Choral polyphony in M. Mussorgsky 's operas

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

The study of the heritage of Russian composers of the XIX?XX centuries is now gaining a new meaning from the standpoint of tradition and innovation of genre-style parameters of composition. In the works of great artists of the past centuries, an original national artistic paradigm has been formed, which even now affects global processes in the development of Russian musical culture, as well as certain aspects of the musical language, in particular, polyphonic techniques.

Among the outstanding musicians of the world musical art of the XIX century, M. Mussorgsky occupies a special place. The brilliant artist-innovator embodied in his compositions the traditions of Russian sub-vocal polyphony and classical-romantic polyphonic tendencies (coming from M. Glinka and A. Dargomyzhsky), expressed his own view on the means of artistic expression, forming an individual style that anticipated much in the musical art of the XX?XXI centuries.

The creative heritage of M. Mussorgsky is the golden fund of classical Russian choral literature. It was the novelty of artistic tasks that forced the composer to break the canons and norms sanctified by tradition more boldly and consciously than his contemporaries. Hence the anticipation of many artistic discoveries of the future. According to the St. Petersburg master of modernity S. Slonimsky, "Mussorgsky's operas presuppose the intellectual participation of an educated listener, active counterpoint, the interaction of the images of the work and life itself" ^{[1, p. 56]}. In addition, S. Slonimsky has repeatedly stressed that his views are in tune with the ideas of M. Mussorgsky, both with regard to opera dramaturgy, and the interpretation of the chorus, polyphonization of choral texture ^{[2, p. 33]}. Yu. Kholopov considers the composer's musical language as "a kind of energetically found system in some parts of its breaking forward into the future, anticipating elements of a perfect musical language (although retaining ties with its time)" ^{[3, p. 91]}.

The brilliant artist-innovator has embodied in his compositions the traditions of Russian sub-vocal polyphony and classical?romantic polyphonic tendencies (coming from M. Glinka and A. Dargomyzhsky), expressed his own view on the means of artistic expression, forming an individual style that anticipated much in the musical art of the XX-XXI centuries. G. Golovinsky argues that "one of the important sources of The update for M. Mussorgsky was folk art. Moreover, the composer's discoveries here were very significant and affected at various levels – from aesthetic concepts and up to the smallest intonation-rhythmic cells of the musical fabric (these discoveries also manifested themselves in the verbal-recitative and ladoharmonic areas)" ^{[4, p. 5]}.

The problem of innovation – one of the central, fundamental for M. Mussorgsky – is most often considered in two aspects. On the one hand, attention is attracted by the composer's openly declared implementation of intonations of speech (everyday and artistic) as a way of displaying mental movements, emotional and psychological states and even whole characters. On the other hand, the essence of the composer's ladoharmonic reforms, which served both coloristic-pictorial and expressive artistic purposes, is revealed. These reforms made it much more difficult for Mussorgsky's contemporaries to perceive music, but they also became a vector of dialogue with the future.

The creativity of M. Mussorgsky has repeatedly attracted domestic researchers, as characterized by the versatility of artistic paradigms allowed each scientist to focus on a separate problem: G. Hubov ^[5], S. Shlifstein ^[6], R. Shirinyan ^[7], G. Golovinsky ^[4], R. Berchenko ^[8], E. Durandina ^[9] and others. In the work of V. Protopov ^[10], the main phenomena of the history of Russian polyphony are covered and a separate section is devoted to the polyphonic principles of M. Mussorgsky. Solo, ensemble and orchestral fragments of operas, as well as the piano cycle "Pictures from the Exhibition" serve as small analytical examples. The brightest in the study of the musical language of M. Mussorgsky are the works of Yu. Kholopov ^[3], O. Kolovsky ^[11]. In the study of E. Trembovelsky ^[12], the original conception of the fret, harmony and texture of M. Mussorgsky as the creator of new musical patterns is presented. This article is devoted to choral polyphony in M. Mussorgsky's operas. The question is raised about the identity of M. Mussorgsky's polyphonic thinking from the point of view of the free refraction of the forms and techniques of writing Western European polyphony in it.

