scholarly journals Verbal-textual polyphonic technique in the Ukrainian choral music (on the example of music on Taras Shevchenko’s poetry)

Author(s):  
Lesia Pivtoratska

Relevance of the study. In the 20th–21st centuries, searches in the field of sonoristics led to an unconventional interpretation of the sound of musical instruments and the human voice. As a result, contemporary composers are actively experimenting with vocal performance techniques. The timbresonorous quality of speech contributes to the emergence of new polyphonic techniques. The use of verbal-textual polyphonic techniques in the music of modern Ukrainian composers is becoming more and more widespread. This explains the relevance of this study. The scientific basis of the article is the insufficiently studied concept of verbal-textual polyphony by I. B. Pyaskovsky. Main objective of the study. The objective of this study is to examine the existing manifestations of verbal-textual polyphonic technique in Ukrainian choral music a cappella on the example of works based on the texts of the poetic cycle “Psalms of David” by T. Shevchenko. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the work is the first to consider verbal-textual polyphonic techniques in the works of Ukrainian composers on the texts of “Psalms of David” by T. Shevchenko. Methodology. The following methods of research are used: versioning (analysis of the versification features of the original poetic source), semantic (interpretation of the semantic content of the musical expressiveness means, their correlation with the text), typological (based on classification of the varieties of the studied technique). Results and conclusions. The main feature of verbal textual polyphony is the phonic interpretation of speech. This type of polyphonic technique is manifested in the work with text phonemes and syntagmas, which, as a rule, have intonation-rhythmic design. The prerequisites for this type of polyphony in musical works based on the texts of T. Shevchenko are the musicality of his poetry, as well as a specific rhythmic organization — the so-called 14-syllabic kolomijka verse. All examples of this writing technique can be divided into two groups, depending on the compositional work at the phonemic or syntagmatic levels. Phonemic compositional work is carried out by segmentation, vocal accentuation and temporal extension of the sound of the syllable. Work at the syntagmatic level is embodied using the following techniques: simultaneous multi-rhythmic presentation of the same text, text imitation, ostinato, polyphonic techniques of vocal intonation on a verbal and extra-musical basis. The analysis carried out indicates that the polyphonic technique in the studied works of Ukrainian composers is formed taking into account the versification features of the Shevchenko's poetry. The results of these observations can be used in the study of the manifestations of verbal textual polyphony in vocal-choral works on a different text basis

10.34690/119 ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 158-171
Author(s):  
Евгения Давидовна Кривицкая

Статья представляет собой обзор сочинений для хора a cappeLLa, созданных Родионом Щедриным в XXI веке. Произведения рассматриваются в хронологическом порядке, многие из них вдохновлены творческими контактами с Камерным хором Московской консерватории и с его руководителями - основателем коллектива Борисом Тевлиным и его преемником Александром Соловьёвым. Среди хоровых сочинений композитора есть и произведения на стихи российских поэтов - Андрея Вознесенского, Владимира Маяковского, Велимира Хлебникова, и опусы, написанные на библейские тексты, - «Эпиграф графа Толстого к роману “Анна Каренина”», «Месса поминовения»; последние можно отнести к области духовной музыки. Ряд сочинений отмечен гражданским пафосом (Диптих, «Два последних хора»). В партитурах 2020 года, созданных в период пандемии, в самоизоляции, автор размышляет о смысле бытия (Триптих). Щедрин постоянно экспериментирует с жанрами хоровой музыки. Ярким примером его изобретательности в творчестве последних лет являются Русские народные пословицы. В более ранней Серенаде (2003) традиционный жанр трактован новаторски: текст произведения целиком основан на междометиях. The article is a review of compositions for a cappella choir, written by Rodion Shchedrin in the 21 century. The works are viewed in chronological order, many of them are inspired by creative reLationships with the Chamber Choir of Moscow Conservatory and with its Leaders-the founder of the collective Boris TevLin and his successor Aleksandr Solovyov. Among the composer's choral works, there are music on verses by Russian poets-Andrei Voznesensky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, VeLimir Khlebnikov, and opuses written on bibLicaL texts-“Count ToLstoy's Epigraph to the NoveL ‘Anna Karenina'”, Mass of Commemoration; the Latters can be attributed to the fieLd of sacred music. A number of works are marked by civic pathos (Diptych, “The Last Two Choirs”). In the 2020 scores, created during the pandemic, in self-isolation, the author reflects on the meaning of being (Triptych). Shchedrin constantLy experiments with genres of choraL music. A striking exampLe of his ingenuity in the current oeuvre is the “Russian FoLk Proverbs”. In the earLier Serenade (2003), the traditionaL genre is interpreted in an innovative way: the text of the work is entireLy based on interjections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-80
Author(s):  
V. P. Tereshchenko ◽  

