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Reference:

"Epic sound patterns": sonata for harp No. 2 by Valery Kikta in the light of the peculiarities of the genre

Aldakov Il'ya Andreevich

Postgraduate student, Department of Music Theory, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music

121069, Russia, Moskva oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Povarskaya, 30/36

ialdakov@gmail.com

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8744.2022.3.38007

Received:

05-05-2022


Published:

27-05-2022


Abstract: This article examines the sonata for solo harp No. 2 "Epic sound patterns" by Valery Kikta in order to identify the genre features that form the basis of the artistic task. The Russian harp school has passed its own path of formation and has a recognized authority. Despite this fact, compositions for solo harp in the works of modern Russian authors are quite rare. Valery Kikta became one of the composers seeking to revive interest in the national harp art and advocating the preservation of tradition. His main achievement in this field is not only in the creation of new music, firmly included in the performing and concert repertoire, but also participation in the organization of the Russian Harp Society. The three iconic characteristics of the composition analyzed by the author of the article – genre, timbre and fret – made it possible to define a work of musical art as a text that can be deciphered. In the process of work, special attention is paid to the detailed characteristics of traditional and innovative ways of working with the material. Special emphasis is placed on the search for links with the Russian school of composition and its characteristic reliance on national culture. The semiosis of the sonata and its constituent expressive features of the musical language are determined. The symbolism of the epic in combination with the software component announced by the author made it possible to discover the "message" contained in it.


Keywords:

Kikta, sonata, harp, epic, semiotics, semiosis, folklore, sonata form, mode, tradition

This article is automatically translated.

This article is devoted to one of the most significant harp works by Valery Kikta. Kikta is a well–known Russian and Ukrainian composer, professor at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory and the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, author of over three hundred works covering almost the entire spectrum of musical genres. Our appeal to this work is due to the composer's skill in using traditional means to convincingly recreate the sound of an ancient musical environment. In this case, we associate the concept of genre not so much with a sonata as with the imposition of epic content on a certain type of instrumental piece. The main attention, therefore, is focused on the genre of the epic.

Valery Kikta's creativity attracts many researchers who are trying to understand, among other things, how a completely "traditional" composer is able to create an innovative and bright-sounding work every time. Especially often people turn to his music when they want to study the timbre nature of compositions. Thus, E. Nikolaeva, the author of the first monograph devoted to the music of Kikta, focuses on "discoveries in the timbrospace sphere" [1, p. 29], in particular, on the use of timbre resources of the harp [1, p. 28]. M. Tsukanova, the subject of analysis of which was the composer's choral music, notes the resulting chorus as a timbre unit "an exceptional "culture of sound", which allows the author to create "sound fields" rich in overtones by small quantitative means" [2, p. 71]. N. Gulyanitskaya's essays define the significant role of timbre as one of the parameters included in the circle of particularly significant for Kikta [3, p. 146], and timbre intonation, which creates a "special sound world" of the composer's music [4, p. 271].

So, in the center of our attention is the Sonata for harp No. 2 "Epic sound patterns" by Valery Kikta, which fully reflects the creative aesthetics and musical style settings of the composer. The composition is notable for the fact that the harp is one of the instruments in Kikta's timbre set, to which he addresses with a special feeling. The author uses the possibilities of the harp as a solo and ensemble instrument, as well as as an instrument that adds a unique color to the palette of symphonic music. Impressed by the playing of O. Erdely, V. Dulova, at the request and with the help of O. Voschak, the first opuses for this instrument appeared (V. Kikta's first work for harp, the suite "Ossian", was written in 1968 and dedicated to O. Voschak). Kikta is the author of a unique "Scottish" concerto for two harps (2000).

Currently, Kikta is a member of the Russian Harp Society, organized by him in 2004 together with V. Ulyanich and N. Shameeva with the aim of promoting Russian harp art. Thanks to the activities of the society, harp compositions by such contemporary composers as V. Kikta, V. Ulyanich, I. Kainova, K. Volkov, D. Polevaya, O. Evstratova, S. Chechetko appear. Nika Ryabchinenko, the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, and other well-known harpists provide great assistance in the life of the festival.

