On the synthetism of artistic thinking in Andrey Eshpai's symphonic painting "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps"

Dunaevskaya Alla PhD in Art History Associate Professor, Department of Music Theory, M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov State Music and Pedagogical Institute 109147, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Marksistskaya, 36 novalyo@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

The symphonic work of Andrei Eshpai– one of the greatest representatives of the national and world musical culture of the second half of the XX — beginning of the XXI century, is rich, multifaceted and amazes researchers and listeners with the volume of content, depth of feelings, emotions, experiences. The catalogue of the composer's symphonic compositions includes nine symphonies, symphonic compositions of other genres - Symphonic dances on Mari themes, "Hungarian melodies" for violin and orchestra, symphonic poem "Simon Bolivar", "Games" for a large symphony orchestra, symphonic painting "Dreams", Symphonic sketch, Etudes for orchestra in memory of V. Listova, "Fanfare", "Contours" for symphony orchestra, "Prelude" in memory of E. K. Golubev and other works. As E. Samoylenko rightly notes, Eshpai is a born master of the orchestra. "The brilliant orchestral flair, the desire to make each of the participants of the musical action sound, the enrichment of the musical fabric with new colors, the combination of theatrical relief and the amazing subtlety of orchestral writing fills every bar of his scores with meaning and beauty" ^{[1; p. 24]}.

Possessing an extraordinary talent and a sense of style, the composer continued the best traditions of Russian symphonism in his work. "I studied with Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky, who was the head of our school of composition – Russian, then Soviet," said Andrey Eshpai. – He is a student of Lyadov, Rimsky-Korsakov. And I caught him. I dedicated an organ passacaglia to his memory, which was performed in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. Then I studied with Evgeny Konstantinovich Golubev and Aram Ilyich Khachaturian, who were also his students. Myaskovsky famously said: "All you need is to be sincere, be passionate about art and lead your own line." And I want to continue this line in musical creativity" (from the conversation of the author of the article with the composer). The words of N. Ya. Myaskovsky was largely determined by the creative method of Eshpai, which was formed against the background of various, often contradictory trends characteristic of the Russian symphonic school of the second half of the XX-beginning of the XXI century. The diversity of the palette of symphonic compositions was created by the works of stylistically different authors - G. Ustvolskaya, S. Gubaidulina, A. Karamanov, A. Pyart, A. Schnittke, E. Denisov, R. Shchedrin, B. Tchaikovsky, S. Slonimsky, B. Tishchenko, as well as A. Tchaikovsky, V. Ekimovsky, N. Condorff, E. Podhaits and many others.

Eshpai's desire to lead his own line, "to express nature, but at the same time to find his own words" (from a conversation with the composer) was realized in many genres – songs, film music, chamber and choral opuses. However, it was in his symphonic work that he most fully revealed his attitude to life and the world, embodied deep philosophical ideas. Here the composer appeared as an author with an extraordinary mindset, idiosyncrasy and a "thirst for sound beauty" (B. Tchaikovsky).

It should be noted that in Eshpay's symphonic compositions, the general trend of modern artistic consciousness is expressively manifested, characterized by stylistic mobility, when the text no longer requires an exact correspondence to the genre prototype, but only some similarity with it is enough. Therefore, the individual interpretation of the genre comes to the fore, it becomes important to build a unique artistic system in a new way each time.

A striking example of an individual author's interpretation of the genre is the symphonic painting "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps". The work was written in 1996 under the impression of Eshpai's visit to the legendary place - the Saint-Gotthard Pass, marked by the brilliant victory of Russian weapons. Continuing the traditions of M. Glinka, M. Mussorgsky, P. Tchaikovsky, S. Rachmaninov, A. Borodin, S. Prokofiev, N. Cherepnin and other composers in the field of poetics of the symphonic painting genre, the composer creates a large-scale score reflecting the events of one of the most famous and unprecedented campaigns in the history of military art - the Swiss campaign of A. V. Suvorov in 1799. Andrei Yakovlevich showed a deep interest in the personality of Suvorov himself, studying the letters of the famous commander. "Suvorov highly appreciated the Swiss campaign. He had no defeats, but he saved the army there," Eshpai said admiringly (from a conversation with the composer).