In his operatic work, Mussorgsky least of all proceeded from any stable "model of the genre". Mussorgsky finds a special artistic plane for each opera, and each subsequent opera represents a different type of drama. Mussorgsky's operas are directed by categories of art – comic ("Sorochinskaya Fair", "Marriage") or tragic ("Boris Godunov") or epic ("Khovanshchina"), types of theater – real ("Marriage", "Boris Godunov") or conditional-game ("Sorochinskaya Fair").

Hence the genre diversity of opera choirs. They reveal an affinity to song genres: to a song (for example, female choirs from Act IV, the choir of newcomers "Oh, you're native Russia" from the opera "Khovanshchina"), to folk lamentations (for example, "Who are you leaving us for", "Breadwinner-father" from the opera "Boris Godunov"; "Father, Father", the verses of the Streltsy wives – "Ah, the damned", "Do not give mercy, the execution of the damned" from the opera "Khovanshchina"), dance and satirical songs ("Hopak" from the opera "Sorochinskaya Fair", "Lived a godfather", a song about gossip from the opera "Khovanshchina"), well done or "robber" songs ("Dispersed, rampant" from the opera "Boris Godunov", the choir of Streltsy "Ah, there was no sadness" from the opera "Khovanshchina"), songs of glory (Oh, like in heaven" from the opera "Boris Godunov", "Glory to the Swan" from the opera "Khovanshchina"), church hymns (the choir of the kalik of the crossing, backstage choirs in the scene "Cell in the Miracle Monastery", the chorus of singers in the scene of Boris's death from the opera "Boris Godunov", schismatic tunes from the opera "Khovanshchina").

Such a significant genre spectrum of choirs in the "folk musical drama" demanded from the composer a special attitude to all the parameters of the composition, among which polyphony is of particular importance. The art of polyphony in M. Mussorgsky's operas, being the most important parameter of the musical language, appears to be an extremely broad concept, consisting in the author's specificity of the manifestation of counterpoint as a common polyphonic state of all elements of figurative and musical dramaturgy.

The basis of polyphonic polyphony is traditionally the functional equality of individual voices (melodic lines, melodies in a broad sense) of texture. The melody of M. Mussorgsky's opera choirs can be divided into three main types: the use of authentic folk melodies, the combination of folk melodies with the original and the creation of their own melodies close to folk.

Authentic folk melodies are used by the composer mainly in genre scenes, for example, in the female choirs of "Khovanshchina" ("Near the river", "Sat late at night", "The swan is floating, floating").

In some choral scenes M. Mussorgsky boldly includes folk melodies and freely develops them. In opera, they become "their own", thanks to the organic fusion with the original author's musical thought. For example, in the chorus "It's like the red sun in the sky" (the choral chorus "Rejoice, merry people" is attributed to the orchestral fugato, built on the folk theme "Glory"

A connoisseur of folk songs, M. Mussorgsky also creates his own melodies close to folk ones. He reproduces with great skill the characteristic features of the folklore source – melody, rhythm, harmony, harmony. This is evident in the chorus "Who are you leaving us for" from Boris Godunov. In this choir there are the main types of fret variability characteristic of Russian songwriting (second, third, quarter-fifth), as well as variable size (3/4; 5/6). Along with this, the harmony reveals the unfolding of the intraladal third and second ratios. The folk character of the music is emphasized by the texture of the presentation: a one–voice chorus is a polyphonic chorus with a variable number of voices.

Monody becomes the core of the formation of a polyphonic texture, which is generally characterized by polyphonization of the musical fabric, which is expressed in the organic interaction of the main types of polyphony: contrast, sub-vocal and imitation.

The technique of contrapunting contrast-thematic constructions, which makes it possible to simultaneously depict various stage situations, is found especially often in Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina. According to S. Slonimsky, "the choral scenes of both operas are dominated not by counterpoint, which is poorly distinguishable in real sound, but by dialogicity, hidden polyphony, fragmentation into several alternating choirs and small groups within the parties. As in the ensemble scenes, we are not facing the path to the super-polyphony of the scores of “The Fiery Angel”, “Moses and Aaron”, “Wozzeck”, “Lulu”, “Nose” and “Black Mask” (Penderetsky's opera), but to the personified superdialogy of “War and Peace" and “Katerina Izmailova". The very actively developing, changeable differentiation of the choral mass was first introduced by Mussorgsky" ^{[1, p.58]}.

