THE DYNAMICS OF CHORAL CULTURE DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA IN THE 1930S ON THE EXAMPLE OF HUANG TZI’S ORATORIO ETERNAL REGRET

Choral music in China is a dynamically developing form of contemporary musical art. Scientific works devoted to the Chinese choral culture consider the 1930s of the 20th century as the most productive period in the development of this branch of musical creativity. The article examines the phase of the active entry of Chinese choral music into the sphere of the oratorio genre, which is directly related to the name of the great Chinese composer — Huang Tzi. It also highlights the issues of the country’s political life in the 1930s, which actively influenced the creation of nationwide singing movements and new choral works in the country. The oratorio genre, the genesis of which refers us to the European religious musical tradition of the 17th century, spread in China owing to the massive flow of Chinese intelligentsia to the territory of Western states throughout the entire beginning of the 20th century. In the article, the actualisation of the oratorio and its interpretation in a new light is presented as the merit of Huang Tzi, whose civic position was directly related to the desire to preserve ethnic origins in Chinese music and to complement them with Western composing techniques organically. Having proved himself not only as a composer but also as a theorist and teacher, Huang Tzi devoted most of his life to educating a large number of music professors, initiating a progressive approach to music education. His desire to raise the level of the composing school in China made it possible to enrich the repertoire of vocal and instrumental music with characteristics of the folk style. The oratorio Eternal Regret presented in the article is a unique creation that organically combines ethnic music and Western composition techniques. In the story of Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei (to the poems of Tang poet Bai Juyi), taken by the composer as the theme for the libretto, there is certain symbolism that has the conceptual plan of addressing the power to demonstrate the alleged results of Kuomintang’s unclear policy. Thus, directly related to political cataclysms and their final embodiment in the form of the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945), the oratorio Eternal Regret is presented in the article as a consolidating core that inspired the civilian masses to fight the Japanese invaders. The analysis of Bai Juyi’s original poem “Eternal Regret” and a fragmentary historical-stylistic and vocal-choral analysis of the oratorio have been carried out. The artistic features of individual parts of the oratorio, seven of which were completed by the composer, are revealed. Based on literary sources and theoretical research presented in the article, the author asserts the special role of the oratorio Eternal Regret in history and its far-reaching influence on the prospects for the development of the Chinese choir.

Works of Mykola Leontovych in the Performance Traditions of the Odesa Choral School

The purpose of the research is to identify the peculiarities of performing reading and conducting-methodical mastering of choral works by M. D. Leontovych in the activities of outstanding representatives of the Odesa choral school. The tasks of the work are determined: coverage of the concept of a performing school, in particular, the Odesa choral school; identification of the poetical-semantic features, intonational-expressive factors that influenced the performing approaches to the works of M. Leontovych; determination of the creative continuity’s features of generations in the context of interpretations, intonation and artistic images’ embodiment of M. D. Leontovych’s works in choral sound. The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific and special chorological approaches. An analytical-abstract approach was used to study the scientific literature on the outlined issues; in working with the memories of contemporaries, graduates – analytical and historical; in work with musical texts – choral, textual and selective methods; The system-structural method helped to present the phenomenon under study as a generalization of various research and practical tools – it became a unifying factor in the holistic understanding of experience. The scientific novelty of the research is due to the fact that for the first time an original view of the performing interpretation of individual works of M. Leontovych from the standpoint of performing, conducting, research experience of the Odessa Choral School; figurative-associative approaches in the context of chorological elaboration of the author’s text are covered; emphasis is placed on the relationship between musical and historical facts and current trends in the development of choral performance. Conclusions. M. Leontovych’s choral works are an original example of an individual author's concept of the folk song idea in choral elaboration, which forms multiple semantic vectors for performing interpretation. Genre-style, intonation-expressive priorities of the composer in the processing of folk song material become a kind of ‘guide’ in the interpretive strategies of performers and provoke them and the listener to certain reflections of associative, musical-semantic, theatrical and figurative composition. At the present stage of its development, the Odesa Choral School, declaring historically established approaches to the works of M. Leontovych in the repertoire of the student choir at the same time demonstrates their living performing tradition.