One of the reasons for the birth of the sonata for solo harp "Epic Sound Patterns" (1982) is the composer's desire to resist the irrevocable extinction and transformation into an amateur performance of age-old traditions, which received a rapid pace at the beginning of the XX century. The Kikta Sonata is a one–part composition based on folklore themes collected in the 1970s in the Arkhangelsk region. One of the first performers of the work were T. Tower, as well as V. Dulova. It was with an eye on the virtuoso performing style of Dulova (playing octaves, tremolo, trills, etc.) that the composer built the edition of the sonata in which it currently exists.

Valery Kikty's richness of genre diversity includes works for orchestra, works for chamber ensembles and solo instruments, choral and vocal works, stage works. They are represented by such genre varieties as a symphony, a concert (instrumental, vocal and vocal-instrumental), a concert symphony, a concert suite, a short story concert, a concert piece, a symphonic chronicle, ballet and music for performances, a rhapsody (instrumental), an oratorio, an oratorical chronicle, a poem (instrumental, vocal and vocal-instrumental), cantata, liturgy, other vocal and instrumental cycles, ballad (vocal), choirs (accompanied by instruments and a cappella), as well as quartet, sonata, sonatina, fantasy, cadenza, and other chamber compositions.

V. Kikta's music for films and theatrical productions, works for chamber ensembles and solo instruments have undoubted artistic significance. The composer pays great attention to the orchestra of Russian folk instruments and the harp and organ, deprived of the attention of modern composers.

In the context of genre diversity, the instrument occupies a particularly important place. From the point of view of referring to the colorfulness of the harp, we will quote the composer's statement, where he notes that the timbres to which he refers give the individuality of the "figurative-artistic world" of each of his compositions. This is especially evident in his works written after the 2000s, where Kikta increasingly tends to the genre of instrumental concert, each subsequent concert presents its own solo timbre. He seeks to show the diversity of one solo instrument, its technical, tonal, textural features to delineate the circle of figurative and artistic embodiments of this instrument.

This is a one-of-a-kind Concert for four types of flutes "Volynsky naigrysh" (2001, ed. 2013), where each of the four parts of the cycle is marked by a change of timbre color in accordance with the program (the cycle is built according to the type of "Seasons": spring, summer, autumn, winter), and a Concert for oboe (English horn) No. 4 "Elegies of morning and night mists" (2008), in which the juxtaposition of two artistic and figurative spheres is realized, including with the help of timbre. Two concerts "in memoriam" deserve special attention – a lamento concert for the balalaika "At the Gates of Paradise" (2012) in memory of conductor N. Nekrasov and "Concerto-misterioso" for bassoon (2019), an author's bow to bassoonist A. Kozhevnikov. The musical space of these compositions is organized on the basis of instrumental features directly related to the personality of the objects of dedication.

The Kikta sonata, although it has a name that prepares the listener for a certain degree of programming of this music, but it does not contain a direct literary or other basis. By giving a title, but without presenting additional means for recognizing a musical text, its creator fixes an incomplete, incomplete creation, which especially needs the reader to be realized – to be interpreted [5, p. 132]. Thus, a piece of music is closed from the point of view of completeness and open from the point of view of interpretation. At the same time, there is an independent listening or performing interpretation of a musical text in the conditions of its own conditionality. At the same time, a special space-time field is revealed in which "the work and the world depicted in it enter the real world and enrich it, and the real world enters the work and the world depicted in it both in the process of its creation and in the process of its subsequent life in the constant updating of the work in the creative perception of listeners -readers" [6, p. 402].

Most of Kikta's compositions have a program. As a rule, it is expressed by a concise title referring to the facts of the surrounding reality that inspired the composer. E. Savkina emphasizes a special way of building a dialogue with the listener in this way. It "allows <...> to be involved in the action, but at the same time the author does not seek to fully convey the "picture", leaving the vision more "generalized", thereby giving the opportunity to join and "feel" the idea" [7, p. 39].