The article touches upon the unique combination of Taneyev’s stylistic principles, which consists in an organic synthesis of protective and innovative features. Taneyev consciously turns to the polyphony of strictly writing, Baroque music and Viennese classicism in forming his own individual compositional style. The paradox is that Taneyev acted as an innovator who foresaw a vision for the future of music through the prism of the distant past. Stylistic principles such as historicism of thinking, rational approach to creativity and leading role of counterpoint forms became the basis of new trends in music art of the XXth century. A special area of the composer's innovative achievements is choral music. Taneyev founded of a number of genre trends that developed in the XXth century, among them a lyrical-philosophical cantata, "spiritual concert" vocal-instrumental and symphonic music, a choral a cappella cycle to secular text.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 265-279
Author(s):  
Carmen Almăşanu

Abstract Borne from the relevant and efficient expression in the context of contemporary culture, neo-protestant choral spirituality uses a diversified and meaningful language. From the very beginning of the existence of neo-protestant cults on the territory of our country, the establishment of a liturgical repertoire intended for common intonation or by various choral or vocal-instrumental bands has been one of the primordial preoccupations. Along with choral creations translated from the universal literature, there is a significant number of original works created by Romanian composers within the religious services. Due to extremely diverse themes and extrovert character, neo-protestant choral music includes different styles specific to the great tradition of classical, romantic or modern music as well as influences from the extra-European sphere. The text of these creations, which has biblical inspiration or created by the composer, is a means of great diversification in the reproduction of the sound material. Composers and arrangers with high quality music training and a profound understanding of biblical truths, through sound art wanted to contribute to the enrichment of contemporary neo-protestant choral music repertoire, leaving posterity a significant amount of valuable choral pages as inheritance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 393-409
Author(s):  
Gretchen Jude

What do we hear in a human voice that vibrates through electrical flows? In this paper I argue for listening (and vocalizing) beyond the human in performances with audio media. I propose understanding such performance practice as engaging with what I call plasmatic voice, a phenomenon distinct from the merely additive, prosthetic conception of voice + electricity. Instead, plasmatic voice functions as instances of queer assemblage stretching to reach the radically Other that constitutes ourselves—facilitating the sense of what Alaimo (2010) terms transcorporeality, an understanding of human embodiment as “intermeshed with the more-than-human world” (2). The vibrations of plasmatic voice—as an example of Eidsheim’s (2015) intermaterial vibrational practice—loosen (post)human social constructs of race and gender and reverberate with nonhuman ecosystems, as I illustrate through analysis of musical examples.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-382
Author(s):  
William E. Hettrick

Johann Herbeck (1831–1877) served in his native Vienna as conductor of the leading choral and instrumental organizations. He showed his devotion to the legacy of Franz Schubert in his performances and also in his edition, published by C.A. Spina and successors, of 51 selected works of the master for men’s, women’s and mixed chorus. Originally conceived as part-songs for ensembles of soloists, this repertoire had become choral music by Herbeck’s time. Included also are arrangements by Herbeck and others of pieces originally written for different performing media. Surviving copies of numbers in the edition, as well as two additional publications, reveal startling inconsistencies in editorial technique, ranging from a lack of intervention to a much freer approach, including liberal sprinkling of unauthentic markings and other deviations from the originals. In the latter category, the editor’s additions may be said to document the performance practice of these works during his time. His choice of sources was also inconsistent, in some cases resulting in faulty versions of the works presented. This study also documents the production and reception history of Herbeck’s edition.


Author(s):  
Daniel Galbreath

Amateur musical ensembles draw participants from widely varying disciplines into shared artistic activity in a way that few other artforms do; in particular, choral music, in which bodies both create and directly receive sound, raises profound questions of how performers’ uniquely embodied creative approaches interact. Amateur choral singing therefore offers a lens into how musical creativity is distributed among, and emergent from, a diverse group of individuals. This article explores how the performance of indeterminate and improvisatory choral works offers a powerful example of this distributed creative agency via a network of sounding bodies. This article centres on a case study (March–October 2017) involving three British amateur choirs in the performance of improvisatory choral scores by Kerry Andrew (2005) and Cornelius Cardew (1968–70). Complexity Theory (Davis and Sumara 2006) offers a useful framework for understanding how creative impulses and constructions interact; both the vocal expression and corporeal receipt of these creative ideas occurs in an embodied way, drawing on dance and embodiment theory (Sheets-Johnstone 2009, Downey 2002). The research process and qualitative-data-processing methodology (Charmaz 2014) of the case study are described, before findings are laid out with a view to how they point towards ideas of embodied, complex interaction. These findings offer an important, and hitherto unexplored, view into how Complexity Theory (a common theoretical framework in other fields across the sciences and humanities) might usefully describe musical performance. In transcending attempts to atomise ensemble interaction according to shared intellectual knowledge and verbal communication, the complex, embodied interaction of diverse singers, through the physical connection of sound, might involve those singers in the distributed authorship of a musical work.