It is important that the heroic theme has not attracted the attention of the master for the first time, having been embodied in the First and Second Symphonies, the Fourth Symphony-ballet and ballet "Circle" ("Remember!"), the Fifth Symphony, the symphonic painting "Simon Bolivar". Undoubtedly, Eshpai's interest in history, problems of society, creative attention to the themes of good and evil, viewed through the prism of peace and war, humanism, anxiety for the fate of human civilization was due to his active position as an artist and citizen. The heroic and tragic facts of his own life related to the Great Patriotic War had a special impact on him: "It is impossible to talk about the war in words, and those who did not participate in the battles will not know what it is. My Fifth Symphony is military, and the Second Symphony is "Praise the Light!". Music does not illustrate what has been lived, but it determines the view of life, people, and art" (from a conversation with the composer).

The genre naming itself indicates the specifics of the content and the form of organization of the musical material of the symphonic picture - it is the picturesqueness that acts as the main genre-forming factor here. Following the typology of N. Ya. Rybak ^[2], which analyzes the types of picturesqueness and techniques of their embodiment in music, we attribute the composition in question to a visual-plastic type that is close to a theatrical picture-a scene or a picture (in painting) aimed at transmitting movement. Additionally, we emphasize that the presence of signs of theatricality in the musical text reveals itself at the semantic, compositional, dramatic and intonational levels, while the very sound embodiment of movement types not only recreates figuratively concrete representations, but is also intended to be a representative of emotional states of the highest order. It should be noted that the desire to dramatize the genre is a phenomenon very characteristic of the poetics of Eshpay's symphonic compositions. For example, in the Fourth Symphony-ballet and the Fifth Symphony, the author also acts as a "director" who builds the plot. In this regard, in their texts, the means of musical language function, contributing to the concretization of figurative spheres to the degree of "personhood".

The fact that the theater acts as an intermediate code in the symphonic picture (Yu. Lotman) is also indicated by the extreme concretization of the content plan carried out by the work of the entire multilevel text system. Its important component is the programming, represented by several types, referring to the phenomena of historical and cultural memory, when, according to A. Warburg, art acts as a social organ of memory, serving to fix the past in the present ^[3]. These include the famous historical event, and the painting of the same name by V. I. Surikov "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps", to which the imagination of listeners rushes. "Imagine Suvorov's Crossing of the Alps by Surikov. This composition was also written in connection with this great personality," explained Andrey Eshpai (from a conversation with the composer).

In addition, the work is preceded by a program epigraph - a fragment of the text of a folk song about Suvorov's campaign across the Devil's Bridge, which not only contains a description of events, representing the space, color and differentiation of the heroes' actions, but also performs the function of the "main regulatory" (A. Losev) compositional modeling:

We went, climbed steep mountains,

Grabbed our heads under black clouds,

Almost turned over On the Devil's Bridge;

Without looking at the windy winter,

We thought One thought - to chase the villain on the trail

And with you, father, we were amused by the villain…

And we always glorify Suvorov with joy throughout all of Russia-our mother Throughout all of Russia.

To substantiate the above thesis, we present the compositional plan of the composition:

Section A· * introductory episode-landscape · "transition scene" · battle scene · scene- Tragic reflection

Section B: * triumphal scene It is important that the compositional logic that determines the "plot" of the composition is subordinated to two-phase: the dramatic events that accompanied the transition and the victorious triumph after it correspond to key words and phrases, a kind of semantic markers of the verbal text that translates the content into the musical text: · "let's go", "we climbed", "grabbed", "almost turned over" (transition scene); "chasing the villain"; "they were amused over the villain" (battle scene); · "steep mountains", "black clouds", "windy winter" (introductory landscape); · "with joy"; "all over Russia"; "We glorify Suvorov" - a triumphal scene.

To reach the level of semantics of a musical text, we proceed from M. G. Aranovsky's thesis that in order to understand the content of a text, it is necessary to interpret its components, that is, "to determine the quality and specificity of the meanings of text structures" ^{[4; p. 316]}. An attempt to analyze the structures and their meanings led us to the conclusion that the most powerful semantic potential in the text is possessed by detailed episodes-paintings, structurally designed and marked by changes in tempo, texture types and development techniques. The alternation of paintings also reveals similarities with theatrical dramaturgy. "Imitating the dynamic continuity of reality," notes Yu. M. Lotman, "the theater simultaneously splits it into segments, scenes, thereby isolating integral discrete units in its continuous flow. Within itself, such a unit is thought of as immanently closed, having a tendency to stop in time" ^{[5; p. 199]}.