The epicness and modality referred to by the composer in the title of the sonata opens up a structural level that helps to interpret it. As a result, "Epic sound sequences", as an "open text" [8], give two characteristics, two musical codes that act as interpretants [9] and form complex internal connections: genre and medium.

By itself, the epic, like almost any genre of folk art, is the embodiment of tradition, and the epic–maker is its successor. In this case, he differs from the composer only in the degree of freedom invested in it. The folk storyteller relies more on tradition than his own creative potential. In this regard, according to the conclusion of Y.M. Lotman in the field of narrative texts, "the narrator resembles a weaver who can choose and vary patterns without going beyond the technical capabilities of the machine, forming, as it were, the potential sum of everything he can do" [10, p. 16]. The composer, on the contrary, contributes mainly an element of his personality, since in the act of creation "the share of personal author's creativity should be attributed only to the choice of certain elements, their combination, variation within certain limits of generally accepted patterns, the transfer of some traditional elements to other systems, etc." [11, p. 21].

From the point of view of the genre, the reference to the epic informs about the general features formed in the work of previous generations. A sufficient number of Russian masters turned to the epic. It is enough to recall M.I. Glinka (opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila") and the composers of the next generation – A.P. Borodin (Symphony No. 2 "Bogatyrskaya"), N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov (opera "Sadko"). The musical tradition of the epic accompanied the work of Soviet authors, such as R.M. Glier (Symphony "Ilya Muromets"), A.T. Grechaninov (opera "Dobrynya Nikitich"), etc.

All of them, in turn, as well as the Kikta, rely on such features contained in the tradition and typical for the symbolism of the epic, as the narrative nature of the presentation, wide chant, slowness and regularity of movement, declamation expressed in second-third intonations within narrow limits. In addition, the sonata of Kikta is characterized by the improvisational-variational nature of the musical text, melodic lines structuring the length of phrases and variable meter, helping to avoid monotony and giving flexibility to the narrative style. As a result, there is a convergence of two sign systems: speech and music. At the same time, the composer manages to turn the plane of a typical rehearsal theme for an epic song into an extraordinary technique, with the help of which the deployment of the content of several hundred lines always achieved heightened artistic communication, contributed to the management of the mood of listeners.  All the listed signs of the genre indicate the author's desire to bring the general sound closer to the original epic.

Shaping becomes an important aspect of musical language. The composer uses the traditional sonata form with an episode instead of a development, with its constituent elements lined up in a row, giving one of the foundations and an impetus to dramatic development. Within the form, the Kikta deviates from the classical relations of tonalities, replacing the dominant and parallel tonalities with their eponymous ones. As a result, the overall tonal plan gets a variety of shades thanks to the colors of the major-minor. The structure is based on a contrasting alternation of alternating episodes, each of which has its own mode: natural major (main part), variable fret (connecting part), Mixolydian fret (side part) and natural minor (development). Thus, a clear distinction is created between the components of the sonata included in the movement, which, on the one hand, contributes to the development, and on the other hand, creates a special orientation of the form to the listener. The latter parameter is especially important for the narrative, since "only when projected onto a person, events acquire meaning and are organized into a structured time series" [10, p. 112].

Note that the original epic melody was used by the composer only in the central section of the sonata (development), which is a chain of variations. Like storytellers who allow themselves some freedom from a given performance model, the composer stylizes the remaining structural elements of the work "antique" with the help of diatonic frets found in these folklore themes, which are one of the fundamental components of the musical art of antiquity.

The peculiarity of the sonata is not the mixing of several frets, which is typical, for example, for Polish and Moldovan folk music, but their alternate exposure. This is probably also related to tradition. "The "intonational feeling" of a particular culture is curtailed or generalized in the fret" [12, p. 320]: neither the songs of the Bayan, nor the epic of the Nezhata or the song of the blind gusliars are based on the combination of the sound orders of several frets. The composer himself calls this way of working with the material a symbol of the archaic. The frets on which he relies are taken by him from the northern epics, for which it is the pure frets that are characteristic, which is connected with the tuning of the gusli. "The master tuned the sonorous harps to a pure tune, you can't go further than that," explains Kikta. O. Begicheva notes that such a principle of the composer's fret organization serves as an additional means of describing "otherworldly beauty" [13, p. 167]. It also helps to recreate the atmosphere of the epic time in this sonata. The very same iconic principle of identifying various characters or events of the epic with the help of structural and ladotonal features is characteristic, for example, for Southeast Asia.

