Aspects of studying timbre in scientific discourse
Authors: Yurko Khrystyna 
Published: August 2024

Statement of the problem. Timbre is one of the central categories of modern musicology. Studies of timbre are multi-vector and multi-faceted, which is due to the compositional practice of the XX–XXI centuries. In Ukrainian and foreign musicology, questions arise as to what timbre is, what its significance is in a modern composition, as well as how to analyze those timbre organization. After all, the emotional descriptiveness and general impressions of the recipient from the sound cannot be a reliable tool for analyzing timbre (in particular, its semantics) and timbre organization. In scientific works related to acoustic music, the toolkit of analysis has been developed, but it is not a finally formed closed system, but needs further clarification and addition. This article is devoted to the consideration of various aspects of timbre research and the systematization of the tools for the analysis of timbre organization. Recent research and publications. Theoretical basis of the article consists of the Ukrainian and foreign sources devoted to timbre: articles and thesis by O. Zharkov (2002; 2017; 2020), P. Boulez (1987),Yu. Ishchenko(2012a; 2012b), D. Smalley (1994), D. Klebanov (2019), R. Kashyrtsev (2022), S. Korobetska (2003), H. Kosenko (2018), H. Savchenko (2023), C. Saitis, S. Weinzierl (2019), M. Pashkovskaya (2023). Also, the article by S. Larson, L. Van Handel (2005) became the theoretical basis for the formulation the opposing pair of principles of timbre organization “timbre inertia / timbre activity”. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purposes of the article are: 1) to systematize the research vectors in the study of timbre that have developed today in Ukrainian and foreign musicology; 2) to highlight the principles of timbre organization of instrumental works. The article uses: a systematic and analytical research method to analyze and generalize the various aspects of the study of timbre in modern musicology; comparative one that considers the scientific positions in the understanding of timbre as a complex phenomenon; functional one substantiating the need for analytical tools when determining timbre organization and semantics; and typological – for identifying and classifying the analytical toolkit. The scientific novelty of the study consists in: 1) substantiating the universality of the semantic pair of principles of timbre organization “timbre integration / timbre differentiation (disintegration)”; 2) introduction into scientific circulation of the semantic pair of timbre organization principles “timbre inertia / timbre activity”. Results and conclusion. In the course of the presentation of the material of the article, the main areas of research into the phenomenon of timbres in modern musicology were summarized and structured. A couple of timbre organization principles “timbre integration / differentiation (disintegration)” have been defined, which can be applied in the analysis of timbre semantics in acoustic music. Another binary opposition of “timbre inertia / activity” principles is proposed to be introduced into scientific circulation, and the content of new concepts is defined. Finally, the significance of the examination of timbre organization when studying the timbre semantics is substantiated.