It should be noted that at the heart of each picture is a certain language model that forms a bright, almost visible associativity. In this case, the term "language model" is understood by us as: "language education consisting of permanent elements united by a natural connection" ^{[6; p. 362]}.

The largest volume of text is occupied by models recreating paintings - "mass scenes". They are diverse in content - from dramatic battle episodes to pictures of military glory - a victorious procession and hymnal rejoicing. The basic language models here are those that are able to represent the kinetic activity, the powerful, volitional energy of the process, to recreate a wide-ranging space in which there are masses of people performing a single action. In this connection, we will also point to the special specific sound environment of these scenes, where the "density factor" (T. Krasnikova) comes to the fore. So, in the dramatic section A, it is implemented in crescendo forms based on diagonal filling of the textured space in the conditions of ostinatnost, dynamic modeling of textured plans. In section B, recreating the semantics of the victorious celebration, the density of the textural component is determined by the specifics of the genres of marching-anthemic orientation.

Let us turn to the analysis of the large-scale main section (A) of the symphonic picture (from c. 5). It occupies a central place in the composition of the composition and includes two plot-semantic phases, which we conditionally called the "episode of transition" and the "episode of battle". Both of them are filled with tragedy and are associated with the greatest exertion of physical and spiritual strength, courage and perseverance. The sound space of these episodes is subordinated to the wave-like graphics associated with the ascent. Thus, the "transition episode" contains two waves of varying degrees of intensity: in the first of them, the ostinate activity occurs against the background of the vibrating sound of the polyinterval structures of strings and French horns, which "electrify" the space with an ascending chromatic movement and a reduction in length. The moment of climax (c. 9) is associated with the diagonal expansion of the range of timbres of woodwind, including "screaming" piccolo flutes. The second wave (from ts. 10) symbolizes the following - an even more rapid attempt at ascent: here, the filling of space and the achievement of the sound of tutti also occurs diagonally, but it is more concentrated due to the imitation multiplication of tritone-chromatic intonations, against which in various layers of the texture, invocative, emphatically articulated terse "calls" are heard, sounding alternately in double basses, clarinets, timpani, and reaching an extreme degree of tension in the string group.

We emphasize that the "episode of transition" is marked by the heavy ostinate tread of low pizzicato strings and bassoons, amplified by timpani and harp sounds. The intonation content of ostinato changes in the process of development - from the combinatorics of chromatically "broken" cells combined into fractional syntagmas of iambic structure, transmitting by their upward striving and constant return to the original sound points ("e", "f" of the big octave) incredible efforts and tragic heaviness of what is happening, to the sweeping, heavy continuous tread of small non, sounding both diachronically and synchronously in the counterpoint of the ostinate lines.

When approaching the second climax (2 bars to c. 12) ostinato becomes the rhythmic core of the ascending quarto "arrows" of strings, rapidly capturing the range of first one and a half octaves, and then – by chromatic "efforts" - in two, transmitting the maximum voltage.

The "Battle Episode" (from c. 17), which develops in the context of continuous dynamic growth, is also based on the "textured foundation" of ostinato, which creates a violently dynamic pulsation: this is the uniform, harsh chanting of tutti clusters of the orchestra with the "whistles" of piccolo flutes at the top, turning into a syncopated tempo rhythm of the jump; and the continuous drum roll (snare drum), the thundering beats of timpani, the feverish vibration of a string group with tritonic-chromatic "coordinates" of motifs.

Section B has a completely different, contrasting sound environment - the final victorious and jubilant mass scene (starting from c. 46), created by the composer in the best traditions of Russian ceremonial military marches with their strictly measured tempo, metrorhythmic elasticity, energetic melody.

Schaplock rightly notes the phenomenon of the march, which was originally formed as an applied genre in the Russian army, in stage and concert music, as well as in the symphony: "It can be found in the works of Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Myaskovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Kabalevsky and other composers" ^{[7; p. 14]}. For Eshpai, the semantics of the parade march, as well as the bell-hymn solemnity in the finale of the symphonic picture became necessary for the embodiment of the victorious outcome of the military campaign. The combination of timbres of brass and percussion groups fully recreates the sound of a military brass band.