The epic in the Kikta sonata is also revealed in the way the musical fabric is formed. Harp busting is a kind of epic sign-index [9], imitation of the harp – a mandatory attribute of the narrator. And this technique, which is still found in Rimsky-Korsakov and Glinka, is also used by the modern composer in his own way. Along with the homophonic-harmonic type of texture, he resorts to polyphonic, sonorous and repetitive techniques that allow building development using minimal compositional means (varied repetitions, canons, inversions, combining the theme with its own increase).

So, the appeal to antiquity, coupled with modern ways of embodiment (form, technique), testify to the composer's method, which is in close connection with neo-folklore, and he, in turn, according to E. Nikolaeva, about the desire to "revive the spirit of national musical traditions" [1, p. 21]. In the interpretation of the Kikta, the description of the national culture is impossible without referring to its everyday component. The musical personification of the way of life gets its identity, but does not lose its origins with the simultaneous complementarity of different cultures and eras.

Setting himself the task of "describing" antiquity and using traditional musical components, the author creates an essay that sounds fresh and original. The resulting "syntactic dimension" [14, p. 45] of Valery Kikta's "Epic sound orders" is provided by the combination of several elements of the musical language. The semiosis field contains the texture and meter inherent in the ancient era. But the main components in the system of musical and poetic means that create an authentic sound are genre, mood and timbre. These components reproduce a certain epic image that exists in the listener's perception and formed by many years of experience of Russian music. Being somewhat forgotten, this layer of musical culture is revived anew by the composer in this composition.

References
1. Nikolaeva, E.A. (2006). Valery Kikta: Sounds of time. Moscow: Music.
2. Tsukanova, M.V. (2017). Valery Kikta: artistic consciousness and poetics of the spiritual-choral genre. M.: Nauchnoye izdaniye.
3. Gulyanitskaya, N.S. (2014). Musical composition: modernism, postmodernism (history, theory, practice). M.: Yazyki slavyanskoy kul'tury.
4. Gulyanitskaya, N.S. (2002). Poetics of Musical Composition: Theoretical Aspects of Russian Sacred Music of the 20th Century. M.: Yazyki slavyanskoy kul'tury.
5. Luthero, T. (2015). On the concept of Umberto Eco and his contribution to semiological research. Language and Culture, 18, 129-133.
6. Bakhtin, M.M. (1975). Forms of time and chronotope in the novel. Essays on historical poetics. In Issues of literature and aesthetics (pp. 234-407). Moscow: «Fiction».
7. Savkina, E.S. (2016). About the «genre style» of V.G. Kikta. In T.I. Naumenko (Ed.) Research by Young Musicologists (pp. 38-44). M.: RAM them Gnesins.
8. Eco, U. (2005). The role of the reader. Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts. St. Petersburg: «Symposium».
9. Pierce, Ch.S. (2000). Selected Philosophical Works. Moscow: Logos.
10. Lotman, Yu.M. (1972). Art History and «Exact Methods» in Contemporary Foreign Studies. In Yu.M. Lotman, V.M. Petrov (Eds.), Semiotics and Art Meteria. Modern foreign research (pp. 5-24). Moscow: Publishing house «MIR».
11. Vygotsky, L.S. (1998). Psychological problem of art. In Psychology of art (pp. 11-34). Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix.
12. Mechkovskaya, N. B. (2007). Semiotics of sound. Music, the most mysterious and paradoxical of semiotics. In Semiotics. Language. Nature. Culture: A course of lectures, a textbook for students of philological, linguistic and translation faculties of higher educational institutions (pp. 313-340). Moscow: Publishing center «Academy».
13. Begicheva, O.V. (2020). Romantic ballad in the artistic culture of the 19th – 20th centuries: essays on typology and poetics. Maykop: Magarin O.G.
14. Morris, Ch. (1983). Foundation of the theory of signs. In Yu.S. Stepanov (Ed.) Semiotics (pp. 37-89). Moscow: Raduga.

