SOUND IMAGE OF DUDUK IN CHAMBER‑SYMPHONIC WORKS OF A. TERTERYAN AND R. ALTUNYAN
Authors: Khachatrian Liernik 
Published: March 2021

Introduction. Today duduk is one of the most popular folk instruments. Modern academic composers include it in their works, and it is significant that it appears in large conceptual compositions, such as a symphony. Despite the significant interest of researchers in the fine art of playing the duduk, the sound image of this instrument is almost not assigned a role, and this article aims to fill this gap. Formulation of the problem. Today duduk is one of the most popular folk instruments. Modern academic composers include it in their works, and it is significant that it appears in large conceptual compositions, such as a symphony. Despite the significant interest of researchers in the fine art of playing the duduk, the sound image of this instrument is almost not assigned a role, and this article aims to fill this gap. Analysis of the latest publications on the topic. Metaphor is a rather unstable term in the perception of art and has many unstable categories. O. Dyachkova paid special attention to the aspect of artistic metaphor, and the knowledge of symbols in music through the understanding of metaphor and up to the metaphysics of images was carried out by Yu. Nikolaevska. Also in this article we rely on the study of themes in Armenian music (J. Zubaryan) and the role of duduk in modern music (M. Rukhmyan). The purpose of the article is to reveal the sound image of the duduk in the chamber-symphonic works of A. Terteryan and R. Altunyan through the selection of the category of timbre of metaphor. Methods. In order to realize this purpose, many general scientific and special musicological research methods have been used – historical-and-genetic, deductive, comparative, organological, stylistic, genre and performing analysis. Results and Discussions. In this article it is offered to investigate the phenomenon of the timbre of metaphor through the sound image of a duduk on the example of symphonic works of today. A characteristic review of R. Altunyan’s symphonic works from the standpoint of using such an archaic instrument with a long history as a duduk is given. Symbolic programmaticity, sound aura, genre-stylistic signs, melody based on the Armenian monody are all business cards of A. Terteryan’s main works. An analytical thorough consideration of the Third Symphony of this composer has been made, where the great role of the timbre of the duduk, which closely interacts with the zurna, bells and other participants of this work, is evident. The connection between modern music making and the traditions of ancient times has been traced, which makes it impossible to exist without each other. We have to reveal the sound image of the duduk in the chamber-symphonic works of A. Terteryan and R. Altunyan through the selection of the category of timbre of metaphor. Metaphor is not a rare phenomenon in modern art. It is everywhere, from literature and painting to manifestations in architecture. Even in the music sphere, it is not possible without it and is used in different variations. O. Dyachkova for the first time systematized all existing theories of metaphor, considering it from different specific angles of musicology. Thus, we will consider metaphor as a general aesthetic principle of musical art, a phenomenon of re-intonation and as a special form of dialogue of the artist with the world. «Metaphor as a kind of artistic discovery depends on the intonation and semantic memory of the listeners». With this thesis, O. Dyachkova offers us to comprehend the full depth of this concept and to understand that metaphor is also closely connected with semantics and intonation, which directly explosively interacts with the timbre. Therefore, the derivation of the concept of «timbre of metaphor» has a very clear basis. It is further suggested to pay more attention to the duduk and its remarkable timbre possibilities in the zone of metaphorical phenomena. The timbre of the duduk occupied a high position in the art of cinema, as well as in small academic genres, especially songwriting. The weaving of a duduk into the score of a work, its figurative and semantic load in it, differs depending on the author’s intention. For example, in “Let the Field” for chamber string orchestra and bells with bagpipes by R. Altunyan, Armenian folk instruments seem to remind of themselves, cry out for the revival of their tradition. The composer, using an ensemble of four bagpipes (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone) and zurna, seeks to preserve the ancient traditions of the Armenian people, as he emerges from the situation of dying tradition, almost pictorially painting the “empty field” in which he, the composer, revives this tradition. Duduk performs a slightly different semantic load in A. Terteryan’s Third Symphony, composed in 1975. A. Terteryan’s work took an important place in the development of Armenian music in line with the modernist trends of the second half of the twentieth century. It became an example of the most radical combination of innovation and tradition and marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of Armenian symphony. This is largely due to the specifics of the composer’s thinking, which is based on the principle of connection and interaction of a kind of two “stylistic” poles – the musical art of West and East. Researchers consider A. Terteryan’s symphony from the point of view of neo-symbolism, which emerged in the art of the second half of the twentieth century, which defined “the scope and depth of cosmosophical concepts, the universalism of the musical language of symphonies”. They are based on the sonorous technique of writing, colorful undifferentiated layers of musical fabric. The atom of symphonic music is sound, which is “represented by the simplest primary element of music”; it also carries the main semantic load, is a “grain” from which the whole theme of the work can be grown. In A. Terteryan’s symphonies symbolic programmaticity is connected with genre-stylistic signs of “music of the past”, which activates the «memory of music». At the same time, it is the ancient folk instruments that bear this semantic symbolic load, which embodies the incorruptible images of the folk culture of Armenia. Thus, the duduk in A. Terteryan’s work connects modernity and gray antiquity, giving music special national features, distinguishing it from the general context of symphony of the twentieth century. Conclusions. The sound image of the duduk in the chamber-symphonic works of R. Altunyan and A. Terteryan reflects and explains the interpretation of the timbre of the metaphor, which is quite new for the perception of such a not entirely academic instrument by musicologists.