The basis of the formation here is the alternation of thematic episodes saturated with bravura marching melodies, the intonation profile of which is determined by the framework of classical tonality (E-dur, A-dur, Es-dur), complemented by modal colors of Dorian, Mixolydian frets, polytonal compounds. Moreover, the general development again has a crescendo vector directed to two culminating peaks, framed in the form of quotations - a kind of musical emblems symbolizing patriotism and love for the Fatherland - the theme of the chorus "Hail from Glinka's opera "Life for the Tsar" (c. 58) and the theme from P. Tchaikovsky's Solemn Overture "1812" (c. 59).

Symbolic significance also acquires the inclusion in the text of the finale of two more quotes - a version of the Swiss folk song and a song about Suvorov, designed not only to "build" the plot, emphasize the color of the place and the general jubilant mood, but also to create a dialogue of times, suggesting the spiritual connection of the author with the heroic events he describes. So, the Swiss folk song is fervent, jokingly mechanical in its repetitions sounds at the trumpet (with ts. 47), "arguing" in counterpoint with the melodic phrase of the song about Suvorov within the framework of the E-dur-G-dur polytonality on a dissonant ostinate background for strings, also intonationally oriented to polytonal synthesis. And in a holistic heroic appearance, the theme of the song about Suvorov will appear with the c. 51, in the episode with the remark Marciale. It is proclaimed in G-dur by trumpets, texturally multiplying in woodwinds and reaching maximum power due to the dense chord ostinato of the entire orchestra, asserting tonic harmony.

Let us turn to the analysis of the language model of the text, characteristic of a different type of paintings, namely, landscape paintings, whose compositional and dramatic role consists in framing the main event, creating a common emotional background. An important way to concretize the content plan, the formation of "areas of the highest semantic concentration" (M. Aranovsky) here also becomes conceptual and musical symbolism based on the "recollection" of genre and style.

The expressive possibilities of various cultural languages: everyday and sacred genres, stylistic phenomena of ancient Western European, Old Russian, Mari and modern music are actively used by the author in all symphonic compositions. Russian Russian folk song, as well as the Orthodox znamenny chant, which would create a bright national flavor, and the orchestral "imitation" of bell sounds would cause sacral and ethical associations, being a sign of spirituality and sorrow, were necessary for him here, in accordance with the plot.

In addition, an important property of this language model is a different representation of space-time, when a sense of breadth, volume, and silence is formed with the help of appropriate textural and timbre means. These include ostinato: continuous, understood as a long-sustained sound or consonance; formant, based on the pulsation of sounds or consonances, polyostinato can also be used, associated with the integration of various ostinate complexes vertically. The emotional "core" is usually concentrated in thematic formations of relief, where solo instruments or an orchestral group, more often stringed and woodwind "sing" melodies in the style of "long" Russian songs. The textured details of the sound fabric symbolize the slow passage of time, which switches the associative mechanisms of perception into the field of contemplation.

These are two themes that are amazing in their beauty – the theme of the introduction and the main theme, which sound at the beginning of the symphonic picture. Following one after another, they paint a landscape saturated with gloomy colors. It is symbolic that both topics do not fully realize the significant potential for development inherent in them, each time leaving a feeling of understatement. Thus, the theme of the introduction, variably unfolding in a parallel-variable fret (As-f), is colored by the muted (p) matte timbres of the clarinet duet against the background of a continuum of violas and dots-pizzicato harps. However, its flexible melodic relief unexpectedly "dissolves" in the vaguely tense chromatic rotation of three-tone chord complexes of strings in a high register, creating an atmosphere of unconscious fear with their infernal sound.

The main theme, also close to the Russian folk drawl song, is played by the strings from c. 1 in a three-part reprise form, the architectonics of which emphasizes the isolation and thematic significance of the material. The sound fabric of the extreme sections is an ornamental (according to T. Bershadskaya), variably updated song score, where the timbres of the strings prevail with their aching twilight of minor scale colors (e-moll) and softness, weighted by the organ point "e" of the large octave of the double basses. In the middle section, which is emotionally more excited, the textured space, gradually increasing the volume of sound, is filled with the timbres of the solo oboe and strings, sequentially replicating the melody and octave multiplying the sound. As a result, there is a tense climax, where weeping chants in the upper voices and mournful descending moves in the lower ones outline the "contour" for dramatic chord filling - VI - VI/2 - DD/6 - umVII/ 64 - t/6.

Subsequently, the theme will reveal a colossal semantic charge, becoming the main character of the symphonic picture and being present in the text at key moments. Her transformational poetics defines states-"reactions" to the events taking place, as, for example, in the episode Maestoso (from c. 14) – the dramatic peak of section A or in the episode Maestoso (c. 33), located at the end of the same section, where the theme reveals a powerful heroic-dramatic expression.

