Still Point of the Turning World

Schubert’s late instrumental music evokes a distinctive time-sense which not only expands the expressive potential of stylistic norms, but also invites deeper reflections on the relationship between the self and the world through his multilayered construction of temporal consciousness. The sense of now, towards which past and future gravitate, is particularly salient. In this article, I examine the formal, harmonic, topical processes through which Schubert constructs a vivid sense of the now in two movements from his late period, D. 956/ii and D. 959/ii, through the lens of phenomenology, drawing on conceptions of time as formulated by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. I aim to bridge two fields together: first, the general theory of musical time, as has been delineated by Kramer, Barry and Clifton, which examines concepts such as linearity/nonlinearity, silence and stasis; and second, the scholarship on late Schubert, with key conceptual tools such as landscape, late style, lyricism, songfulness and interiority, formulated in the works of Adorno, Burnham, Mak and Taylor. I will also provide the cultural context of musical time in the early-nineteenth century, focusing on the wider paradigm shift from form-as-architecture to form-as-process in music. My analysis reflects a phenomenological orientation within a hermeneutic, narrative mode. I highlight the often disorienting subjective experience of time as evoked by moments that deflect from norms and expectations, specifically the tension between the transient nature of music and the sense of permanence evoked through Schubert’s cyclic, paratactic procedures. I then show how Schubert’s construal of temporal consciousness acquires a historiographical import and resonates with the broader intellectual world by framing it in terms of Schlegel’s three stages of history. I conclude by promoting phenomenological approaches in analysing Schubert’s works and nineteenth-century music at large.

Summer’s Gone: Late Style and Popular Music

The Beach Boys’ 2012 album That’s Why God Made the Radio is typically nostalgic, filled with seemingly sunny reminiscences and retreads that hark back to the 1960s. And yet other parts of the album look back in a more critical fashion, exploring unresolved melancholy through a rich musical language. What makes this even more complicated is the fact that it is possible to hear these two ‘sides’ of the album differently, for the retreads to feel like eerie simulations and the melancholy parts to align with earlier, similarly complicated Beach Boys music. This ambivalence embodies the album’s dual relationship with what I describe as the primary strains of late style: Goethean serenity and Adornian intransigence. In exploring this contention and in applying late style to other examples of popular music, notably David Bowie’s 2016 album Blackstar, I argue that the late-style lens helps to shed new light on popular music’s increasingly complicated knots of nostalgia, ageing and death.

Queen’s Jubilee

Queen’s final album before Mercury’s death was widely viewed as a return to Queen’s distinct style, and also includes a number of reflective lyrics that were likely written with knowledge of the singer’s ill health. It is demonstrated how the title track embodies the idiolect principles of Queen’s 1970s output in terms of exploring new stylistic ground, while staying rooted in the familiar textural and arrangement patterns. Drawing on Said and Straus, Innuendo can be viewed as reflecting a ‘late style’ for Queen, but one that is defined by a retreat to a past musical style of their own, in contrast to other conceptions of this aesthetic defined in relation to classical composers.

Constants and Innovations in the Orchestral Writing of I. Stravinsky’s Ballet “Agon”

The aim of this paper is to identify the specifics of orchestral writing in the later works of I. Stravinsky on the example of the ballet “Agon” (1953–1957). Significance of the topic. From 1953 begins the late (serial) period of I. Stravinsky’s work. Due to stylistic “modulation”, the study of orchestral writing in later works at the intersection of constant principles (multifigure, combinativity and plasticity) and innovations found out by us is relevant. Research methodology. I. Stravinsky’s late style is studied in various aspects. A topical issue is the composer’s interpretation of serial technique (Glivinsky, 1995; Rogers, 2004; Straus, 1999; Smyth, 2000). N. Kardash (2010) offers a multidisciplinary textological approach in the studying of recent opera and ballet. Renaissance dance forms are studied in “Agon” by M. Richardson (2003). Characteristics of later works are contained in the section of the monograph of M. Druskin (2009). V. Zaderatsky’s monograph (1980) is devoted to the polyphonic thinking of the composer. Historical, comparative, functional, systematic research methods are used in the work. Results. I. Stravinsky’s original orchestral writing was formed in his early works (1908–1910). They gradually formed the principles of multifigure, combinativity (Savchenko, 2019; Savchenko, 2020) and plasticity, found out by us, as universal principles of the composer’s orchestral writing. In the ballet “Agon” the composer applied a serial technique that determines the key role of polyphonic techniques of work with thematic invention, respectively, the dominance of horizontal thinking. At the same time in the creative comprehension and elaboration of techniques of serial technique the composer relies on the methods developed in his works (“formular” thematic invention, motives rotation technique, counterpoint combination of them) (Druskin, 2009, p. 226–227), motive-variant work (Savenko, 2001). Accordingly, ballet acts can be divided into two groups: with horizontal or horizontal/vertical priority in the organization of the orchestral texture. Where the priority is horizontal, we highlight the following variants of the composition of the orchestral texture: 1) monophony (unison) or splitting of unison 2) texture based on the counterpoint interaction of short lines (sometimes — sound points); 3) on the basis of contrasting polyphony; 4) on the basis of imitation polyphony. Conclusions. 1) In the orchestral writing of acts with horizontal/vertical priority, the constant principles of multifigure, combinativity and plasticity remain dominant; 2) Where the horizontal is a priority, innovative principles of organization of the orchestral texture prevail; constant principles are revealed covertly or in a modified form; 3) At the level of a ballet composition as a whole, the alternation of different types of organization of the orchestral texture is formed, in which different ideas about time and space are embodied; thoughtful timbre strategy and handling of different types of orchestral texture give rise to the original timbre-texture structure of the work.