Jenő Ádám’s Church Music Compositions

"In the present study I intend to present the church music compositions of Jenő Ádám. I will analyze the choral works of the composer that were based on the melodies of Protestant church hymns. The composer was also active as a conductor, but his name is primarily known in the field of music pedagogy. He played an important role in the elaboration and implementation of the Kodály method. In his works pertaining to church music, he adapted the melodies of the most representative church hymns of different ages. He uses both homophonic and polyphonic approaches with his works that have strophic structure or are through-composed. Keywords: Genevan Psalter, Protestant hymn, Kodály method, strophic form, through-composed works, homophonic and polyphonic approaches in composition."

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

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

Teaching Italian Romanticism through Philately and Choral Works

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.

Stylistic Features of Works for Choir A Cappella by Dmitry Smirnov on the Example of Choir Concerto “Insomnia”

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.

5. Historical and Theoretical Foundations of the Development of Vocal and Choral Culture in Moldova

The origins of the national choral art are based on Church singing, which has been widely developed since the founding of the Putnyansky and Nyametsky monasteries. In the further development of the centuries, Church singing intertwined with folk choral singing, which was reflected in the works of such conductors and composers as G. Muzichesku, M. Berezovsky, A. Kristya, M. Byrke, V. Popovich. Special attention is paid to the creative and conducting activities of Gavriil Muzichesku, all of whose initiatives were innovative and progressive, later becoming the leading ones in the national choral activities of Romania and Moldova. This article identifies and systematizes the main trends related to the process of creating vocal and choral works and their application in the system of Romanian and Moldovan musical education. Their analysis shows that the composer worked on the theoretical generalization of his own experience, turned to the best ideas of domestic and foreign pedagogy, including Russian, and thanks to this he was able to bring his knowledge and experience into a fairly coherent and integral system of musical education and education through vocal and choral culture.

The Cantatas by Pierre Boulez in the Context of the Main Trends in the Development of Choral Composition of the 20th Century

The article focuses on Pierre Boulez’s choral style in the cantatas “Le visage nuptial” and “Le soleil des eaux”. The versions of these works, created over the course of almost 40 years (from 1951 to 1989), represent a complex of techniques in regard to texture and timbre, which, on the one hand, are a continuation of experiments by composers of the New Vienna School (A. Schönberg, A. Webern), and on the other hand, they preface a number of innovations in the choral style of Boulez’s contemporaries (L. Nono, L. Berio, K. Stockhausen, I. Xenakis). Evidence is provided in favor of the idea that Boulez’s choral works were the logical link between the vocal and choral opuses of the composers of the first and second Western European avant-garde. The article examines the peculiarities of the interaction between the verbal and musical series, the specifics of the textural organization of Boulez’s works, and systematizes the information about the timbre techniques used. Links are identified between the heterophonic presentation typical of Boulez’s choral works and the use of quarter tone notation, glissando reception, and various variants of speech singing (Sprechgesang). The connections between stereophonic effects in the music of Boulez and Nono are traced. An important place is occupied by the study of vocal sound recovery or “vocal emission” technologies (as defined by Boulez). The significance of Schönberg and Webern’s experience in the formulation of the technical foundations of Boulez’s choral timbres is stressed. Special attention is paid to the problem of “work in progress” as one of the defining features of the composer’s choral heritage. Comparing the works by Nono, Maderna, and Bulez, the author concludes the different reasons for which composers came to the concept of “opera aperta” (U. Eco).

The Characteristic Features of Vassily Titov’s Choral Music

Among the Russian composers of the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries a special position is held by the sacred choral works of Vassily Titov (ca. 1650 — ca. 1715), one of the bright representatives of the polyphonic part singing, in which the originality of the Russian Baroque musical culture. The music of Vassily Titov, an outstanding master of choral writing, is diverse in terms of its genres, it comprises nearly two hundred compositions, many of which predominated in the church music repertoire of Russian churches during the course of the 18th century. A study of Vassily Titov’s choral works has made it possible to disclose the characteristic features of the composer’s polyphonic style. The latter include the multi-choral presentation with its bright spatial effects, the antiphonic juxtapositions of large choral masses, the principles of concertizing based on the succession of solo voices and tutti, on the juxtaposition of the chordal-harmonic and the polyphonic exposition, as well as the skillful mastery of imitational counterpoint, up to polyphonic variation. Features of national originality reveal themselves most vividly in the musical thematicism of the compositions, where along with the ornamental design of the intertwining melodic lines and turns of an instrumental type, use is made of intonations of folk songs, cants and church chants. In his musical oeuvres Vassily Titov revised and reevaluated the basic characteristic traits and forms of Western European Baroque music in correspondence with the particularities of Russian musical culture, thereby preserving and enriching the traditions of the Russian national style.