M. Mussorgsky's contrast-thematic constructions are observed in two main variants: the first is the counterpoint of melodies of different genres, the second is the counterpoint of entire thematic complexes ("polyphony of layers").

In the first case, the composer most often combines a solo or choral song with a recitative. So, in the scene under the Croms, the song of Barlaam and Misail is contrasted with a choral recitative. In the scene "Cell in the Miracle Monastery", the church choral chant is counter-punctuated at the beginning by a one-voice accompaniment, and then by Gregory's recitative. In the choir of the Streltsy, "The Sagittarius was rising, ah, the Sagittarius was excited", the melody of the tenors and the dance playing counterpoint the main melody of the basses.

The "polyphony of layers" occurs mainly in polyphonic constructions. In the scene of Khovansky's meeting, there is a contrapuntal combination of various choral groups: boys, women, archers, newcomers, as well as trumpet signals and independent figures accompanied. The death scene of Boris is contrapuntically united by a funeral bell, a chorus of choristers, recitatives of Boris and Fyodor.

S. Skrebkov substantiates the contrasting polyphony of M. Mussorgsky from the point of view of the melodic nature of its polyphony, which allows combining different plans of action: "The fact that Mussorgsky proceeded from the song-and-sub-voice traditions of Russian national culture, with its emphasis on choral melodic intonation, in principle unison, opened up to the composer the widest possibilities of multifaceted contrasting polyphony, intertwined from single-voice or concentrated sub-voice thematic layers. And in this respect, Mussorgsky's monumental mass scenes (especially, for example, Khovansky's second exit) turn out to be filled with such a rich and multifaceted contrasting polyphony, which was not equal in Wagner's works" ^{[13, pp. 394-395]}.

The compositions of opera choirs are certainly affected by the direct influence of sub-vocal polyphony. M. Mussorgsky uses various types of it: heterophony (chorus "Near the river" from act IV of "Khovanshchina"), contrasting two and three voices (chorus "Sat late in the evening" from "Khovanshchina"), imitation polyphony ? (the endless canon in the choir "Diverged, rampaged" in the choir. Vl. Protopopov characterizes the form of this chorus as a variation cycle with hidden features of the fugato (quasi-fugato) in the first verse [10 p. 122]. Some researchers interpret the form of this chorus as a variation cycle with rondo features.

In some choirs, there is another manifestation of polyphony in the composer's thinking, namely, the coexistence of different types of texture, when the folk-sub-vocal principle of the interaction of voices can naturally be replaced by a chord-harmonic one. (the Streltsov choir "Gay, you are men of arms"). O. Kolovsky emphasizes the most stable textural variability for M. Mussorgsky's choral writing "on a heterophonic-sub–vocal basis, with permanent stratification (splitting) of one-voice into two-voice and then into three-four-voice" ^{[11, p. 35]}, as well as in general the proximity of M. Mussorgsky's choral polyphony "to a sub-harmonic rather than to a sub-vocal-contrapuntal warehouse" ^{[11, p. 35]}.

Much less often M. Mussorgsky uses separate forms of imitation polyphony, which are significantly influenced by folk music. For example, the choir "Father, Father" is built in an imitation warehouse. This way of presentation exactly corresponds to the content of the episode (the Sagittarians and their wives beg to come out "father", alternately repeating their request).

In the compositions of M. Mussorgsky there are mainly free imitations. They make melodic and rhythmic changes to the theme, as it is observed in the recitative of newcomers (the first action of "Khovanshchina". Free imitations make it possible to introduce intonation differences into each replica, therefore, in M. Mussorgsky they take precedence over other types of imitation. Simple imitations are mostly found in the approaches to the climax or at the climax itself.

