Comprehension of the inner form of a musical work or the constitution of a new melos by means of a musical movement?

Rozin Vadim Markovich Doctor of Philosophy Chief Scientific Associate, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences  109240, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Goncharnaya, 12 str.1, kab. 310 rozinvm@gmail.com Other publications by this author

This article is a reflection on the interesting novel by Aida Aylamazian "Musical Movement as a means of comprehending the inner form of a musical work", recently published in the National Psychological Journal ^[1]. Aylamazyan is not only the artistic director of the Heptahor Music Movement Center, but also a well-known psychologist, one of whose research areas is the psychology of art, including the psychology of the musical movement. I have already written about Aylamazian ^[4], but still two words so that the reader can understand what kind of art the musical movement should be attributed to.

The musical movement is a free improvisational dance performed to serious music in the spirit of Isadora Duncan (it was created in the second half of the 10s of the last century by several girls from Bestuzhev courses ? Stefanida Rudneva, L. S. Generalova, O. K. Popova, E. M. Fish, etc. ? even during the visit to Russia by the famous dancer).

Aida Aylamazyan is a modern follower of this movement both in practical terms (she leads several groups, including a children's one) and theoretically, having created a cultural and psychological concept of the practice of the musical movement ^[4].

         In the above article, Aylamazian compares the usual perception of a piece of music (in a concert hall or in a recording) with its perception by the performer of a musical movement, which differs significantly from the first perception. To grasp the essence of this new perception, Aylamazian turns to the concepts of inner form and intonation (I think they were introduced by Boris Asafiev in the book "Musical Form as a Process" ^[5]), showing that the perception of music in the context of musical movement is significantly transformed by movement and is understood in a new way.

"The problematic side of musical perception is also revealed," Aylamazyan writes, "the intonation process caused by the form of a musical work, nevertheless, cannot be reduced either to musical notation or to musical texture. Using the language and concepts that have developed in art and literary criticism, we can say that the intonation process does not coincide with the form of the material of a musical work, it is closer to what can be called the internal form of a musical work <...>

As R. Grubel writes:  “In the process of communication, we transform external forms of communication into internal forms of understanding”…   This content and value relation is transmitted through the transformation of the material, when new meanings appear in connection with its new use or new connections that arise between individual elements of the composition of the whole <...>

         The first observation and conclusion is that specially organized body movements during music perception are not simple similar adjustments.  They do not reproduce exactly the external  the "bodily" layer of the musical and sound "fabric", and reflect the complex hidden process of musical development and formation. G.A. Ilyina's research on the perception of rhythm by children showed that "rhythmic drawings of children who synchronously responded to music look like a generalization in relation to it, that is, they are a kind of 'translation' of music into a response movement." Later, G.A. Ilyina and S.D. Rudneva showed that “in the motor reactions of the body to the integral content of music, none of the elements of the perceived work is mirrored.  But there is selectivity, or transformation of all structural moments of music" ^{[1, pp. 58, 59]}

         Well, it seems that one can draw such a conclusion ? within the framework of the musical movement, a new "melos" is being born (a term also often used by Asafiev) with a new understanding and experience of music. But Aylamazyan writes about something completely different, rather in a psychological and pedagogical manner, namely that in the music itself, in its intonations, one must learn to distinguish the inner form.  "The analysis of musical-motor forms," Aylamazyan sums up his research, "also allows us to show that, unlike methods that reproduce the formal structure of music with the help of movement (for example, duration in rhythm), musical movement is aimed at comprehending the inner form of a musical work" ^{[1, p. 65]}. (the italics are ours. ? V.R.)