First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the study, sonata for harp No. 2 "Epic sound patterns" by V.G. Kikta (1982), is considered by the author in the aspect of discovering the most significant semiotic elements of the composer's musical language. The author emphasized the stylistic and compositional features of the work, expressed in the choice of genre and the musically expressive (intonation) means that fill it. The semiosis of the work, according to the author, consists of the features of the composer's use of frets, texture and variable meter, expressive elements inherent in the ancient era and creating the effect of authentic sound. The author justifiably and fairly argues that V. Kikta's interpretation of authentic musical and expressive elements of the national culture of the northern peoples of Russia is impossible without referring to its everyday component. According to the author, in V. Kikta's work: "The musical personification of the way of life acquires originality, but does not lose its origins with the simultaneous complementarity of different cultures and eras." Which, of course, should be agreed with, given the author's arguments given in the article. The research methodology is based around solving the problem of identifying particularly significant semiotic elements of the composer's musical language in a particular piece of music. The author successfully combines the biographical method with elements of structural analysis of musical form in the context of the semiotic typology of expressive means. The strength of the author's solution is the accessibility of the presentation of the research results to a wide range of readers, regardless of scientific specialization. This advantage makes it possible to place the research in an interdisciplinary art and cultural discourse. The relevance of the topic is due to the author's appeal to the analysis of the work of the Russian classic, a native of the Donetsk region, a representative of the Moscow school of composition. V.G. Kikta achieves the intonational originality of the sonata for harp No. 2 "Epic Sound Patterns" by referring to the motifs and fret structures of folklore themes of the Arkhangelsk region, thereby emphasizing the most important intonation component of Russian musical culture. At the same time, the author emphasizes V.G. Kikta's inheritance of the musical tradition laid down by M.I. Glinka, A.P. Borodin, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, R.M. Glier, A.T. Grechaninov. The originality and high artistic value of the analyzed work actualizes the wealth of Russian musical culture, which needs to be preserved and popularized. The scientific novelty of the author's identification of elements of musical language that have a "syntactic dimension" is sufficiently justified and beyond doubt. The style of work is scientific, although references to sources are designed without taking into account the requirements of the editorial board. The structure of the article reflects the logic of presenting the results of scientific research, although a discussion section discussing the analytical approaches of colleagues would significantly enhance the scientific value of the work. There are no comments on the content of the text. The bibliography as a whole reflects the problem area of the study, taking into account its empirical basis. Although there are absolutely no links to publications over the past 5 years, it is as if experts stopped being interested in the semiotics of musical works during these years. Items 4 and 10 of the bibliographic list do not meet the requirements of the editorial board. The appeal to the opponents is correct, although to a greater extent the article is based on the analysis of empirical material. The interest of the readership of the magazine "Man and Culture" in the article can be significantly higher if the author orients the reader in publications on a similar topic over the past 5 years, including the work of foreign colleagues.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