Composer Valentyn Borysov. Symphony of life

Background. The aim of the article is examination and presentation of Valentyn Borysov’s creative life, who was a celebrated Ukrainian composer (1901–1988), a classic of Kharkiv composition school, author of vivid and profound works in such spheres as symphonic, choral, chamber, vocal and piano music; his 120th anniversary in 2021 will be a big milestone for artistic community of Ukraine. Valentyn Borysov’s creativity is an indispensable part of national music, one of its treasures. He belonged to artists who had defined ways of development of Ukrainian professional music in XX century. In his creative outcome we can see influences of numerous artistic tendencies, characteristic for extremely controversial, but also prolific epoch. Composer being a part of quite ambivalent period of Ukraine’s cultural history conditioned usage of diverse research approaches; his works are regarded both in the light of existing musical traditions and on the background of his contemporary cultural environment. This is the novelty of the study. Integrity of presentation of Valentyn Borysov’s creative life is supported by the fact that this article considers his pedagogical activity in his alma mater, nowadays Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts, which resulted in bringing up a constellation of well-known Ukrainian composers, as well as his public and aimed at cultural enlightenment work. Results and conclusions. For V. Borysov, stage of accumulation of professional and personal experience coincided in time with a turning point in development of Ukrainian musical art. In these years composer attended classes of S. S. Bogatyrov, forefather of Kharkiv composition school; he studied alongside with M. Koliada, H. Tumeneva, D. Klebanov, V. Barabashov, M. Tits, who constituted a brilliant generation of Ukrainian composers several decades later. Symphonic and chamber works of this time showed such features of V. Borysov’s creative method as large-scale thought, leaning towards epic and heroic images, skilful usage of advanced composition techniques. At the same time, under the influence of external factors V. Borysov turned to relevant genre of his time, such as mass song and choral music. As early as on the primary stage of his development as a composer, V. Borysov defined Ukrainian folklore as one of the main sources for his inspiration. Folklore component of musical language became one of the prominent features of his style, its presence is conspicuous on each stages of his evolution. Submission of individual to collective, national conditioned V. Borysov’s interest to monumental forms of symphony, oratorio, cantata, poem, defined their leading role through late style of composer’s creativity. Unique combination of already existing aesthetic premises, high level of moral imperative, relevance of musical language created phenomenon of “V. Borysov’s late style”. The article regards the most original works, which were received very well by the contemporaries: “Divertissement” for symphonic orchestra, “Music for strings”, concert compositions for piano, violin, viola, sets of piano miniatures, composed on late period (70s–80s). Singularity of musical language in these works is created by the fact that V. Borysov succeeded to create a unique mixture of folklore tradition with “sonic field” of avantgarde musical art; with this musical language incredibly relevant, “eternal” problems of existence are embodied. This article was inspired by a desire to draw attention to V. Borysov’s legacy, to revive profound and immensely talented works of the composer, to enrich culture of modernity with them, to remind people of XXI century about such a treasure, that his works are.

Late Style as Resistance in the Works of Edward Said, Mahmoud Darwish, and Mourid Barghouti

This chapter critically engages with Edward W. Said’s conceptualization of ‘Late Style’ in light of continued catastrophic occurrences in Palestine. It argues that a ‘lateness of beginnings’ represents the Palestinian intellectual’s deepest resistance against catastrophe, impending death, dispossession, and colonization. In the face of continued catastrophe, resistance in post-millennial Palestine is currently being reinvigorated by the creativity of new Palestinian generations, who have attained a metaphorical lateness by the very means of the repetition of the catastrophic. The chapter explores the reconfiguration of Late Style resistance in the works of Edward Said, Mahmoud Darwish, and Mourid Barghouti, arguing that these intellectuals’ works are important in foregrounding an oppositional criticism in the face of divisionist agendas at this most critical moment in the continuation of the Palestinian struggle.