         But immediately this clarity disappears. "Listening to the inner semantic side of a musical work is a complex activity that cannot be reduced to a purely analytical process. It is a “living” process of perception of sounding music, during which the transformation of the external form of a musical work takes place.  The established stable intonation formulas, genres in their standard expression become the material of artistic work and acquire new features. For example, a waltz may lose its uniformity, the movement of whirling, but acquire a new character, expressed in bursts, takeoffs, and energy emissions.  The marching form can be quite static and does not require movement in space, etc.  You can also meet with the opposite: hear the march where it is formally absent. The most famous example is the song "Holy War" by A.V. Alexandrov, which we hear as a march, but it is written in the size of ?. Meanings are not so much understood as experienced, they have a concrete sensory embodiment in spatiotemporal and motor forms. The “birth” and experience of the meaningful side of music is  The "open" character presupposes each time the rediscovery of the meaning of the work" ^{[1, p. 64]} 

         In short, what needs to be accepted: either the comprehension of the inner form of a musical work or the constitution of a new melos by means of a musical movement? To resolve this dilemma, let's offer an interpretation of what happens in the process of learning musical movement, in the process of entering it. But first, one example. In the Heptachor classes, movement and perception are staged to the music of J. Gaiden's "Hungarian Rondo". "In this passage," Aylamazian explains, "the parts differ primarily rhythmically; if in the first part the accompaniment of the left hand is a smooth and even sound line, then in the second it is accented, with repeated chords sounding percussive. These contrasts are not always reflected by students, both adults and children, and the main difficulty is the first part.

At first, the participants hear all the twists and turns of the melody and reflect, one way or another, this variability. As a device, participants are invited to pick up tapes and use them in an improvisational response.  But even this device does not always help to hear the general flow of music. Movements with ribbons can also be fractional in nature, look redundant and fussy compared to the music playing, although they accurately convey its external rhythmic and melodic pattern. If it is possible to draw attention to a musical phrase, then you can notice how some participants' movements change dramatically, acquiring an aspiring and cohesive character. They stop pulling the tapes in different directions and try to lead them smoothly, covering the sound with a single line of movement.  An easy, even run helps this. 

The found form looks the most convincing, although formally it does not seem to be in the musical text. The second part, in which the participants move with strong leaps, sharply throwing the ribbons up, now presents a vivid contrast and is experienced as a surge and release of those forces and feelings that were held in the first part. It was also noticed by S.D. Rudneva and G.A. Ilyina that expressive movements, as a holistic response to a musical work, reflect the internal dynamic patterns of music.  These include fret gravitations, experiences of foundations and failures, and common aspirations arising from these experiences" ^{[1, p. 60]}.

         Again, the same duality: on the one hand, "the found form looks the most convincing, although formally it does not seem to be in the musical text," on the other ? "expressive movements, as a holistic response to a musical composition, reflect the internal dynamic patterns of music." (the italics are ours. ? V.R.)

Let's start with the obvious fact: musical movement formally consists of two different principles ? the perception of serious music and organized movement in a broad sense (including poses, tensions, emotions, coordination of movements with other dancers). The first beginning was formed in recording and listening to music, the second is being mastered in the classroom. Actually, entry into the musical movement occurs if these two beginnings merge into one, begin to work on the tasks of the musical movement. What does "merge into one" mean? Those who strive in the musical movement, as Rudneva and Ilyina write, begin to hear "fret gravitations, experiences of foundations and failures, common aspirations arising from these experiences"? It is unlikely that even many advanced musicians and musicologists do not hear them. Then what's going on here? Let's suspend this question for now and consider one case that I analyzed in the article "Three concepts of art psychology (the ratio of psychological, art criticism and philosophical discourses") ^[6]

"When my daughter was about three years old, I caught myself: She couldn't draw, although I had read fairy tales to her for a long time. It was in the village, we have an old, renovated hut there, not far from the Volga. I called Lena, took gouache, drew a red sun and said, “Look, here's a red sun.” Lena looked at the paper in disbelief, then at me and asked: “Where's the sun?”. It took me a while, but I realized that she couldn't see the sun. And why should she see the sun, I thought, it's high in the sky, hot, blinding, and I'm pointing at the paper, where there's just a red spot. I didn't know what to do next, but just in case, I continued to draw the sun and showed it to my daughter. Two days later we went to the Volga River in the evening to watch the sunset. Admiring the sunset, I said without any second thought: “Look, what a big red sun, like on paper.”

