissertation structure. The dissertation consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, and a list of references from 242 sources.
CHORAL MINIATURE
IN THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT
The problems of the first chapter, at first glance, are far from the study of the choral miniature in its immanent musical properties. However, the questions introduced here from the perspective of the dissertation and related to the philosophical foundations of the genre, the general cultural context that reveals its genesis, as well as methodological approaches to the analysis of the phenomenon under study, are of paramount importance. From our point of view, they are the foundation of those theoretical conclusions about the nature of the genre that were made in the second and third chapters of the work and form the basis for the analysis of specific musical material. In support of this, we emphasize that the interdisciplinary approach, which determined the logic of the dissertation research from the general to the specific, is predetermined not only by the nature of the chosen topic. It is based on the principles of classical Russian musicology, brilliantly substantiated in his time by L.A. Mazelem. Let us point out two positions that are significant for this work. Firstly, the researcher pointed to the philosophical and methodological basis of all sciencesWhich he took for granted; secondly, he adhered to the attitude that “... the achievements and methods of other sciences that are now relevant to musicology highest value, are determined ... by closely interconnected ideas of three areas of knowledge.” It was about psychology, sociology, semiotics, and L.A. Mazel emphasized that “for musicology, the achievements of the theory of other arts and aesthetics are important, often, in turn, associated with the psychological and systemic-semiotic approach...”.
In accordance with the stated guidelines, the first paragraph of this chapter is devoted to the general philosophical foundations of the processes of miniaturization1 in art. The second explores the commonality of miniature forms in different types of Russian art, emphasizing their common theoretical and aesthetic essence, and the third is devoted to the analysis of research approaches, including special role, in accordance with the musical and poetic nature of the choral miniature genre, semiotics plays.
1.1. Miniaturization in musical and choral art:
philosophical foundations What is the significance of the philosophical aspect of the problem? Philosophical reflection gives an understanding of art as a whole, as well as its individual work, from the point of view of fixation in it deep meanings related to the nature of the universe, the purpose and meaning of human life.
It is no coincidence that the beginning of the 21st century was marked by the special attention of music science to philosophical thought, which helps to comprehend a number of categories that are significant for the art of music. This is largely due to the fact that, in the light of changes in the modern concept of the picture of the world, in which Man and the Universe are mutually determined and interdependent, anthropological ideas have acquired new significance for art, and the most important directions of philosophical thought have turned out to be closely related to axiological problems.
It is significant in this regard that also in the work “The Value of Music”
B.V. Asafiev, philosophically interpreting music, gave it a broader meaning, interpreted it as a phenomenon that unites “the deep structures of existence with the human psyche, which naturally exceeds the boundaries of the type of art or artistic activity.” The scientist saw in music not a reflection of the reality of our lives and experiences, but a reflection of the “picture of the world.” He believed that through knowledge the term “miniaturization” is not the author’s own, but is generally accepted in modern art criticism literature.
nia musical process, one can come closer to understanding the formalized world order, since “the process of sound formation in itself is a reflection of the “picture of the world”, and he placed music itself as an activity “in a series of world statements” (constructions of the world), giving birth to a microcosm - a system that synthesizes the maximum into minimum.
The last remark is especially significant for the topic under study, since it contains a focus on the analysis of arguments that reveal the relevance of trends in modern culture oriented towards miniatures in art. The foundations of these processes were primarily comprehended in the field of philosophical knowledge, within the framework of which the problem of the relationship between the big and the small – the macro and micro worlds – runs through it. Let's look at this in more detail.
At the end of the 20th century, in world philosophy and science, there was an active revival of traditional philosophical concepts and categories that reflect the integrity of the world and man. Using the macrocosm-microcosm analogy allows us to consider and explain the relationships “nature-culture” and “culture-human”. This reflection of the structure of life led to the emergence of a new methodological position, where Man comprehends the laws of the surrounding world and recognizes himself as the crown of nature’s creation. He begins to penetrate into the depths of his own psychological essence, “breaks”
sensory world on a spectrum various shades, grades emotional states, operates with subtle psychological experiences. He tries to reflect the variability of the world in himself in the sign system of language, to stop and capture its fluidity in perception.
