TheThirdString Quartet by B. Britten as a phenomenof the late composer style
Authors: Solyanyk M. 
Published: May 2020

The paper is devoted to theproblematics of the late style in composer creativity. The typologies of the late style described in the musical science works of recent years (including the thesesby E. Nazaikinsky and N. Savitskaya) are systematized. The characteristic of B. Britten’s chamberheritage is given in the context of the achievements of the English composer’s school of аnew musical renaissance of the twentieth century. The purpose of the research is to reveal the specificity of the last opus phenomenon. Achieving the goal of the research involves using the following methods: genre approach, historical approach and stylistic approach. The specificity of the last opus phenomenon is revealed by the example of the Third String Quartet by B. Britten, which is recognized as the composer’s last opus. The late style of the composer is characterized in terms of orchestration, techniques, genre preferences and stylistic unity. Exposition of the main material of the study includes compositional and stylistic analysis of the Third String Quartet by B. Britten. In the paperheritage of B. Britten is considered as an example of a creative composer process which has an explicit division into several periods. The name of B. Britten is associated with the highest achievements of the English composer school of a new renaissance in the twentieth century. The researchers distinguish three periodsof B. Britten’s creativity. The first period is characterized by the interest in chamber music and various chamber compositions, the variation as a principle of development as well as the genre certainty. The individual style of the composer is formed in vocal musicearlier and more intensively. The second period is characterized by expressive orchestral writing, figurative concreteness and clarity of structures. The late period of B. Britten’s creativity is characterized by the desire to find the most flexible form of the modern performance. The stylistic synthesis reveals a reliance on ancient types and forms of playing music: Gregorian chant, heterophony, anemitonicpenta-tonic system and church modes. Most of his works are marked by the asceticism of expressive means. The scores are written in a stingy, honed manner, the composer uses instrumental compositions with vivid coloristic capabilities, but implements them with a subtle sense of proportion. The paper deals with the specifics of the B. Britten’s late style. According to the concept of N. Savitskaya the late style is the final evolutionary stage which includes stylistic elements of the early and mature stages of the composer’s creative formation in an in-depth and concentrated form. The researcher identifies the following types of late style: prognostic, consolidating and reduced. B. Britten’s late style can be classified as consolidating one. The paper isconcerned with the phenomenon of the last opus. B. Britten created three string quartets. The appearance of the first two was connected with the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of H. Purcell. The Third Quartet was written thirty years later, in 1975, in Venice, and was first performed after the death of B. Britten in 1976. This work was the last instrumental composition the authorcompleted. The structure of the Third Quartetdeparts from the traditional form. It consists of five relatively short movements which form a kind of symmetrical arch. B. Britten originally used the term divertimento as a working description of the quartet. Each movement of the cycle has its own subtitle: Duets, Ostinato, Solo, Burlesque, Recitative and Passacalia (La Serenissima). All movements are written in three-part form (ABA). The slow lyrical movements of the quartet form a kind of arches inside the composition. The first movement, Duets, is in a sense the most abstract of all five parts. The beginning resembles a “double spiral” (two voices are closely intertwined and are an exact copy of each other). In the second movement, Ostinato, the idea of an ostinato, where a musical pattern is repeated over and over in the background, takes on a somewhat intrusive form. In the third movement, Solo, the lone violin line, moving through wide intervals, is accompanied mostly by only one other voice at a time. In the fourth movement, Burlesque, the world of parody entertainment, clowning, buffoonery is presented. The fifth movement is entitled La Serenissima, a reference to Venice. In this movement B. Britten quoted his own last opera, Death in Venice. The results of the research support the idea that B. Britten’s late style refers to consolidated type of late style. This conclusion is reached based ona specific analysis of the Third String Quartet by B. Britten. The Third Quartet accumulates as features of B. Britten’s late style as the asceticism of expressive means in writing, reliance on the frets of folk music and the rigor of writing. B. Britten’s enthusiasm for the traditions of folk music resulted in a desire for the texture of all the voices in his instrumental scores. The composer’s chamber music is characterized by detailed instrumentation. Despite all the possibilities of using modernist techniques in the creative process B. Britten can be traced to an academic style. It is worth noting the amazing unity of B. Britten’s style throughout his life. Individual composer style is constantly being refined, remaining homogeneous at the same time (there are not style shifts and differences). In addition, B. Britten had always been aimed at performers and often wrote instrumental works on order. Although B. Britten’s heritage is widely represented in Ukrainian and foreign musical science, the specifics of the composer’s late style is still a field for study and comprehension. The paper opens up prospects for the study of the last opus in the late period of the work of composers.