The next day I see Lena herself taking paper and gouache, dipping a brush in paint, splashing paint on paper and shouting: “Hooray, red sun.” And so it went: the sun, the house, the grass, even the girl, like the aborigines – sticks with a cross and a circle on top. But another drawing struck me. A neighbor came with her daughter, Masha. Lena began to play this game with her: when the sun went behind the clouds and it got colder, they shouted: “It's cold,” and when it showed up: “It's warm.” But now it became cloudy and no matter how much Lena and Masha shouted “Cold", the sun did not appear. The next day, Lena drew the sun, grass and a girl and began to explain to me: “Look Dad, Masha is frozen, the sun came out and warmed her.” Bah, I thought, because Lena is playing, and her drawing is probably the first artistic opus.

  Let's try to make sense of this material theoretically. The first fragment of our relationship can be understood as the crystallization of Lena's “problem situation” (this is in the language of methodology), and in the language of psychology – as the formation of a “primary attitude“ or ”tension". In addition, here we can talk about the impossibility of implementing the “installation”, because Lena, trusting me, expected the sun to appear where I indicated (but it was not there). In other words, one of the conditions of the installation was our “communication” (“communication”) with Lena. The primary setting had another consequence – “misunderstanding”, the “meaning” in my text (“look at the sun”) was missing for Lena.

The second situation is the resolution of a problematic situation with the help of a “scheme” – “look at how big the red sun is, as on paper.” I remind you that the scheme is a semiotic formation invented by man, which allows solving a problematic situation, it sets a new reality (in this case, the “painted sun”), provides understanding and the opportunity to act in a new way.

Psychologically, we can talk here about the formation of a “new meaning” and a “new object" in consciousness. Lena's “life world” is still the same, but there is a new object in it – a painted sun, which Lena probably understood (of course, not immediately) in the same convention in which she perceived the objects and characters of fairy tales. There is an ordinary sun in the sky, and there is a sun on paper; the ordinary sun is high, shines and warms, and the painted sun is cold and lives on paper, but you can create it yourself. What is the mechanism of formation of a new subject and meaning? The main link in it is, firstly, the transfer of the “experience” (mental structures) formed during the perception of an ordinary sun to the “semiotic material” represented in this case by a drawing, and secondly, the “understanding” of what is seen as the sun, however, different from the usual one.            

The next situation was preceded by another one, namely, the formation of a “problem situation”: I really wanted to make the sun come out from behind the clouds so that it warms the girls. Psychologically, we can talk about the crystallization of “desire” and “attitude” and their “blocking” in terms of implementation.

The fourth situation is the resolution of this problematic situation through artistic creativity, albeit still very imperfect, but still creativity within the framework of art. From a psychological point of view, this process consisted, on the one hand, in satisfying the desire (realization of the installation) in a roundabout way, that is, not in the reality of nature, but in a semiotic reality, where virtual events were created by means of painting and imagination. On the other hand, Lena discovered (according to my observations, also not immediately) that these events can not only be lived instead of the usual ones, but also that such living (“experiencing”) is a source of new interesting impressions.

Did my daughter realize that she was already dealing with another reality? To some extent, yes. This is evidenced by her conversation with Masha. Lena showed Masha the drawing that she had explained to me the day before. At the same time, she said: “This is Masha, the sun is warming you.” To which Masha was offended, saying that she was not so thin, not a stick. Lena began to calm her down, saying: “Don't cry, you're in a fairy tale, but you're fat.” So far, the sphere of art for Lena existed only as a fairy tale world. A few years later, after learning to read, discussing her dreams with me, and going to the theater several times, Lena understood the difference between art and non-art better. She realized that both fairy tale, drawing, and music belong to art, but in dreams and ordinary life everything can be different.

 So, in order for a new living image to appear, I assume at least three conditions are necessary: first, the creation and operation of expressive means and schemes, secondly, the appearance of a new object in the established life world (we begin to see the sun), thirdly, the comprehension of a new object in a certain reality (in in this case, the sun is in a fairy tale)" ^{[6, pp. 10-11]}. Let's return to the interpretation of the musical movement.