The fugato form in M. Mussorgsky's choral writing is significantly transformed in relation to its classical form. In the chorus "It's like in Heaven", the second picture of the prologue of the opera "Boris Godunov" of the five performances of the theme "Glory" in the orchestra, the following tonal relationships are observed: G-dur (T), D-dur (D), A-dur (II), G-dur (T) and an additional fifth conducting in C-dur (IV). In the third and fourth sessions, the topic is presented incompletely. Against the background of the orchestral fugato, the choir sings individual lines.

In the first part of the chorus "Dispersed, rampant" there are also features of fugato. At first, the theme is presented in the orchestra in the key of fis-moll, it is duplicated by basses with a slightly different rhythmic pattern, then by the tenor in h-moll. This is followed by the variational development of the theme on the dominant key of fis-moll, then the introduction of female voices with a modified theme on the tonic of the main key and the additional holding of the theme on the dominant. In general , a kind of tonal scheme is formed – TSDTD and conclusion on T.

At the same time, this chorus can be considered as a theme with variations, where the theme is repeated twice (TS): the first variation ("Bursting with a hollow") is presented in the form of an infinite canon, the second variation ("Rose from the bottom") is in the form of a strett imitation, the third variation ("Rose, amused") is written, like the first, in the form of an infinite canon, followed by a conclusion. The orchestra also follows a chain of endless canons. The fusion of the variational form with the fugato, the use of endless canons in the choir and orchestra, forming a vortex movement accompanied by, realistically reflects an excited crowd, a spontaneous popular uprising.

Stylistic diversity is characteristic of choral scenes in M. Mussorgsky's operas. So, in "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" there are choirs focused on party singing (for example, the chorus of singers in the scene of Boris's death). Others are presented in the form of various old traditional church monodies (the final chorus of the opera "Khovanshchina"). In the sub-vocal warehouse, the schismatic hymn "Shame, wrangle" is written, in the tape type of polyphony, the prayer "God have mercy on us" from the scene "Cell in the Miracle Monastery" sounds.

Following the dramaturgy of stage action, the composer applies various types of form and texture formation. So, in the form of variations, a chorus of kalikas from the prologue of "Boris Godunov" is written. Of these, the second and fourth variations, as well as the theme, are set out in the style of part–singing, and the first and third variations represent a special type of Russian folk polyphony - singing with bourdon.

Harmony, the constant companion of polyphonic thinking, M. Mussorgsky is characterized by diatonics of folk variable modes. Along with this, chromatic and major-minor systems are used in individual choirs. In the reprise of the chorus "It's like in Heaven", written in two-part form, the secondary dominant and subdominants to the IV stage, the II low and the secondary dominant to the II stage are introduced into its second part. The above indicates the use of elements of the chromatic system.

The national originality of Mussorgsky's music is closely intertwined with the achievements of contemporary romantic composers and, above all, with the harmony of F. Liszt, characterized by a bright color and a variety of expressive means. This is found in comparisons of distant tonalities, in the use of secondary dominants and subdominants, enharmonic modulations, enharmonic substitutions, fret variability, etc. M. Mussorgsky widely uses similar techniques in his music in order to highlight psychological moments, as is often observed in his recitatives and choirs (a striking example is the development of the folk melody "Oh, you're a force, silushka" in the choir "Dispersed, went wild") ^[14]. At the same time, the composer deliberately avoids the classical rules of harmony, offering an individual version, largely anticipating the technique of writing of composers of the twentieth century – I. Stravinsky, K. Debussy, B. Bartok, S. Prokofiev, D. Shostakovich, S. Slonimsky and others.

Thus, from the standpoint of modern science, M. Mussorgsky appears as a brilliant master, not only standing at the most advanced frontiers of the art of his time, but also often ahead of him. M. Mussorgsky's musical thinking clearly traces the reliance on the classical-romantic traditions of the musical art of the XIX century. Turning to the polyphonic techniques of M. Mussorgsky, we emphasize that, focusing on its classical types (sub-vocal, imitation and contrast), the composer performs them with a tendency to individualize structure and form, in a new intonation system of melody, harmony, rhythmics. Such an individual stylistic innovation leads to polyphonization of all components of the musical fabric. All these facts testify to the implementation of M. Mussorgsky's innovative musical and creative ideas at a new stage in the development of art.