"Semiotic aspects" is not a very self-sufficient concept for scientific research; anything can be hidden under it. "Semiotic aspects" can accompany sociocultural analysis, be combined with linguoanthropological or linguocultural, comparative historical analysis, etc. It is obvious that the "semiotic aspects", on the one hand, expand the research horizon, on the other hand, limit it to the part when the researcher finds himself in a difficult situation, not knowing exactly in what way he needs to investigate the problem, and, in fact, the problem in this case is not obvious to him. I believe that in such a formulation of the topic, both of these points can be traced – the "semiotic aspects" give an unlimited perspective in the interpretations of the work, they do not limit the author in anything, in this regard, often only subjective, unsupported interpretations arise, but it may happen that the author, not fully realizing what the problem of research actually lies, it gets lost and therefore "relies" on certain "semiotic aspects", for example, for its confusion. In this state of affairs, it is difficult to see the prospects for research. Meanwhile, in the text of the presented work, we see that its author refers to the work of Valery Kikta, the creator of a number of works for orchestra, works for chamber ensembles and solo instruments, choral and vocal and other works. This figure is little known to a wide audience and, it would seem, this should prompt the author of the article to introduce readers to this composer, but this opportunity has been missed. I can partly understand the researcher – he refers to the work of a person, as I understand it, who is alive today, so it is hardly appropriate in this case to inject critical pathos into the perception of creativity, but still, on the other hand, it is the business of science to preserve this critical aspect and even bring it to the main level of research. I rarely find materials that would scientifically evaluate the work of living people – it usually takes a lot of time to evaluate their creative potencies both in science and in the context of art and culture. The author, in fact, erects a monument to Kikta during his lifetime. This is not entirely ethical – it would be another matter if the author wrote a note about his work in a newspaper or a magazine critical of musical art, etc. The author of the article mentions the semiotic method in musicology literally in one sentence, but this is clearly not enough for the purpose of the work. It is necessary to present the results of the analysis of the relevant scientific discourse, highlight the specifics of the semiotic method, its variability in the study of musical works, etc. scant information, or rather its absence, only indicates that the author of the article is not yet completely ready for a scientific approach. By the way, having stated the semiotic method as a key research resource, the author nevertheless does not adhere to it at all, goes completely into other planes. So, for example, correlating the sonata of Kikta with the epic epic, the author for some reason does not consider the system of convergence or divergence of figurative series, moreover, colored by connotations associated with expressive means of music, etc. A superficial interpretation shows that the author does not fully master the method of semiotic analysis, in addition, he is not yet ready for systematic analysis – he is let down by the lack of a single line of research, reinforced by the appropriate methodology. The text "dances", jumps from one thought to another. There is no author's concept, and the whole article actually boils down not to a semiotic analysis of "Epic sound patterns", but to a generalization of the properties of the epic epic itself. Unfortunately, it is too early to say that the article can be published.

