COMPOSITIONAL-DRAMATIC FEATURES OF THE SONATA FOR OBOE AND PIANO BY F. POULENC
Authors: Kozyriatskyi Mykhailo 
Published: March 2021

Backround. Chamber instrumental music by F. Poulenс is a bright, original and important part of the composer’s creative heritage. The sonata genre, represented by ten works for different instruments, occupies a special place in it. F. Poulenc’s appealed to it throughout his career, so studying samples of this genre belonging to different periods helps to trace the evolution of F. Poulenc’s compositional style. However, despite the widespread popularity of performers, chamber and instrumental works by F. Poulenс are not sufficiently covered in music studies. The purpose of the article is to reveal the compositional and dramatic features of the Sonata for oboe and piano by F. Poulenс. Results. Some specific techniques characteristic of S. Prokofiev’s works as a sign of respect for the Russian composer are used in the Sonata for the oboe and piano by F. Poulenc. This work has a genre and narrative-psychological program, as evidenced by the names of the movements: “Elegy”, “Scherzo”, and “Sorrow”. The title of the first movement – “Elegy” – means “mourning song” in Greek. This genre is quite common in the works of Russian composers. It seems legitimate that, in devoting his sonata to S. Prokofiev, F. Poulenc gave the first movement a title related to Russian culture. Songful, clear in structure melody is harmonized with the involvement of transitions to the distant keys. The second movement of the Sonata – “Scherzo” – contrasts sharply to Elegy. Exquisite harmonies and complex polyphonic combinations are replaced by monophony. If in the first movement the text of the piano part indicated the use of a soft deep carcass, the second movement applied a sharp, sometimes too rough, martellato. Elegy’s sophisticated agogics are destroyed by “iron” metricity, precision, and regular Scherzo’s accents. The Scherzo genre is interpreted here in a sharp grotesque way. The introduction begins in the dynamics of f and has a rigid rhythm. The parts of both instruments are completely equal. The endsections of Scherzo are steeped with “hypnotic” rhythmic movement. The middle section of the second movement is lyrical. The thematicism of the Scherzo middle section refers to the lyrical pages of S. Prokofiev’s work. The semantic center of the entire sonata for the oboe and piano by F. Poulenс is the third movement – “Sorrow”, which is a kind of musical epitaph. Created shortly before the composer’s death, the sonata can be considered one of thefinal results of his career. Perhaps this is not only a tribute to S. Prokofiev, but also a musical monument to himself. The textual presentation of the third movement is reminiscent of the choral. The melodic basis of the sonata finale is a set of intonations that are associated with spiritual singing of the Orthodox tradition. The main theme is exhibited in piano solo and has a mournful character, almost completely surreal. Conclusions. F. Poulenc’s Oboe and Piano Sonata is a three-movement cycle that has a genre and psychological program, as evidenced by the names of the movements. None of them uses the sonata form itself. All movements have a threesectionreprise structure. This, along with the program, points to the influence of suite logic, which fits into the tendency for the genre to be renewed in the 20th century, including combining the sonata genre with others. Working with different genre models and their hybrids is also a reflection of the neoclassical trends of 20th-century music that have always been inherent in F. Poulenc’s work. Signs of influence of Russian composers – S. Prokofiev, I. Stravinsky, M. Mussorgsky – are manifested not only at the level of thematicism, quotations, intonational allusions, types of texture presentation, but also at the level of dramaturgy. Thus, the interaction of lyrical and grotesque musical images in the second part is reminiscent of the conflict of love and enmity in S. Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet”.