Reflection, from the point of view of philosophy, is “the interaction of material systems, where the systems mutually imprint each other’s properties, the “transfer” of the features of one phenomenon to another, and, first of all, “transfer” structural characteristics". Therefore the reflection life meaning in a literary text can be interpreted as “the structural correspondence of these systems established in the process of interaction.”
In the light of these provisions, we will determine that miniaturization is a reflection of the complex, fleeting properties of living matter, “folding,” or a fragmentarily captured process of interaction between systems, conveyed in the formation of the meaning of an artistic text. Its essence is the compactness of the sign system, where the sign acquires the meaning of an image-symbol. Thanks to semantic coding, the possibility of operating with entire “semantic complexes”, their comparison and generalization is created1.
Having outlined the problem of the relationship between the macro and microworlds, which is fundamentally important for understanding the essence of miniatures, and which took shape as an independent concept by the twentieth century, we will point out that philosophy has accumulated a lot of valuable information that allows us to deeply imagine the essence of the genre of choral miniatures. Let's look at them in historical retrospect.
The meaning of the concept of macro and microcosm dates back to ancient times. In the philosophy of Democritus, the combination mikroskosmos (“man is a small world”) first appears. A detailed doctrine of the micro- and macrocosm was already presented by Pythagoras. Related in ideological sense turned out to be the principle of knowledge put forward by Empedocles - “like is known by like.” Socrates argued that knowledge of the cosmos could be gained "from within man." Assumptions about the commonality of existing man and the universe Penetrating into the essence of the phenomenon of text miniaturization, let us compare it with a similar phenomenon in internal human speech. Modern science has obtained experimental data that specifies the mechanism of interaction between words and thoughts, language and thinking. It has been established that internal speech, which, in turn, arises from external speech, accompanies all processes mental activity. The degree of its significance increases with abstract-logical thinking, which requires detailed pronunciation of words. Verbal signs not only record thoughts, but also operate on the thinking process. These functions are common to both natural and artificial languages. A.M. Korshunov writes: “As a generalized logical scheme of the material is created, inner speech collapses. This is explained by the fact that generalization occurs by highlighting key words in which the meaning of the entire phrase, and sometimes the entire text, is concentrated. Inner speech turns into a language of semantic support points."
can be traced in the works of Plato. Aristotle also talks about the small and large cosmos. This concept developed in the philosophy of Seneca, Origen, Gregory the Theologian, Boethius, Thomas Aquinas and others.
The idea of macrocosm and microcosm became especially flourishing during the Renaissance. Great thinkers - Giordano Bruno, Paracelsus, Nikolai Cusansky - were united by the idea that nature, in the person of man, contains mental and sensory nature and “contracts” the entire Universe within itself.
Based on the historically developing postulate about the correspondence of the macro and microworlds, we conclude that the macrocosm of culture is similar to the microcosm of art, and the macrocosm of art is similar to the microcosm of miniatures. It, reflecting the world of the individual in contemporary art, is a semblance of the macrosystem into which it is inscribed (art, culture, nature).
The dominance of the ideas of macro and micro worlds in Russian philosophy determined the significant guidelines under the sign of which choral art evolved. Thus, to develop the problem of miniaturization in art, the idea of conciliarity is essential, introducing an element of philosophical creativity into Russian music. This concept is initially associated with the choral principle, which is confirmed by its use in this perspective by Russian philosophers. In particular, “K.S. Aksakov identifies the concept of “conciliarity” with a community where “the individual is free as in a choir.” ON THE. Berdyaev defines conciliarity as an Orthodox virtue, Vyach. Ivanov – as an ideal value. P. Florensky reveals the idea of conciliarity through a Russian plangent song. V.S. Solovyov transforms the idea of conciliarity into the doctrine of unity."
It is obvious that conciliarity is the fundamental national basis of Russian art, “reflecting the global unity of people on the basis of special spiritual creativity,” which deeply affects the spiritual world of a person, “expands the boundaries of the capabilities of an individual.”
