The eternal theme of the seasons in the dialogue of the past and the present in the music of the late XX-early XXI century

SHibinskaya Anastasiya Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0002-2310-967X Teacher; MBU TO DMSH named after M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov 344112, Russia, Rostov region, Rostov-On-Don, Panova str., 30, building 1, sq. 263 lkjl2015@inbox.ru

For many centuries, the theme of the seasons has been and remains one of the most popular in various forms of art. In particular, an impressive number of works have been created in the field of composing on this topic, among which there are little-known, almost forgotten opuses, and generally recognized masterpieces (violin concertos by A. Vivaldi, oratorio by J. Haydn, cycle of miniatures by P. Tchaikovsky, ballet by A. Glazunov).

In each epoch, the theme of the seasons has revealed new facets of its content, but at the same time, there have always been examples demonstrating a tribute to tradition to previous high standards. The musical art of the XX – early XXI century was no exception. This is primarily due to the new aesthetic paradigm of the postmodern era, one of the characteristic features of which is a special attitude to history: postmodernism "does not live out of an imaginary negation of everything that preceded, but means the real simultaneity of the non-simultaneous. Moreover, postmodernism has its ancient, medieval, and modern forms ^[1]. Awareness of historical traditions occurs at the level of reflection, a process of self–discovery that aims at an author's, individual interpretation of the spiritual and aesthetic experience of the past.

In this context, we can talk about at least five works on the theme of the seasons, which, in one way or another, trace the historical continuity of previous cultural traditions. At the same time, each of the essays demonstrates an original approach.

One of the opuses under consideration relates to the method of reinterpretation, which reveals "a reinterpretation of tradition, acting as a creative act that redefines the concept of truth" ^{[2, p. 15]}. As a result of the reinterpretation experience, a new, original work appears that deserves to be analyzed and understood by the listener. Unlike transcription, interpretation, or parody, reinterpretation is "a conscious form of artistic provocation in order to actualize a dialogical situation" ^{[2, p. 15]}.

We are talking about A. Raskatov's cycle "The seasons. Digest" (2001), which was written on the basis of P. Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons". The composer completely preserved the original source, significantly reducing the plays, and also left the names of the plays and epigraphs to them. His reinterpretation is that, firstly, he arranged P. Tchaikovsky's composition for string orchestra, solo violins, percussion and a specially prepared piano. Secondly, he introduced new remarks and original musical fragments into and between the plays. The composer himself explained his idea of composing in this way: "Associativity came to the rescue, or maybe a paradox of thinking, which led me to the remarks in the score of The Seasons Vivaldi. And I decided to make remarks to our seasons – the period of the ecological collapse of the planet, transform the orchestration and accompany the inscriptions in the score – new times and new "Seasons" and consider this pantheistic composition by Tchaikovsky from the point of view of ecological collapse" ^{[3, pp. 45-46]}. As you know, the author's remarks in A. Vivaldi's score are at the beginning and in the middle of each piece. A. Raskatov follows the same tradition, accompanying each of the remarks with new musical material. For example, the first piece "January" opens with a short introduction with short piano lines against a background of violins with the remark "Quasi speluhr" ("in the spirit of the music box"). At the end of the piece, the composer adds a new remark, "It's cold outside the window. The old clock strikes midnight." At the same time, the musical material of the play, belonging to P. Tchaikovsky, sounds against the background of a tense tremolo of the strings, which creates an atmosphere of stupor. Here are examples of other remarks: in the play "May" – "Individual snowflakes are quietly falling, brought by some unknown power unit." In the middle of the play "June" is "Muddy water splashing", and at the end of the same miniature is "Water, alas, with heavy metals"! The play "October" begins with the remark "The decadence of a lonely intellectual," etc. Thus, A. Raskatov, based on a musical masterpiece of the past, considered the unsightly aspects of life in relation to the state of nature of the 21st century.

