Violin concerto principles as a way of musical thinking: semantic discourse
Authors: Uspenska I.O. 
Published: August 2020

Background. The history of concert music, separated from ritual and other non-musical functions, is closely connected with the art of violin. The violin was the leading instrument of the Baroque concert style, the examples of which are still unsurpassed. Despite the large amount of research on the formation and varieties of violin style, the concept of “concert” in combination with the concept of “violin” has not yet been considered separately, which determines the relevance of the topic of this article. The object of the research is a concerto principle of musical thinking in violin music; the purpose of the study is to identify the features of the phenomenon of concert in the system of music genres with the participation of the violin. Research methodology. To highlight the content of the stated topic, the article uses elements of both general and special musicological methods, including: historical genetic, deductive, comparative (general scientific approaches); organological, genre and stylistic analysis (musicological approach). Results. The article is devoted to the characterization of the “concerto principles” concept, which is the basis for the study of concert works for violin. It is noted that such phenomena and concepts as “concerto principles”, “concertіzing”, “concerto” are based on the reflection of the dialogue idea in its projection on the dialectic of musical formation (according to B. Asafiev). The author of the article identifies the main approaches to classifying the types of concerto as a musical genre, pointing out the following oppositions: “composer – performer-soloist”, “performer-soloist – orchestra”, and “structural canon – freedom of construction”. The significance of such attributes of concerto as virtuosity and improvisation inherent in any concert forms, including with the participation of the violin, is highlighted. It is noted that the implementation of the concerto principles, which come from large concert forms by J. S. Bach (according to Yu. Kholopov), is a prerequisite in the practical application of the concerto violin music models that are individually embodied in the work of modern masters, including Kharkiv citizens. In order to characterize the phenomenon of violin concerto principles, it was necessary to dwell on the nature of a whole complex of phenomena defined by B.Asafiev as “the basis and principle of concerto”. Based on the observations made by the founder of intonation theory, we can conclude that there is a common core of any concerto music – the idea of a dialogue that arises between the generating and generated intonational and thematic impulses that potentially contain a key to the dialectic of the musical process in its various structural formulations. The dialogue nature of concerto as a special musical genre also includes such attributes as virtuosity and improvisation. However, their presence in a concerto has various gradations and is not, as a rule, a foreground factor. At the same time, we cannot deny that the virtus aesthetics (lat. – valor, talent) is important within the system of concerto genres represented in music for a certain instrument, in particular, the violin. In this regard, a concerto is always a “competition and agreement” between the soloist and the orchestra accompanying him. As a result, and on this basis, we can say about the formation of the three main types of interaction between the participants in the concert dialogue: dominating solo, dominating orchestra, and parity (according to K. Kuznetsov). It should be noted that the improvisation clarifies the meaning of concerto as a performing genre, which is aimed at the free expression of a musician, unlimited by the existing canons and structural models. The genome of concerto (M. Bondarenko) is realized in a rather wide variety of musical forms and genre subtypes – from the standard model of a concerto for a solo instrument with orchestra, a concert for orchestra, a “concerto without orchestra” (R. Schumann), to any other genre forms containing signs of concerto (K. Bila). In evolutionary terms, the development of the concert dialogue idea went through several stages in which two multidirectional vectors are distinguished – centripetal (the way to concerto as a special kind of symphonic genre) and centrifugal (“dispersal” of concerto as a principle of musical thinking in different intonation systems – mono-, poly- and liberal-genre, according to G. Daunoravichene). The “Genre Explosion” (L. Shapovalova), inherent in Modern music, influenced concerto as a musical genre, where composers and performers can discover for themselves and for listeners the most diverse elements of language and technology, referring to different eras and genre styles. The absence of a unified concert model in modern composer and performing practice is largely due to the set of instruments. The instrumental component of concert genres (namely genres, not a genre) is in modern conditions a key determinant in implementing the principles of concerto, which fully applies to violin music. It was the violin that was one of the main instruments that determined the appearance of a solo concerto in the Baroque music, where the foundations of the entire subsequent development of instrumental genre traditions were laid in the direction from the typical vision to the author’s version – the hypothesis of the world (M. Starcheus), concentrated in the genre “matrix” (E. Nazaikinsky). The unsurpassed examples of a large concerto form, which composers of all subsequent eras have oriented themselves to, are found in the works of J. S. Bach, who was not so much an “inventor” as a “trend-setter”. In concertos by J. S. Bach, the severity and seriousness of thought are combined with a peculiar “neutralization” (Yu. Kholopov) of form elements that create a kind of its internal tonal and harmonic “frame”. At the heart of Bach’s concerto principles, which apply to all other manifestations of this principle, and to modern violin literature, there are two constructive standards – polyphonic (theme and interlude) and homophonic (theme and episode), in which Yu. Kholopov sees not only differences, but also similarities. The author of this article did not set the goal of illustrating these principles on the material of specific works from the creative portfolios of Kharkiv masters. At the same time, the three principles of constructing a large concerto form – alternative, developmental and reprise-repeated (Yu. Kholopov), developed by I. S. Bach, can be traced in a number of examples – from concertos for violin (violins) with orchestra – to concerto miniatures , where the “image” of the instrument is realized through various gradations of concerto as the basis and principle of musical thinking. Conclusions. The semantics of violin concerto is revealed in two meanings, concentrated in the components of this phenomenon. The main one is “concert” as a principle of musical thinking, based on a combination and different types of ratio of dialogicity (genre constant), virtuosity and improvisation (genre attributes). The second component of the phenomenon – “violin” – specifies the first at the level of the genre system, which is multifaceted and includes works of different models, classified on the basis of mono-, poly- and librogenre. The semantic “matrices” of violin concerto find expression in the corresponding genre forms, which was first demonstrated in the music of the late Baroque (J. S. Bach), where they were divided into two most common types of poetics: polyphonic (theme and interlude), homophonic (theme and episode). The article states that on this methodological basis it is necessary to approach the concert violin style in the works of both individual authors and regional schools, in particular, one of the leading in Ukraine – Kharkiv, which is the immediate prospect of further study of the topic.