These sides national culture identified the specific features of the Old Russian choral tradition: “the first is conciliarity, i.e. the unification of the heavenly and earthly forces of the universe in one matter and one task on the basis of Truth, Goodness and Beauty; the second is cordiality, the ability to unite hearts, singing in a feeling of openness to divine truth; third - multi-chanting (great znamenny, travel, demesne chants); fourth - melody, breadth, smoothness, length, melodiousness, majestic slowdowns in the finales of choral works."
The humanistic ideas of Renaissance philosophy, which placed the creative personality at the center of attention, determined the emergence of a new musical picture of the world. The anthropological principle also found its manifestation in Russian art of the 18th – 19th centuries. Thus, the development of secular professional music in the 17th century reaches qualitatively new achievements, which concerns, first of all, the area of content. Moreover, the secular penetrates into church music itself, changing its character and methods of implementation. “Polyphonic partes singing with its clear rhythmicity of musical structures, cadences and sound effects (contrasting the sonority of solo and tutti) introduces a person into a limited current time, directs his attention outward - into space, into the surrounding sensory world.”
A.P. Nozdrina characterizes this period as follows: “The reflection of the direction of time descends from the ideal to the material sphere. It is filled with the sensory world of man, the affirmation of his power, and the beauty of the human voice gains independence. The musician’s creativity, his artistic “I” is perceived through the realities of the objective world. As a result of this, different musical directions appear, in line with which the process of miniaturization develops in various types of art: portrait sketches, narrative lyrics, expressive and figurative miniatures. In the musical creativity of this time, the ancient musical traditions of church choral music, expressing collective consciousness, and new trends reflecting the personal beginning, human psychology and everyday life intersected... Thus, Russian philosophers and musicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries sought to create a “new humanism” in which the question was raised not only of the individual, but also of society, the relationships between people, the connection of individual freedom with social liberation.”
The musical art of this period is also a reflection of the complex processes of socio-political life. The idea of conciliarity began to acquire an exaggerated interpretation. Choral creativity, being ancient tradition Russian musical culture, which has the character of conciliarity, continues to develop only on a secular basis.
The worldview crisis that emerged at the turn of the century under the influence of scientific and technological progress defines a new perspective for understanding the spiritual kinship of the human world and the natural world. The pathos of scientific works of foreign thinkers is close to the saying of N.A. Berdyaev: “Personality is not a part of the world, but a correlative of the world. Undoubtedly, personality is a whole, not a part. Personality is a microcosm." Because of this, miniaturization acquires the features of a stable trend in the development of certain spheres of culture of the 20th century and becomes a phenomenon that captures a special artistic attitude to the world on a modern historical basis. Small objects carry the spiritual image of the era through artistic and figurative forms of reproducing reality. S.A. Konenko writes that miniature “discovers a unique feature not observed in other types of art: compression of the signs of culture to an extremely concentrated form, giving it a bright expressive form of value quintessence. Signs of culture in this form become iconic, symbolic in in a certain sense: in conciseness the most significant and indicative attributes of the image of culture reveal themselves.”
Indeed, by the middle of the twentieth century, miniature to a certain extent became one of the signs of modern culture, demonstrating its value dominants, the level of development of science, technology, art, and spirit.
Let us give reasons for what has been said. Modern culture as a sum of cultural sentiments and philosophical concepts is called postmodern culture. Among the most relevant achievements of philosophical thought of this type of culture is the idea of the plurality of ways of knowing, which elevates art to the rank of the latter and gives it extraordinary value in shaping the worldview of mankind. Using the macrocosm-microcosm analogy, postmodern thinking presents it as a method of understanding the world and puts forward the thesis about the unity of the entire flow of life (vegetative, animal, and the life of consciousness). The specificity of postmodern art is the expansion of the range of artistic vision and techniques artistic creativity, a new approach to classical traditions. N.B. writes about this. Mankovskaya, Yu.B. Borev, V.O. Pigulevsky. One of these postmodern trends is choral miniature.