In the compositional work of the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, recomposition became widespread as a method of working with borrowed musical material. This is a way to create a new, updated version of a work from previous years in order to establish a connection, a dialogue between the art of different eras. Recomposition "involves rethinking and adapting a specific "foreign" musical text to other conditions of existence" ^{[4, p. 57]}. In the context of the eternal theme of the seasons, we can talk about two works – the Russian composer M. Bronner and the British minimalist composer M. Richter.

M. Bronner created his cycle by order of the author and presenter of the program "440 Hertz" A. Genina, in 1992. In the title, he added: "A wreath to Tchaikovsky." The work has two editions in relation to the performing staff. The cycle was originally written for piano, violin, cello, flute and clarinet. The second version in 2007 for chamber orchestra, flute and clarinet proved to be more successful in performing practice.

The recomposition involves partial use of the musical material from the original source, but M. Bronner's work is completely original. There are 13 parts in his cycle, not 12.: It opens with the play "Dedication," followed by miniatures of the calendar year from "January" to "December." Each subsequent play, like P. Tchaikovsky's, has a programmatic title consisting of the name of the month and clarifying characteristics of the image (M. Bronner, however, lacks poetic epigraphs).

The order of the miniatures in the work is as follows: "Dedication", January 1. "Patterns on glass", February 2. "The road covered with snow", March 3. "Farewell song of winter", April 4. "Spring of Water", May 5. "Dandelion wine", June 6. "Butterfly", July 7. "Seagulls on the water", August 8. "Conversation of the Cuckoos", September 9. "Full Moon", October 10. "Lullaby to the forest", November 11. "What the north wind told you", December 12. "Christmas."

The cycle was obviously conceived as a tribute to P. Tchaikovsky and his immortal work. Perhaps that is why most of the plays in M. Bronner's cycle are lyrical and filled with a touch of nostalgia.

Three plays-the months of each season reveal different shades and facets characteristic of the nature of a particular season. For example, spring is both the "Farewell Song of Winter" (March), which creates a kind of confrontation between the spring image of the awakening of nature (a soft, lyrical, expressive melody on flutes) and the winter "breath" (imitation of the howling wind with a toccata theme in a fast tempo, descending chromatic passages); "April. The Spring of Water" is an expanded play in which there are no contrasts and a jubilant, cheerful, bright character reigns; and the play "May. Dandelion Wine", which is a leisurely miniature of a meditative nature. The use of the title of the famous novel by R. Bradbury in this work is apparently dictated by the images of nostalgia embedded in the play, the preservation of memories: "Dandelion wine. These words themselves are like summer on the tongue. Dandelion wine is a summer caught and bottled" ^{[5, p. 22]}. However, the story is about summer, and M. Bronner's play is dedicated to May. Perhaps, for the author, the state of longing for the beautiful bygone time was important here, which turned out to be transferred to the context of the late spring, and in fact the early summer month.

Thus, starting from P. Tchaikovsky's idea, M. Bronner created an original cycle of diverse monthly plays and built his own harmonious picture of the world with specific images of nature, living beings, and philosophical reflections. But the main conceptual line of the work is nostalgia for the past and a tribute to the composer, whose cycle has been one of the most popular, recognizable compositions on the eternal theme of the seasons for almost a century and a half.

The second work related to the method of recomposition is associated with an equally well–known and popular cycle on the theme of the seasons - with the masterpiece of A. Vivaldi. In 2012, the British composer M. Richter created a cycle called "The four seasons recomposed". The author explained the choice of the original source by saying that he wanted to "fall in love with the original again" and "take a fresh look at a well-known landscape" ^{[6, p. 167]}.