2021 ◽  
pp. 38-57
Author(s):  
А.В. Макарова

В  творчестве современного петербургского композитора Дмитрия Валентиновича Смирнова (р. 1952) хоровые сочинения занимают особое место. В жанровом отношении именно концерт для хора представляет собой своеобразное «зеркало» творческого поиска композитора. Начиная с ранних сочинений начала 1980-х годов («Приявший мир», «Рождение крыла», Концерт для хора на стихи Н. Некрасова) и вплоть до созданного в 2006 году цикла «Набоковские песнопения» многочастные композиции хоровых концертов играли ключевую роль в процессе становления и постепенного усложнения хорового письма автора. Хоровой концерт «Бессонница» (1986) открывает новый этап в творчестве композитора. В этот период происходит окончательное формирование устойчивой системы стилистических особенностей музыкального языка; композитор обращается к созданию сложных многочастных композиций для хора a cappella. К данному периоду можно отнести такие сочинения, как Концерт для хора на стихи И. Анненского «Кипарисовый ларец», Концерт для хора на стихи О. Мандельштама «Я рожден в девяносто четвертом, я рожден в девяносто втором…» и «Молитвословия» из Литургии Св. Иоанна Златоуста. Сочинения указанного периода отличает многоуровневая смысловая полифоничность, которая находит свое отражение в  усложнении драматургии цикла и значительном расширении комплекса музыкально-выразительных средств композиторского письма. Таким образом, происходит окончательное формирование основных стилистических особенностей хорового языка Дмитрия Смирнова. Choral works occupy a special place in the work of the contemporary Petersburg composer Dmitry V. Smirnov (born 1952). In terms of genre, it is the concert for choir that is a kind of “mirror” of the composer’s creative search. Beginning with the early  compositions of the early 1980s (“The One Who Accepted the World”, “Birth of Wing”, Concerto for Choir on poems by Nikolay Nekrasov) and up to the cycle “Nabokov’s chants”, multi-movement compositions of choral concerts played a key role in the formation and gradual complication of the author's choral writing. The choir concerto “Insomnia” (1986) opens a new stage in the composer’s work. This is a period of final formation of a stable system of stylistic features of the musical language; the composer turns to creation of complex multi-movement compositions for a cappella choir. This period includes such compositions as Concerto for Choir on the poems of Innokentiy Annensky “Cypress Casket”, a Concerto for Choir on the verses of Osip Mandelstam “I was born in the ninety-fourth, I was born in the ninety-second...” (1989) and “Prayers” from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (1992). The works of this period are distinguished by multilevel semantic polyphony, which is reflected in complication of the cycle's drama and a significant expansion of the complex of musical and expressive means of composer writing. Thus, the final formation of the main stylistic features of the choral language of Dmitry Smirnov takes place.


Author(s):  
Ilma Grauzdiņa

The aim of the research is to explore creation of musical form of Jazeps Vitols’ (1863-1948) most expanded a cappella choral works. Although Jazeps Vitols’ choral works have been discussed in monographs and in several scientific articles, the musical form of choral songs is offen individual, therefore students still have difficulties to determine the musical form of compositions, and this aspect provokes ardent discussions among experts. The author of the article bases her opinion first of all on a comprehensive analysis of the poem (images, language, dramaturgy, composition) set in the choral work and, secondly, on the comparison between results of analysis and implementation of these parameters in J. Vitols’ music. Such an approach lets to define more accurately the musical form of choral song – the total product born out of the cooperation of the two arts. Furthermore, such comprehensive view allows to reveal important characteristic features of individual style of the composer and stylistic details of musical compositions, understanding of which could be useful for performers – conductors and singers.


Tempo ◽  
1967 ◽  
pp. 41-51
Author(s):  
Stephen Walsh

For well over fifty years Stravinsky has been a prolific choral composer, using the medium widely within the framework of larger works, as well as turning out a stream of works which are either exclusively choral or which depend sufficiently on chorus to be categorised alongside such pieces. Even so the flow has never been entirely regular. Of the 102 separate works listed in Eric Walter White's recent survey, 20 are in some sense choral (I include operas like The Nightingale or The Rake's Progress, both of which have appreciable parts for chorus, as well as one like Oedipus Rex, where the chorus is a central and substantial figure in both the music and the drama). But no less than seven post-date The Rake's Progress—a proportion of seven out of 19 works—and all but two of these are settings of religious texts. Out of twelve choral works composed before The Rake only six are religious, and of these half are short unaccompanied settings of liturgical texts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-143
Author(s):  
Ilona Klein

Philately and choral works can be excellent integrative pedagogical tools when teaching Italian Romanticism at undergraduate level. In the classroom, postage stamps provide an historical narrative for students and can help clarify the political, artistic, and cultural mood of the time. The intrinsic symbolism of stamps represents the way a nation wants to be seen by the rest of the world. Instrumental and choral music, in their infinite combination of tones, blend sound with sung words, creating an artistic subtext that reveals the complexity and variety of human aesthetic expression. For the current generation of students accustomed to visual and auditory learning tools, classroom realia and a multidisciplinary approach to Italian Romantic literature enhance peer discussions, and encourage students to explore and value the development of human thought in all of its non-linear manifestations.


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