Because of this, starting from the second half of the 20th century, the genre of choral miniatures acquired a new quality. It is closely connected with general cultural processes, in particular, with the strengthening of the social function of art, the conditions that have arisen for its openness to the world cultural space, the recognition of works of this type of creativity as public domain, in connection with the development of means of communication, addressed not to a narrow circle of connoisseurs, but to a wide listening audience. A choral miniature is “a micro-similarity of the macrocosm of culture, with its characteristic characteristics and qualities,” modern people are able to perceive not only as a culturally significant object, but “as an expression of a cultural and philosophical concept in general.”
So, concluding our short excursion, let us once again emphasize the main thing that allows us to understand the nature of the genre under study, considered through the prism of the philosophical doctrine of macro and micro worlds:
– a miniature, being a product of art and a cultural artifact, is similar to space, culture, man, that is, it is a reflected microcosm in relation to the really existing macrocosm of man;
– the object of a miniature (as an object of art embedded in culture) is a microcosm with all its elements, processes, patterns, which is similar to the macrocosm in its principles of organization, the boundlessness of phenomena;
– a reflection of the complex, fleeting properties of living matter is a “collapse” of the process of formation of the meaning of an artistic text, that is, its miniaturization. Its essence is the compactness of the sign system, where the sign acquires the meaning of an image-symbol. Thanks to semantic coding, the possibility of operating with entire “semantic complexes”, their comparison and generalization is created;
– the depth of philosophical knowledge contained in the miniatures of Russian composers is derived from the idea of conciliarity;
– the dominance of ideas of the macro and micro worlds in Russian philosophy determined the significant ideas under the sign of which choral art evolved - from large choral canvases to miniatures, from the collective choral principle - to the subjective-individual;
– the art of miniature, born in past centuries, strengthens its importance in modern culture. The content of “information”, the multiplicity of musical and extra-musical connections includes the miniature in the evolutionary process of complication of the cultural space. A miniature in modern art is a kind of analogy to the macrosystem in which it is inscribed: art, culture, nature.
1.2. Choral miniature in the context of Russian art traditions
Consideration of the miniature from the point of view of the projection of the philosophical problem of the relationship between the micro and macro worlds, which made it possible to identify the pattern of development of art in the direction of miniaturization of forms with their meaningful multidimensionality, allows us to assert that the world of the Russian choral miniature genre, full of the brightest artistic discoveries of the past and present, has an extraordinary appeal. However, here it is necessary to emphasize the special role of the culture of romanticism and voice the idea that the phenomenon of musical miniature is a concentrated “formula” of the poetics of romanticism, which arose in Western European piano music at the turn of the 18th – 19th centuries and was reflected in Russian art.
It is interesting that the roots of this phenomenon, having sprouted in Russian choral music, were distinguished by the originality of the national “reworking” of romantic trends.
For example, choral miniatures created at the beginning of the century by S.I. Taneyev cannot be compared with the works of piano miniatures by F. Mendelssohn, F. Chopin and others in terms of concentration of romantic impulse. In the choral fabric of Taneiev's choirs, the deep revelation of personality is assimilated in the special restraint of the polyphonic principle, combined with folk melodies, with echoes of cult chants. In this regard, before considering the general context of the traditions of Russian art associated with the genres and forms of miniatures, and tracing the general cultural roots of the genre under study, let us turn to the pages of history concerning the introduction of romantic trends into Russian art.
Communication with Western European romanticism was filled with a tense dialectic of attraction and repulsion. Back in the 17th century, signs of acceptance of Western European culture with a negative attitude towards their own, traditional culture appeared in Russia. This process began with the reign of Peter I. “Peter gave the Russian borderland an extremely great importance, moving the capital of the state to the very edge of the state... attached primary importance to the piers of this capital... The piers of St. Petersburg, however, marked not only the acceptance of a “different” culture, but also a negative attitude towards one’s own, traditional one.
It is important, however, that this did not lead to the complete destruction of traditional ancient Russian culture, but only to the bifurcation of Russian culture into two channels.
One channel led the culture along the very border with Western Europe, and the other separated hostilely from the West - this is the culture of the Old Believers and the peasantry, which survived until the twentieth century, in which the life of folk culture continued.” Thus, comprehending the historical fate of Russia, which gave it a vector of two-basic development of culture, in the process of the formation of Russian romantic consciousness, we can state the absorption of the general experience of European romanticism, on the one hand, and the emergence of Russian romanticism in the depths of national culture, on the other.