M. Richter explained that in his composition only a small part of the musical material belongs to A. Vivaldi, and the rest is his own, the author's: "... in some episodes, the score is completely different from the original. For example, in the first part of the concert “Spring” I use only a few bars of the original source, but it still sounds like Vivaldi" ^{[6, p. 169]}. M. Richter retained the structure of the super-cycle, the sequence of parts, and the instrumental composition. But he made changes: he added a Roman numeral to the program titles of each movement, for example: "Winter I", "Winter II", "Winter III", etc.; added the author's piece "Sprig 0" as an introduction; introduced a harp and synthesizer into the score for a more modern sound. The composer placed great emphasis on working with timbres, and also actively used "ambient", a style of electronic music that creates an atmospheric, background sound (in the piece "Spring 0" and on the border of the concerts "Summer", "Autumn"). In the finale of the concert "Summer", the composer introduced a recording of the sound of a mechanical box, and in the piece "Spring 0" the theme from the ritornel of the first part of "Spring", recorded on a tape recorder, sounds ^{[6, p. 169]}. These sound symbols create the effect of nostalgia for the past. Thus, in the "Recomposed Seasons" the Baroque masterpiece is viewed through the prism of modern musical art. The composer's achievement lies in the fact that the updated "Seasons" "transfer" A. Vivaldi to the XXI century, and M. Richter himself to the XVIII century ^[7]. In 2022, Richter re-recorded the album, making some changes in tempo and timbres to the music in order to create a more "rough, punk rock sound" ^[8].

Another work related to the topic under consideration is a transcription of the tango cycle "The Seasons in Buenos Aires" by A. Piazzolla, owned by L. Desyatnikov. The work is also aimed at establishing a dialogue with the work of A. Vivaldi.

The secondary version of Piazzolla's tango cycle "The Four Seasons in Buenos Aires" has entered into performing practice with great success, rather than the original one: in 1999, violinist G. Kremer commissioned composer L. Desyatnikov to transcribe all four tangos for violin and string orchestra. In addition to arranging for a completely different composition, he introduced into each part of the cycle several quotations from the violin concertos "The Four Seasons" by A. Vivaldi. Based on the geographical difference of the seasons in the two hemispheres, the composer introduced solo episodes from the concert "Winter" by A. Vivaldi into "Summer in Buenos Aires", thereby creating a kind of stylistic dialogue between two different compositions.

Another example that demonstrates the dialogue between the past and the present in art deserves attention – the ballet "The Seasons" (2013) by the famous Russian composer V. Martynov. The four-part work does not reflect seasonal changes in nature at all, but epochs of composing and concert practice in a historical context. It is difficult to call this work an experience of reinterpretation or recomposition: the author does not rely on specific works by previous composers, but uses stylization techniques. At the same time, the connection with the past traditions of musical art plays a fundamental role here.

The first part of the ballet is dedicated to A. Vivaldi, a composer who, according to Martynov, discovered composition and performing arts in a broad sense. That's what the part is called: "Vivaldi. Spring." The musical language of the play is based on stylization involving the principle of citation: the theme from the violin concerto "Spring" by A. Vivaldi is used.

The second part, "Bach's Afternoon Rest," is dedicated to J. S. Bach, whose work marks the heyday of compositional thought and symbolizes summer. The third part of the ballet, "The Ball of the Elves" – autumn – correlates with F. Mendelssohn, who, in a certain sense, discovered the work of the Baroque composer for European musical concert life, and nostalgia for ancient music probably began from this period.

The fourth part, winter, is the modern and final stage in the development of the "dying" compositional practice, which embodies the work of A. Pärt. In a sense, the concept of ballet reflects V. Martynov's views on composing and performing arts, outlined in his book "The End of the Time of Composers" ^[9]. The postulated idea of the exhaustion of the principle of composition is manifested in "his constant use of a rehearsal technique and devoid of an individual appearance of "non-authorial" material" ^{[10, p. 131]}. The ballet "The Four Seasons" is Martynov's musical reflection on the fate of composing and musical art in general.

As a result of the conducted research, it can be concluded that the appeal to musical masterpieces of past eras in the conditions of postmodernism is not a rare phenomenon. Composers recreate ancient genres, forms, and music-making practices. By itself, a musical masterpiece preserves the enduring values embedded in its idea, content, and embodiment. He becomes a kind of standard for creating new, relevant works for his time. In this context, the eternal theme of the seasons harmoniously fit into the new cultural paradigm of the late XX- early XXI century. The immortal masterpieces of A. Vivaldi, P. Tchaikovsky, and A. Piazzolla have received a new lease of life in the context of modern composing and performing arts. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that some of these works are analyzed for the first time in the context of the dialogue of different centuries.