Semantics of literary-textual sources in polyphonic works for a cappella chorus by the Russian composers of the late XX – early XXI centuries

Koshkareva Natalya Vladimirovna PhD in Art History Professor, Head of the Department of Conducting an Academic Chorus, State Musical and Pedagogical Institute named after M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov 109147 Marksistskaya street, Moscow, 109147 Russian Federation nkoshkarevav.@gmail.com Other publications by this author

A close study of the issues related to the architectonics of modern choral composition is due not only to the general artistic and historical potential of choral culture as a whole, but also especially its great importance in modern musical art. Since the second half of the twentieth century, works devoted to the theoretical understanding of choral works from the point of view of the interaction of word and music have been published. First of all, we will name the books: "Word and music in vocal and dramatic genres" by A. Ogolevets ^[1], "Analysis of choral works" by K. Dmitrevskaya ^[2], "Vocal forms in the course of analysis of musical works" by I. Lavrentieva ^[3], "Music and poetic Word" by V. Vasina-Grossman ^{[4, 5]}, "Word and Music: Dialectics of semantic connections" by I. Stepanova ^[6]. The analysis of harmony, taking into account the peculiarities of the text-musical form, is presented by Yu. Kholopov, who also introduces the term "text-musical form" in Russia ^[7]. At the beginning of the XXI century, the fundamental work of V. Kholopova – "Forms of musical works" ? appears, where attention is focused on the fact that "vocal musical forms require their own method of analysis <...> Capturing the meaning of words, it becomes a method of analyzing the entire vocal composition as a whole" ^{[8, pp. 13-14]}. In continuation of this idea, young researchers present works directly devoted to the interaction of musical and verbal series: "Theoretical problems of text-musical form"G. Rymko ^[9] and "Musical allegory in the choral work of S.I. Taneyev" by V. Tereshchenko ^[10]. In addition, a number of scientific studies concerning choral music touch upon the synergism of words and music among the leading aspects: "Choral composition in modern Russian music" by N. Koshkareva ^[11] and "Choral vocalization in Russian music: genre and style features" by V. Krasov ^[12]. A bright event was the publication of G. Grigorieva's textbook "Musical Forms in S.I. Taneyev's choirs" ^[13]. In the proposed manual, using the example of choral music by S. Taneyev, the methodology for analyzing works of the choral genre is clarified, recommendations are given for analyzing the syntactic structures of the poetic text and music, the characteristic features of vocal forms typical not only for this composer, but also for many others are considered. In addition, interesting examples of scientific theories are associated with the development of this problem in the field of philology, for example, "The polyphony of the word in a literary text: based on the work of J. Joyce's "Dubliners"" by A. Golovkina ^[14], as well as the synthesis of philology and art criticism ? "Choral Vocalism and Monovocalism" by V. Krasov ^[15] and "Music as a Constant of Russian Literature" by I. Stepanova ^[16].

The value of these works lies in the deepening and refinement of the methods of analysis of choral works based on the synthesis of two arts – poetry and music, both figuratively and emotionally, and in the field of constructive. Continuing this line, in this article the object of analysis are polyphonic works for a cappella choir by Russian composers of the second half of the XX ? beginning of the XXI centuries. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that the content of polyphonic compositions and the method of the composer's treatment with the structure of the literary and textual source are determined. The hypothesis is argued that the interrelation of literary and musical texts lies in their flexible mutual influence. On the one hand, the poetic source influences the structure of the polyphonic form, on the other hand, the artistic word itself, immersed in the context of the polyphonic texture, acquires new semantic facets. The algorithm of the evidence base will follow from more general positions (text-musical forms of motets and madrigals), to particular ones ? one poetic stanza, one line, one word in choral fugatos and fugues. An interesting case is the use of separate syllables and phonemes (preludes and fugue vocalizations) as a textual basis for the polyphonic composition.

Choral composition in its typical form appears as the result of the interaction of the characteristic features of two arts – music and literary word. Each of these arts brings to the choral work not only the power of its content resources, but also aspects of shaping. If the changeable, "associative" aspect of poetry tends to liberate music from the rigor of refined and typed structures and schemes, then the rhythmically organized form of a literary text directly affects the structure of the musical form. The complex dialectical interaction of constructive and destructive formants of the architectonics of the musical form of a choral composition can be expressed in relief and in various ways. Let us turn to the attribution of the polyphonic genres of motet, madrigal, fugue, fugato in works for a cappella choir, differentiating the structure of the literary and textual source.