The romantic mood of Russian society was promoted by the victory in the War of 1812, which showed the greatness and strength of the Russian people. Russian social consciousness of the 19th century generated and developed new ideas that revealed a rational view of the world, drew attention to the problem of man - to the meaning of his life, morality, creativity, aesthetic views, which, of course, prepared the ground for the perception of a new direction. Russian philosophical thought continued to resolve the controversial issue of Western (P.Ya. Chaadaev) and original Russian views (A.S. Khomyakov, I.V. Kireevsky) on the past, present and future of Russia, which went down in history as a confrontation between Westerners and Slavophiles. But the historical and philosophical ideas of Western European culture (F.V. Schelling, G.V. Hegel) have already declared an understanding of the essence of style, which so deeply reflected the time: “In the romantic period, form falls under the power of content. The image of a god is replaced by the image of a knight. The extinction of classical art is not a decline, but only a transition from contemplation to representation... The spiritual principle triumphs over the material, the balance of the spiritual and material, as it was in the classical era, is disrupted, music and poetry begin to predominate. In music, an artist can show more freedom than in other types of art."
Intense communication with Western European romanticism, its philosophical concept (F.V. Schelling, G.V. Hegel), mature ideas of Russian thought about the national peculiarities of the development of Russia, and the preparedness of public consciousness led to the emergence of a certain Russian understanding of the essence of this artistic phenomenon. “Romanticism,” wrote Apollo Grigoriev, “and, moreover, ours, Russian, developed and distinguished itself in our original forms, romanticism was not a simple literary, but a life phenomenon, an entire era of moral development, which had its own special color, putting into practice a special view... Let the romantic trend came from outside, from Western literature and Western life, it found in Russian nature soil ready for its perception - and therefore was reflected in phenomena that were completely original...”
First of all, these phenomena were different from Western ones - less implementation of the subjectivity of creative consciousness and orientation towards the fundamental tradition of Russian Orthodoxy - the subordination of individual consciousness to ideas developed collectively in the distant past.
Perhaps that is why, having brought the genre of choral miniatures to the cultural and historical arena, Russian art, in its original romantic worldview, combined the traditions of song, as a national feature of its culture, and the pathos of Orthodoxy, based on “conciliarity,” which represented the principles of organizing individuals with a common goal , but choosing an individual path to it. K. Zenkin, defining the essence of a piano miniature, writes that it is “instantaneity, the immediacy of an image, the time of lyrical experience, the crystallization of a single state during its internal development.”
Correlating these definitions with the choral appearance of the miniature, it is possible to assume that all these features are present to one degree or another in the genre we are studying. For example, the crystallization of a single emotional mode was developed in ancient psalmodic singing, in Znamenny chant, where there was a concentration on psychological state praying, on a certain emotional experience. The special spirituality of Znamenny chant was further preserved in partes singing. Of significant importance, in our opinion, was the peculiarity of the liturgical rite, in which the singer could creatively, with the help of melodic chants, highlight “this or that idea of the text, according to the spiritual tone in which he perceived it.”
He revealed his feelings to the praying parishioners, calling them to corresponding emotions in the process of prayer. Hence the genetic roots of the “inner, psychological” revealed in the public atmosphere.
All this contributed to the emergence of the choral type of miniature - a new variety of miniature genres, in which the ancient traditions of national musical culture were melted.
The result of the evolution of Russian culture not only endowed the choral miniature with all the achievements of choral art, but also presented it as a vivid reflection of romantic aesthetics, new ideas about the deep unity of all types of arts, about the possibility of their mixing and synthesis. As a result, it would be logical to consider the origins of the choral miniature not only from the perspective of its development in one generic art, but also to determine the role of prototype genres in other types of artistic creativity. They are like small precious grains, scattered in different historical eras and arts, carrying the aesthetic essential beauty of the genre of small form, absorbing and synthesizing the principles of expressiveness different types arts, present a “biography” of the artistic phenomenon of choral miniatures.