         Are there not also these three moments in the musical movement? At first, students' perception of music and movement do not connect. Then a shift is planned, the participants begin to generate a new reality with the help of Aylamazian hints and manipulations with tapes, i.e. schemes (not only semiotic materials can be used as schemes ? sounds, drawings, but also objects, as in this case). As a result, a new objectivity develops ? musical intonation, organized by the movement of the student and schemes. The latter is recognized by the dancer as a new melos. The concept of melos Asafyev was introduced precisely in order to connect music (its understanding and experience) with extra-musical contents ? communication, changes in time and problems, new ways of performance, etc. ^{[5, pp. 368-369]}

"By combining music and movement in the learning process itself," Aylamazyan writes, analyzing the history of the formation of the musical movement, "by making the perception of music a semantic source and an emotional motivator of the movement, Heptachor embarked on the path of creating an original method of musical movement. The main idea of the method – as we would say now – was to model a holistic situation of generating movement in response to the music being played; it was a situation of joint improvisation, joint creativity, joint listening to music and finding a way to express it. The method itself consisted in listening to one's own motor impulses that arise in response to music, to the "spontaneous" movements that are born and releasing them in an expanded motor form. As a result of such independent, individual and at the same time collective searches, musical and motor forms began to arise, which are a crystallization of previous improvisations, some understanding and consolidation of what was found. Movement is not invented separately from music and is not superimposed on it. Music is the main character.

The task of responding to music with movement is a creative task that does not have an unambiguous solution, addressed to a person broadly: to his feelings, intellect, the entire mental composition, including life values and meanings, to the ability to concentrate, focus, as well as the ability to empathize, participate and sympathize" ^[2].

         The analysis shows that the movements of students must meet several requirements. Firstly, they should not contradict the music, not destroy its perception, for example, Haden's "Hungarian Rondo" should still remain the music of this great composer. To do this, the rhythm and general pattern of movements should be likened to the rhythm and pattern of music, however, not in the entire structure, but in the main "reference points".  

Secondly, the movements of those engaged in the musical movement should set a new organization of music, namely one that meets the plan of the organizer of the dance. As a rule, this idea is set by the interpretation of music from the angle of musical movement. Aida Aylamazyan is a great master of such interpretations. At one time, in 2005, at the Moscow Action Festival, she created a wonderful interpretation of Scriabin's music "Poem of Ecstasy", which was performed by several free dance groups at once.  

"When,– recalls Aylamazyan, "I was looking for a "move" to Scriabin, I was actually solving a number of problems. This is really a “move”, that is, it was necessary to find some idea that would allow all these tasks to be "assembled", somehow connected in one fell swoop…

At the same time, it was necessary to solve their own problems: 1) to unite groups of different directions of free dance in a joint action; 2) not to violate the principles of musical movement – merging with music, living music, improvisational dance, the living presence of participants “here and now”, the reality of their experiences. One of the principles is related to the fact that music is initially taken improvisationally, and then a musical-motor form, composition, is born in collaboration. But in this situation, I had different groups, a lot of participants, mismatched principles of work, etc. And the music was too grandiose, complex, this is a big symphonic work and the participating groups of the project had no experience of such productions…

  In the case of Scriabin, it was not a moment, not a separate fragment or some kind of feeling, but suddenly the whole work was seen as a clearly developed, consistent movement of thought, as a symbolic expression of some theosophical (and not only theosophical) ideas, as a very thoughtful and precisely calculated musical form with a clear structure. And so this structure was heard and indicated, although at that time I had not yet got acquainted with the score of the “Poem of Ecstasy”. And this structure turned out to be surprisingly suitable for the task at hand – to include different groups in the action, since the themes and parts that differ in nature were clearly distinguished, bearing obviously different energies and spiritual contents. The comparison of these energies, representing the universe of cosmic and spiritual forces as a whole, with dance, with movement peculiar to different directions, unexpectedly revealed that free dance in its various manifestations, designs and experiences also represents this universe of human, and perhaps not only human existence. The idea was found.  And then it was thought, or rather, felt, that the living expression of these elements inherent in each of the presented directions (musical movement, rhythmics, Alekseevskaya gymnastics, eurythmy, buto) in their struggle and fusion, opposition and complementarity would be a real action, which would give a sense of mystery as an event taking place here - the event of uniting people in dance" (cited in ^{[7, pp. 334-336]}).