It is significant that in episode c. 14, the sub-vocality is transformed into a chord of bell beats. With the help of a special organization of sound fabric aimed at recreating the sound of bells, the composer achieves the effect of "physical vibrations and air waves" (V. Ilyin) as vividly as it happened, for example, in his Third and Eighth Symphonies dedicated to the memory of his father, Yakov Eshpai. In this episode, the use of characteristic techniques of rhythmic, textured and harmonic ostinato, phonism of the percussion group (timpani, cymbals and bells), timbre-phonic chord complexes of major, reduced and enlarged structure, formed within the framework of the variability of e-Mixolydian and e-natural modes, complicated by chromatic coloring of the V stage, contributes to the creation of a special ringing spatiality.b-h). The combination of multiple repetitions of short accented melodic formulas in a woodwind group (piccolo flutes, flutes, oboes, clarinets) of pipes, and heavy "beats" of bassoons, tubas, trombones and low strings with a lower support "e" and a descending chromatic stroke (h-b-a-as) also gives a ringing phonica referring to the images of death-suffering.

Another expressive landscape-reflection is located after the "battle scene" (starting from c. 28). It is filled with feelings of the deepest sorrow for the dead and reveals many states - from impotence and humility to tragic anguish and memories of past difficult events. The perspective of figurative-thematic transformations is provided here by the presence of a single intonation core - a melodic complex of the singing structure, which remains invariably recognizable, thanks to the quart range and combinatorics of characteristic songs (I-II-I; I-II-III; I-VII-I), but variably changing its fret profile, revealing the whole tone, minor, Phrygian modes, and when the melodic range is expanded, it acquires the colors of the Dorian fret.

The structure of space is also indicative: this is also a discharged, "hollow" sound canvas based on a minimum of textured elements, such as, for example, at the beginning of the episode, where, against the background of a muted (p) frozen pedal of a large major seventh chord with a side tone, mystical third wanderings of minor and reduced harmonies, the basis for which is the descending chromatic profile of deep basses (cellos, double basses) echo-like calls of two flutes and a French horn sound in a whole-tone mode, conveying a state of tragic frustration. Or, as in the section after c. 30 (Pesante), where in the mournful "organ" sound of the octave unisons of brass wind instruments against the background of an ostinate sound line with a quart base and funeral bell strokes, a theme close to Orthodox funeral hymns sounds, in particular, for example, to the "Canon of the Deceased" from the everyday Funeral hymns (voice 6). Intonational affinity is found in the lado-ordinal basis d.e.fis.g.a with the abutment "e". It is characteristic that the composer has already used this theme, revealing mourning semantics, in the Fourth Symphony (see ts. 101), where it appeared in the same timbre lighting - in the unison of brass wind instruments against the background of the pedal of low strings and "cold" reflections of the xylophone, but in a different high-altitude arrangement - g. a. h. c. d with the center "a".

Translucent mystical sound color is created by textured formations, starting from c. 32: for example, tonic quintaccords in A minor for strings, multiplied in space and accompanied by tom-tom and harp sounds - they harmoniously support the mournful "lullaby" melody of the upper voice; or whole-tone clusters in brass instruments, which are a dissonant foundation of the echoes of trumpet calls.

So, the analysis of the language models underlying the dramaturgical units of the text - episodes-paintings confirms the presence of theatricality as a significant genre-forming factor of the symphonic picture. In addition, the antinomic nature of language models was revealed, which in combination with other factors – transformational poetics, the high-wave principle of development allows us to assert that the compositional and dramatic solution of the composition is not limited to picturesqueness with its inherent principles of contemplation, "stopping at the moment", and the symphonic mechanism is actively included in the development.

In the aggregate, a multi-element (multiple) dramaturgy appears (according to V. Bobrovsky) ^{[8; p. 64]}, indicating the synthetism of the composer's thinking of the author. Similar projects of the artistic world based on "dramatic alloys" were noted by I. Nikolskaya in the works of S. Slonimsky, R. Ledenev, B. Tchaikovsky, Y. Butsko and other composers. The researcher connects them "with the large-scale revival of domestic traditions" ^{[9; p.41]}. With regard to the symphonic painting "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps", this thesis is fully relevant.