Let us turn to some types of Russian art, in small forms of which the features of the miniature genre were formed, adopted by the choral miniature of the era of romanticism. Its genetic roots go back to ancient times, appealing to the work of Russian icon painters of the 10th – 12th centuries. As you know, the icon and fresco were designed to depict the divine world. The artistic quality of any image in the temple was understood as secondary to its main purpose - the reproduction of a sacred event. The truth of images (both verbal and colorful), understood in the spirit of sensory-material identity with the prototype, is infinitely more important than their beauty. The similarity of the face of the icon to a human image, its appeal to the inner world of the person praying, that is, the deep human essence of art will be “absorbed” by subsequent eras, and will become, in particular, an important component of the aesthetics of romanticism.
I.N. Loseva writes: “In ancient times, the word was given extraordinary importance. ““Say” and “create” were identical concepts.
The word, as defined by ancient philosophy, was considered a model of the world, including material, sensory and ideal elements."
To this we can rightfully add one more identical concept “to represent”. Confirmation of this is the accompaniment of capital letters in handwritten books with drawings that reveal the deep ideological meaning of the texts. Later, book miniatures materialized spiritual content in the depiction of symbols, in ornaments and, finally, in the characters of book fonts themselves. As the researcher of Novgorod art E.S. writes. Smirnov, this is “a sign, a symbol of the holiness of the text, a warning and accompaniment to the deep content of the book.” Some front manuscripts contain miniature decorations that authentically illustrate the text.They really have the qualities of a special art, as if aware of their small size and not inclined to copy the techniques of monumental painting. The objectification of the semantic and emotional content of the book text, in combination with the decorative function, will be perceived by the choral miniature and will subsequently introduce figurative features into it, which will be expressed in a tendency towards programmatic and decorative features.
Another important source shaping the genesis of the future choral miniature was folklore. Epics, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings created the poetics of small forms in ancient Russian literature, they revealed the capacity of the word, the aphorism of the statement, collecting the most valuable meaning for a person, “connection with the situation, everyday life, the compositional structure of the text developed, speech intonation was honed” 1. All this experience literary art will be perceived by the choral miniature. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the originality of the compositions of epics and fairy tales was associated with such “microelements” as “chorus”, “outcome” and “saying”. For example, a fairy-tale saying, small in size, set the listener up for an entertaining narrative, emphasizing the fictionality and fantastic nature of the fairy tale. And the epic choruses, despite their laconicism, painted majestic pictures of nature, conveyed solemn pathos, and set the listener up to perceive something important and significant. The functional role of these sections was to foreshadow, anticipate the plot, and create a certain mood in a small poetic structure. These features, which existed in the art of music in the form of introductions to various forms and preludes, undoubtedly contained features that indirectly influenced the genre of miniatures.
Let's turn to musical art. EAT. Orlova points out that by the 15th century, the genre of lyric lingering song was being formed in Russian folklore. Unlike epics and fairy tales, which necessarily had a detailed plot, the lingering song was based on a compressed plot situation, close to the way of life of people, which was the reason for you. more details: In folk lyrical songs, along with the wealth of expressed thoughts and feelings, those life circumstances, all kinds of plot-descriptive situations that caused them, are quite vividly depicted.
expressions of certain feelings and thoughts. In the synthesis of words and musical intonation, the Russian song cantilena gave birth to an inexhaustible potential of psychological expressiveness, which had an undoubted influence on the nature of choral miniatures.
Considering the context of different types of art, within the framework of which certain principles of expressiveness were formed, essential for the formation of the characteristics of the miniature, it becomes obvious that this process continued in the 16th century. The art of this time rushed from church asceticism to secularism, from abstraction to real human emotions and clarity of thought. These themes were clearly manifested in Russian architecture. “The architect-poet... combined sculpture, which covered the facades he created with carvings, and painting,... and music, which set the bells in motion.” The reliefs that decorated the cathedrals of Moscow, Vologda, Novgorod were plastic carvings, which revealed a desire for three-dimensional volume and bold angles of figures. The sculptural talent of Russian masters was also reflected in small sculptures: icons, stonework, panagia crosses (wood, stone, bone). By the nature of the interpretation of the form, they can be compared with a sculptural relief; by the thoroughness of the work, the miniature of the details - with the art of jewelry.
