Samuel Barber’s chamber and vocal lyrics in the mirror of performance interpretation (on the example of «Three songs», op. 10 to the words by J. Joyce)
Authors: Talvinska Maria 
Published: September 2023

The substantiation of the topic. Samuel Barber is an outstanding composer of the 20th century, who is one of the most performed American composers in the world. However, his orchestral and instrumental compositions are popular. Few people are familiar with the huge number of equally talented compositions of S. Barber in the genre of chamber and vocal lyrics. Songs for voice with piano are simply unknown to the Ukrainian listener. Perhaps this is due to their complexity to perform and perceive. Thus, the stylistic and performing analysis of the vocal cycle op. 10 is a relevant topic because it represents one of the first attempts to study S. Barber’s chamber compositions for their entry into the artistic space of Ukraine. The purpose of the article. The purpose of the article is to reveal the genre and stylistic features of the cycle of songs by S. Barber op. 10 «Three Songs» in terms of stylistic specificity and performance interpretation. The object of research is chamber and vocal music of the 20th century; the subject – the cycle of songs by S. Barber op. 10 as an expression of the author’s reflection. The analysis of recent publications on the topic. Available Englishlanguage editions are mainly devoted to the biography of the composer or genres of instrumental creativity. Thus, Barbara Heyman’s book «Samuel Barber: the composer and his music» (1992) contains biographical materials. As for opus 10, we find only the history of its writing. The research methods. A functional-structural approach (in particular, intonation, dramaturgy and compositional levels) is used to identify the dominant chamber-vocal style. On this basis, there is a need for a performance approach to reveal the specifics of the creative vision of S. Barber’s songs by various singerinterpreters. The research methods. A functional-structural approach (in particular, intonation, dramaturgy and compositional levels) is used to identify the dominant of the chamber-vocal style. On this basis, there is a need for a performance approach to reveal the specifics of the creative vision of S. Barber’s songs by various singer-interpreters. The presentation of the main material. The vocal cycle «Three Songs, op. 10» to the words by J. Joyce belongs to the early period of S. Barber’s creative work. The main leitmotif of the vocal cycle is the loss of a loved one. From song to song, the hero experiences the tragic fate of his love in different ways. The psychological reactions of the hero (a state of quiet, light sadness, pain and hopelessness, and, finally, the cry of the soul on the verge of insanity) form two plans of the dramaturgy (the external one – event-psychological; the internal one – lyrical and reflective). Each new stage increases the degree of drama of the story. The main task of the performer is to create an appropriate visual and psychological state of psychological sensations; therefore, in each song, its figurative order should be kept internally. A comparison of two performances is proposed – conditionally «male» and «female». Thomas Hampson perfectly achieves the author’s remarks and instructions of dynamics, tempo, articulation, and most importantly, he is in the corresponding visual and psychological state. Shannon Chauville is a soprano, an American opera singer who has a big voice and a rich timbre. But subtle dynamic nuances are not easy for her; singing at the piano does not always turn out to be of high quality. She sings song No. 1 loudly, sometimes changing the dynamics suggested by the author. She selects a faster tempo than specified. Therefore, the image sounds more hectic, agitated than the poetic text suggests («the rain has passed»): the accompaniment depicts drops of quiet rain, which gives the hero a nostalgic mood, which is present in Hampson’s version. In Chauville’s, this state was somewhat lost; due to the fast tempo, she «tears» the phrases into small «chains», which adds unnecessary anxiety to the image. Therefore, the most adequate, in the opinion of the author of the article, is the male interpretation. The same applies to songs No. 2 and No. 3. The vocal difficulties consist in articulation tasks that depend not only on the stylistic intonation of Barber’s vocal style, but also on the peculiarities of Englishlanguage stylistics, which singers should possess, reproducing the specifics of various national musical traditions of the 20th century. Conclusions. The stylistic dominants of the vocal cycle op. 10 of S. Barber are conditioned by the psychological and author’s experience of Joyce’s poetry. Barber’s vocal style is characterized by a tendency towards increased expression and declassification plasticity of canto with a virtuoso-sensitive presentation of the piano, careful and sensitive imitation of poetic meanings. Love semantics is embodied in «dual» drama through the declamatory melos in the canto part (the hero’s reflections) and the instrumental accompaniment (the external reflection of his soul), which form the stylistics of expressionism. Piano accompaniments are consonant with the voice, supporting it with articulatory counterpoints and textural-timbre and mode-harmonic variations. The compositional features of Joyce’s poems determine the individualization of the musical form of each song. The more complex the emotional state expressed in the song, the more complex the form: the first song is a couplet one, the second is a simple three-movement one, and the third is completely unstrophic. Among the parameters of musical and linguistic expression of S. Barber’s vocal cycle, the following are notable: a mode (minor) and metrical unity (4/4 metre); monologue quality and declamation of vocal speech; complementarity of textural and timbre layers. The stylistic dominants of the analysed composition by S. Barber: complexity of mode-harmony (frequent changes of tonality, alterations, dissonances); metrorhythm variability, polyrhythm, micro-agogy, dynamic contrasts at the macro- and micro-levels (phrase, sentence).