Third Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

In the journal "Man and Culture", the author presented his article "Epic Sound Patterns: Sonata for harp No. 2 by Valery Kikta in the light of the peculiarities of the genre", which conducted a study of one of the most significant harp works by the famous Russian and Ukrainian composer, professor of the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory and the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, the author of over three hundred works covering almost the entire range of musical genres. The author proceeds in studying this issue from the fact that the sonata for harp No. 2 "Epic sound patterns" by Valery Kikta fully reflects the creative aesthetics and musical style settings of the composer. The composition is notable for the fact that the harp is one of the instruments in Kikta's timbre set, to which he addresses with a special feeling. As the author notes, the composer uses the possibilities of the harp as a solo and ensemble instrument, as well as an instrument that adds a unique color to the palette of symphonic music. Currently, Kikta is a member of the Russian Harp Society, organized by him in 2004 together with V. Ulyanich and N. Shameeva in order to promote the national harp art. Thanks to the activities of the society, harp compositions by such modern composers as V. Kikta, V. Ulyanich, I. Kainova, K. Volkov, D. Polevaya, O. Evstratova, S. Chechetko appear. The relevance of the research is determined by the increased attention of researchers to the work of V. Kikta, who study the timbre nature of the compositions and innovative techniques of the composer. The scientific novelty of the research is the artistic musicological analysis of the work "Sonata for Harp No. 2 "Epic sound patterns". Consequently, the methodological basis of the research was made up of artistic, musicological, and semiotic analysis. The theoretical basis of the research was the works of such scientists as U. Eco, C. Pierce, Y.M. Lotman, L.S. Vygotsky, and directly researchers of V. Kikta's work (E.A. Nikolaeva, M.V. Tsukanov, etc.). The empirical base was the works of the composer V. Kikta. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to determine the expressive means used by the composer when creating the sonata for harp No. 2, which determine the uniqueness of this work. Having conducted a bibliographic analysis of scientific works and the degree of scientific elaboration of the problem, the author notes a large number of studies devoted to both the semiotics of musical works and the uniqueness of Valery Kikta's work. Based on the works of E.S. Savkina, E.A. Nikolaeva, M.V., Tsukanova, the author defines the multi-genre, diverse nature of the composer's works. V. Kikta is the author of works for orchestra, for chamber ensembles and solo instruments, choral, vocal and stage works. They are represented by such genre varieties as a symphony, a concert (instrumental, vocal and vocal-instrumental), a concert symphony, a concert suite, a short story concert, a concert piece, a symphonic chronicle, ballet and music for performances, rhapsody (instrumental), an oratorio, an oratorical chronicle, a poem (instrumental, vocal and vocal-instrumental), cantata, liturgy, other vocal and instrumental cycles, ballad (vocal), choirs (accompanied by instruments and a cappella), as well as quartet, sonata, sonatina, fantasy, cadenza and other chamber works. According to the author, one of the reasons for the birth of the sonata for solo harp "Epic Sound Patterns" (1982) is the composer's desire to resist the extinction and transformation into an amateur performance of age-old traditions. The Kikta Sonata is a one-part composition based on folklore themes collected in the 1970s in the Arkhangelsk region. Turning directly to the analysis of the sonata for harp, the author notes that, although the work has a name, it does not contain a direct literary or other basis. By giving a title, but without providing additional means for recognizing a musical text, its creator captures an incomplete, incomplete creation that especially needs a listener to be realized and interpreted. Thus, a piece of music is closed from the point of view of completeness and open from the point of view of interpretation. At the same time, there is an independent listening or performing interpretation of a musical text in terms of its own conditionality, which determines the dialogic nature of the creation and reproduction process. The epicness and modality referred to by the composer in the title of the sonata opens up a structural level that helps to interpret it. As a result, "Epic sound patterns", as an "open text", give two characteristics, two musical codes that act as interpretants and form complex internal connections: genre and medium. As the author states, the Kikta is based on such traditional features for the symbolism of the epic as the narrative character of the presentation, wide chant, slowness and regularity of movement, declamation expressed in second-third intonations within narrow limits. Special attention is paid in the article to the detailed musicological analysis of the sonata. According to the author, the sonata is characterized by the improvisational and variational nature of the musical text, melodic lines structuring the length of phrases and variable meter, helping to avoid monotony and giving flexibility to the narrative style. As a result, there is a convergence of two sign systems: speech and music. At the same time, the composer, according to the author of the article, manages to turn the plane of a typical rehearsal theme for an epic song into a specific method of artistic communication. The composer uses the traditional sonata form with an episode instead of elaboration, with its constituent elements lined up in a row, giving one of the foundations and an impetus to dramatic development. Within the form, the Kikta deviates from the classical key ratios, replacing the dominant and parallel keys with their eponymous ones. As a result, the overall tonal plan receives a variety of shades due to the colors of the major-minor. The structure is based on a contrasting alternation of alternating episodes, each of which has its own mode: natural major (main part), variable mode (connecting part), Mixolydian mode (side part) and natural minor (development). Thus, as the author concludes, a clear distinction is created between the components of the sonata included in the movement, which on the one hand contributes to the development, and on the other hand creates a special orientation of the form to the listener. The peculiarity of the sonata is not the mixing of several frets, but their alternate exposure. Having conducted the research, the author presents the conclusions on the studied materials, noting that the synthesis of the archaic genre of the epic with modern ways of embodiment indicates the compositional method, which is in close connection with neo-folklore. Setting himself the task of describing antiquity and using traditional musical components, Valery Kikta managed to create a unique original composition. It seems that the author in his material touched upon relevant and interesting issues for modern socio-humanitarian knowledge, choosing a topic for analysis, consideration of which in scientific research discourse will entail certain changes in the established approaches and directions of analysis of the problem addressed in the presented article. The results obtained allow us to assert that the study of the problems of the revival of traditional genres in modern musical works and the popularization of the unique intangible cultural heritage is of undoubted theoretical and practical cultural interest and can serve as a source of further research.
The material presented in the work has a clear, logically structured structure that contributes to a more complete assimilation of the material. An adequate choice of methodological base also contributes to this. The bibliographic list of the study consists of 14 sources, which seems sufficient for the generalization and analysis of scientific discourse on the subject under study. The author fulfilled his goal, received certain scientific results that allowed him to summarize the material. It should be noted that the article may be of interest to readers and deserves to be published in a reputable scientific publication.