The most common literary basis of a choral work is the complete version of the poem (sometimes composers exclude one or even several stanzas). This allows us to fully reflect the meaning of poetry, the features of its plot-plot structure. In the context of polyphonic genres, especially madrigals and motets, we can talk about musical architectonics, the specifics of which are determined by the structure of the poetic text, that is, the text-musical form. For example, in the "Madrigal" by A. Korolev on the poems of A. Blok, the writing technique is focused on a strict polyphonic style. The symbolism of A. Blok is consonant with madrigal poetry, singing the ideal image, an unattainable dream. The poetic structure is quite loose. It consists of two six-verses. The musical material, following the poetic source, is saturated with a variety of themes. For each eight-syllable line of the poem, A. Korolev composes a separate small theme (V. Protopopov) or soggetto in the spirit of the interpretation of the theme in the XVI century, which gives the work maximum saturation and variety, leading to a through form. Thanks to the repetition of the first minor theme at the end of the work, the effect of reprise is created. But, as was often the case in the "madrigal form", the final section does not always repeat the material literally. So here, too, the initial musical phrase is carried out in a crustacean inversion (the part of basses and tenors is bar 16). At the end of each of the six musical stanzas, a cadence construction is given, accompanied by a rhythmic stop (the only exception is the completion of the fourth stanza, merging with the beginning of the fifth). This was typical of Renaissance madrigals. The final constructions are quite lengthy, represent chains of concords (polyphonic consonances) and are written in the technique of monorhythmic counterpoint (contrapunctus simplex). Such constructions can be compared with ellipses in the poetry of symbolists.

The motet form becomes the key to the solution of the chorus "The Swan, the Crab and the Pike" by A. Grechaninov to the text of the fable by I. Krylov ^[17]. The high art of composition of the work, the birth of a new genre ? musical fable, is manifested in the fact that "the actions of the characters are symbolized by the independence of the voices of the polyphonic fabric" ^{[18, p. 342]}. So already at the very beginning of the composition, in the first two bars (A. Grechaninov skips the first three lines of the poetic text), an endless canon sounds, where the propost is represented in the soprano and viola parts (duplicates in thirds), and the rispost is in the tenor part, ending in the words together, three (in the eighth bar) with a symbolic homophonic-harmonic construction. The second part of a complex three-part reprise form begins with a four-voice fugato (they climb out of their skin). After the second holding of the theme and the answer, there is an interlude with canonical sequences in all choral parts except the bass (25-30 tt.). After long imitation calls, the voices are combined in a homophonic-harmonic sound.

In the second section of this part, in the words and the cart is still not running, the stuck cart is transformed — "trampling on the spot" semitones a –gis in the bass part becomes the background for the main theme in the three remaining choral parts. Interestingly, such an arrangement of musical material is unstable. In the following phrase, the initial background is transposed from the bass part to the soprano and tenor parts, and the melody is transferred to the viola part (42-43 tt.).

The third section begins with a new material — a stretch of a new topic on the words "The luggage would seem easy for them." In the key of D-dur, all the characters are depicted by graphic means of choral texture: Swan — a chord texture, a romantic-lyrical melodic line directed upwards (tt.49-52); Cancer — an imitation of a descending seconds broken movement (tt.53-57); Pike — a melodic line of contrasting structure: the word "pulls" omuzykaleno an ascending stroke, which suddenly ends with a jump down by a clear octave on the words "into the water", leading to a choral unison on the sound of cis (tt.58-62).

The reprise sounds in the key of Fis-dur. The canon from which the chorus began is presented in an abbreviated form, leading to the climax, which contains the final phrase of the fable, which became the winged expression "And who is there now!" Following the poetic text, A. Grechaninov highlights the final words with a homophonic-harmonic warehouse of the choral texture, subsequently approving them with a five-fold imitation in all voices (alto-bass-tenor-soprano-bass) and a solemn chord of triad Fis-dur.

One stanza of a literary text is often used by composers to write fugato (expositional or developmental type). For example, in the fugato of the exposition type of the choir "Executed" by D. Shostakovich, the initial stanza of the poem of the same name by A. Gmyrev was laid down: "In this cell, two wrestlers lived out their last days in a dreary and stuffy cell." In general, the theme forms a nine-beat period (4 bars + 5 bars), but its internal structure is polyphonic. The one-voice introduction of the bass part resembles the beginning of a fugue. This is emphasized by the traditional reliance of the theme elements on the quart framework. The interval range of the theme seems to be squeezed "into the teski" of a small sexta. The introduction of tenors with a tonal response turns into a "dialogue" of two male voices, which changes the perception of the one-voice beginning from the fugated to the beginning of a Russian song in a natural minor characteristic of folklore. I. Kuznetsov notes that "this form of melodic formation of the theme in Shostakovich contains features that are related to both Western and Russian polyphony" ^{[19, p. 132]}. The subsequent intros of the altos and sopranos are constructed similarly to male voices. In general, the use of fugato allows you to "draw" a musical picture of the limited space of a prison cell. A different wash in the fugato of the developing type is laid down in the first part of the concert for the chorus of Yu. Yevgrafov "Proverbs in C". Here, the four-fold holding of the theme "The joy of a person is in the answer of his mouth, and how well the word is in time" seems to strengthen the strength and spirit of the singers. V. Shebalin's polyphony almost always acts as an active, effective beginning in the dramaturgy of the work. The fugato of the developing type in the chorus "The Grave of the Fighter" to the poems of M. Lermontov (Op. 47, No. 1) concentrates chromatic intonation-unstable turns that create an atmosphere of anxious foreboding, excitement: "And the cheeks of the dead are pale, as the face of his enemies paled when he appeared alone, alone among their ranks."