These examples of small forms of fine art also carried specific features, which later manifested themselves indirectly in the choral miniature. First of all, this is the desire for spatiality, the subtle filigree of finishing the work.
The accumulation of artistic experience in small forms of various arts leads to the emergence of miniatures as an independent art form, which occurs at the turn of the 17th - 18th centuries in painting. Its heyday occurred in the 18th – 19th centuries and was associated with the development of the genre of portrait and landscape. At the very beginning of their journey, portrait and landscape miniatures were closely connected with oil painting. This connection was traced in the plots, in subordination to common aesthetic canons, and in general stylistic features. Because of this, at the beginning of the 18th century, miniatures were characterized by the pomp and decorativeness characteristic of painting. But gradually the miniature flows into the general mainstream of the development of graphic chamber portraiture. Miniatures are painted from life, become more spontaneous, convey the characteristic features of the model more vividly, and become democratic. The flourishing of this genre was associated with the advent of the chamber portrait, which revealed the seriousness and depth of the depicted image. The intimate and lyrical nature of the embodiment of themes originated from the traditions of painting by V.L. Borovikovsky and A.G. Venetsianova.
The miniature drew its special features not only from professional fine art, but also from folk art. It is connected with strong threads applied arts. In ancient times, miniatures were made on stone, wood, silver and copper casting. In more late period craftsmen used porcelain, bone, gold, silver, terracotta, ceramics and other atypical materials. The development of traditional peasant and decorative and applied ancient Russian art, iconography and painting in the 18th century prepared the emergence of such an artistic phenomenon as Russian lacquer miniatures. The centers of this original art were Fedoskino, Palekh, and Mstera. Small engravings pasted onto boxes and snuff boxes, made from artistic originals, conveyed the fullness of the feeling of the native land, were saturated with emotional depth, in tune with the inner world of a person, and bore unique features of local color.
The pictorial techniques of artistic miniatures were formed in accordance with the Russian icon-painting tradition and Western European engraving, with Russian painting, which allowed it to combine religious feelings and secular views. The miniature bore the stamp of high fine art and at the same time was created in the format of applied folk art. This explained the appeal to fairy-tale, epic-epic, historical, mythological subjects, or to paintings stylized in the same spirit from modern life. “Miniature painting is imbued with a special internal dynamics. IN difficult game rhythm, in the intersecting lines of figures, in the consonances of color masses and plans, echoes of folk song images are heard.” The musical image of the folk song was reflected in the artistic design and contributed to the emergence of a musical and rhythmic structure painting. Palekh lacquer miniatures are known for images written on the themes of Russian folk songs “Down along Mother, along the Volga”, “Here is the daring troika rushing”, etc. The miniature gave things not only spiritual significance. Precious in a spiritual sense, it was often made of high quality material, which gave it value in the literal sense of the word. The material used was associated with domestic gold and silver, porcelain and bone making, and with enamel skills. Particularly noteworthy is the exquisite painting with small dots, which developed in parallel with the stipple technique in metal engraving. The volume and spatiality of the image, the subtle technique of writing on precious materials, decorativeness, the “choral” method of execution, representing the experience of the school, the creative team, and the continuity of traditions are the main aesthetic principles of varnishes, which were later embodied in the choral miniature.
Concluding the analysis of the genetic foundations of the genre of choral miniatures, it should be emphasized that the appearance of the first examples of choral miniatures in the 19th century, during the era of Russia’s assimilation of the achievements of Western romanticism, was undoubtedly associated with the generalization in it of the artistic experience of small forms of various types of Russian art. In artistic and creative activity, not only musical, but also far from the art of singing, while developing the ideology of small forms, significant features and generic features have developed for the genre of choral miniature. Namely: the refinement of a small form, a high level of artistry resulting from the filigree, sophisticated craftsmanship of the manufacturer, the specificity of the content - emotional and ideological concentration, the depth of understanding of the world and human feelings, functional purpose.