A scene from the play "Poem of Ecstasy" staged by Aylamazian

When I was at the Heptahor concerts, I noticed that I listened to the music I knew as completely new. The question is why? The new organization of the musical text through the movements of the dancers generates a new musical reality, new events. Music can flow smoothly, and movements break it into fragments, bring new relationships to them through poses, bodily tensions, and visual compositions. Or vice versa, the music explodes with scenes of struggle, and the movements of the dancers organize these scenes into a single stream.   

         Can the emerging melos be considered simply a new reading of music written by the composer, comprehension of the inner form of a musical work? If we can talk about the inner form, then it is being created for the first time in a musical movement. And it is realized when comparing the perception of ordinary music (in a recording or in a hall) with the perception of the same (by name) music in a musical movement. These perceptions differ significantly.

         Another requirement for musical movements is this. Musical movement is not only a way to organize music in a new way, but also a new kind of dance that solves two tasks at once – aesthetic and, if I may say so, psychotherapeutic. The first side immediately catches the eye, provided that the dancers are prepared (have mastered the musical movement), as well as the director of the dance was successful in interpretation and staging.

  The second side is revealed in some reflexive statements of the creators of the musical movement. For example, Olga Kondratievna Popova, Aida Aylamazyan's teacher, writes the following. "I was a child of terrible mental responsiveness. <...> It was very easy to get to anything, because my psyche was very sensitive, vulnerable, and life was such that… I've been thinking for a very long time, and all these years and the previous ones (the girls <students> know), I've often asked myself: What did the musical movement give me – support? or vice versa? And only now I can say with absolute certainty: if there was no musical movement, I could have reached any degree of mental illness. Absolutely right. What is it? And this is the ability to pour out all your unrealized experiences, and maybe this whole life ... I am given a real opportunity to speak out. To pour it out, not to keep it all in myself, not to push and worry in silence, but I am given a motor way to survive in this activity… After all, I repeat again: we are not swinging, that I dance like Bach – yes, this will never happen in my life! I'm dancing my idea in Bach, right? Your experience. And at this moment, it seems, such states and moods are realized that otherwise I would have had in my soul forever. And they would gradually kill me. That is, it is clear that this activity is some kind of powerful breakthrough and a stream that I release from myself. Now I am deeply convinced of this. This is an opportunity to live. And the ability to regulate their states." (cited in ^{[3, p. 227]})

         I can also understand Aylamazian's position, which formulates two contradictory positions at once: that in the course of learning musical movement, there is an understanding of the inner form of a musical work and at the same time, especially in the process of staging and performing new works, the constitution of a new melos by means of musical movement takes place. The fact is that she solves two different tasks: as a teacher, she introduces new participants to the musical movement, as a director creates new interpretations of musical works and puts dances in the form of works of musical movement. As a teacher, Aylamazyan is interested in ensuring that those who strive in the musical movement master it, adhering to the music, conforming to it, expressing its spirit, so that their imagination and the new organization of the musical work do not block the adequate perception of the latter. This attitude is expressed by the concept of internal form. These are the pillars in a piece of music that the student must adhere to in all cases. Their awareness is grasped by the concept of inner form.

But as a director, Aylamazian must discover a new content of a musical work that can be revealed in a concert with the help of musical movement. Then not the inner form, but

the conclusion of Ilyina and Rudneva: "in the motor reactions of the body to the integral content of music, none of the elements of the perceived work is mirrored.  But there is selectivity, or a transformation of all the structural moments of music."