One line, in many cases, is clothed in the form of a choral fugue. As an example, consider the vocalization "Willow, willow" by R. Shchedrin, where syntagma acts as the verbal basis of the composition. According to V. Krasov, "the introduction as a literary text of only a brief verbal turnover, repeated many times in whole or in parts, concisely concretizes the semantic subtext of music, although it does not give grounds for its figurative and unambiguous interpretation" ^{[12, pp. 93-101]}. There is no development of action in the text itself, which leads to the expansion of figurative-associative connections. So the willow becomes both a symbol of sadness and strength, more broadly — with Russian nature, with Russia with centuries-old cultural traditions. Thus, a fairly short verbal text acquires a multi-parameter meaning in the form of a fugue.

It is interesting to use individual syllables of the text and solmization in polyphonic works for a cappella choir ^{[12, p.83]}. This technique introduces an instrumental element into vocal forms, which often leads to the birth of a sonorous texture. Examples are preludes and fugue vocalizations by V. Barkauskas, Ya. Ivanov, T. Korganov, Yu. Falik. As an example, consider T. Korganov's "Prelude and Fugue C-dur". The composer gives different options for singing preludes and fugues in the instructions: the composition can be solfedged or sung to any convenient syllables. The prelude immediately sets up a cheerful mode, which will be preserved throughout this small polyphonic cycle. The prelude anticipates the fugue in many ways: first of all, in structure, since it contains features of the fugue. This is expressed in the fact that the author uses a one-voice theme, bright and recognizable, passing throughout the prelude, in different voices. In addition, the author works with the theme according to the law of the fugue genre: he uses such techniques as inversions (vol. 49) and the sound of the theme in another voice, the inversion of the main theme (vol. 49), the sound of the main theme and its inversion in another part at the same time. Thanks to various touches (at the beginning — marcato, then — legato), the theme changes its character from the rollicking character of folk dance to the character of a lyrical drawl song. The classical single-tone three-part fugue is written in the classical-romantic traditions with characteristic types of counterpoint: the theme in the bass part (vol.32), which allows the melody to sound more solemn, the inversion technique in the soprano part (vol.19) allows you to come to the finale of the fugue, allowing doubling and vertically reversible counterpoints. The main stretta testifies to the polyphonic skill of the composer and gives the character of the fugue a scherzo.

In variations on basso-ostinato in the chorus "Thermometers that have fallen to zero" from the choral oratorio by Yu. Yevgrafov "Autumn Cry of the Hawk", one syllable "bom" is used, a typical element symbolizing bell-ringing in Russian music.

There are polyphonic choral works where composers do not use literary text at all. It is replaced by a phoneme or syllable. This refers to vocalizations for the choir. Such an example is the fugato in the Prologue of the choral oratorio to the poems of I. Brodsky "The Autumn Cry of the Hawk" and the Epigraph from the choral concert to the texts of V. Shalamov "Children's Literature" by Yu. Evgrafov. In the latter case, the conductor decides independently which sounds the choir should exhibit. A lot depends on the choice here: the associative series can be limitless.

Thus, polyphonic genres present ample opportunities for a sufficiently relief reflection of the structure of a literary and textual source in choral music. First of all, this is achieved due to the possibility of repeated repetition of the same words (or phrases) in imitating voices. Note that imitation polyphony is characterized, on the one hand, by the expression of the most generalized ideas, on the other ? by purely private sound-imaginative episodes. Both of these extreme cases are equally far from consistent disclosure of a detailed literary plot. It is not by chance that the verbal range of most choral fugues and fugatos is limited to a minimum of phrases or even words, and sometimes completely absent. If the composer aims to achieve a really audible embodiment of a fairly detailed verbal text, then he usually uses various textual and musical forms (motet, madrigal). Summarizing what has been said about the formative and figurative-semantic functions of choral polyphony, it should be noted that in the field of musical form, it acts primarily as a factor of complication of details and dynamization of the structural process, and from the field of verbal content – as a parameter for identifying the main idea, generalization, expansion of the semantics of a literary-textual source. However, very far-reaching generalizations, the concentration of expression of the leading idea of a poetic text has its logical limit of switching the listener's attention from the textual sphere to the purely musical sphere in the course of artistic discourse. Sooner or later, there may come a time when few and often repeated words almost fall out of the field of hearing, cease to attract attention.

Summing up, we emphasize that in the musical-theoretical analysis it is important to determine the content of choral compositions and the method of the composer's treatment of the structure of the text source ^[20]. The whole poem can be taken as the basis of polyphonic works (text-musical forms of motets and madrigals are an example), one stanza, one line, one word (the analysis of fugato and fugue becomes the evidence base). An interesting case is the use of separate syllables and phonemes (preludes and fugues–vocalises) as a textual basis for polyphonic composition, as well as "silent" performance — with a closed mouth. It can be concluded that, on the one hand, a literary text influences the choice of a polyphonic form, on the other hand, a text that is often static and has no external plot development in the context of polyphonic dramaturgy and form acquires internal dynamics of development and expands its semantic field.