Laughter as a direction of Marc-André Hamelin’s composer searches.
Authors: Pidporinova K.V. 
Published: May 2019

Background. Contemporary musical art is an open stage for collision and coexistence of various artistic ideas, landmarks, styles, etc. The work of the recognized Canadian pianist-composer Marc-Andr&#233; Hamelin (born in 1961) raises a particular interest. The fact that the peculiarities of the musician’s performing and composing style are insuffi ciently covered in Ukrainian musicology determines the research rationale. It is also caused by the need to identify the specifi c features of the author’s inheritance, ensuring its consistency with the present time, where the laughter phenomenon becomes an important component of the picture of life. Objectives of the study are the comprehension of Marc-Andr&#233; Hamelin’s composer searches in the aspect of laughing cultural tradition and the defi nition of the author’s proposed ways of its embodiment in music. Methods. The research is based on the principles of complex approach, which involves using the biographical, the systematic, the genre and style, the structural and functional, and the comparative methods, etc. Results. M.-A. Hamelin appears to be a universal personality. He implements his creative intentions in various performing incarnations – as a soloist-pianist, a distinct interpreter and recognized virtuoso and intellectual; a performer who actively collaborates with the orchestra; a piano duo participant; a chamber ensemble participant and a studio musician. The repertoire palette he chose includes world-famous works, opuses of transcendental complexity, rarely performed music, and his own music works. His choosing some of the original works outlines the sphere of laughter as he searches new performing techniques, which has an infl uence on him as a composer. The original style of M.-A. Hamelin aims to create a special “rebus” fi eld, where the multiplicity of artistic perception is related to the degree of immersion into a given playing situation. The piano cycle “12 &#201;tudes in all minor keys” was intended to be hommage to the samename work by Charles-Valentin Alkan. The iconic ceremoniousness of the title forms a special fi eld of culture, which creates a laughter background. Most of the cycle items correspond to the creativity of a particular artist whose musical image appears through the original style of writing. The synthesizing type of composer’s thinking contributes to the combining the music and the colorifi c etude, that is, the virtuoso music piece and the exercise at the same time, and a graphic sketch-drawing, and to the creation of a musical portrait “gallery” (F. Chopin, N. Paganini, F. Liszt, Ch. Alcan, D. Scarlatti , P. Tchaikovsky, J. Rossini, V. Goethe and the author himself). Using masks, theatrical techniques, bright characters is manifested at all levels and serve as markers of a carnival. The existing playing mode ensures the importance and essentiality of laughter. M.-A. Hamelin refers to the established palette of the piano techniques and formulas, while demonstrating new algorithms of interpreting the existing traditions. A musical rebus is the leading idea. To embody this idea, it is required to use not only artistic ingenuity, but also the competition elements. These are “Triple” etudes Nr. 1 (after Chopin) and Nr. 4 (after Alkan), where counterpoint techniques are enriched by the principle of combination. The other side of “rebusness” is demonstrated in the Etude Nr. 8, where the plot of “The Elf King” ballad by Goethe is very accurately reproduced through the piano means of expressiveness. Competitive ingenuity presides in the Etude Nr. 7 for the left hand (“The Lullaby” by P. Tchaikovsky) and Nr. 3 – an alternative transcription of “La campanella” by N. Paganini, which turns into an evil joke compared to Liszt’s interpretation. This is another side of laughter, a dark one, an enhancement of grotesque imagery. Etude Nr. 5, “Toccata grottesca”, looks similarly. Here, the grotesque images are represented by transcendental pianism, unceasing “drive”, change of metric pulsation and rhythmic groups, and wide dynamic amplitude. The lookalike expressive complex is also used in another music piece – toccata “L’Homme arm&#233;”. Another variant of laugher is the creation of a musical “shapeshifter” – re-interpretation of an original source to the point where it is hardly recognized. For example, Etude Nr. 9 (after Rossini) and Nr. 10 (after Chopin), where the principle of transformation is prevailing. The presence of a highly-intellectual play allows us to draw a parallel with baroque inventory. In the latest etudes of the cycle, M.-A. Hamelin uses such genres as “Minuetto” (Nr. 11) and “Prelude and Fugue” (Nr. 12). Therefore, using a certain genre model, the composer places it in different context conditions, creating a special laughter-playing space, where all the main sources of comic elements are involved: a parody, implemented through the stylization or the style dialogue-collision; daily mode of like, which is refl ected in a festive-carnival worldview, and fantasy, which determines the composer’s inventiveness. M.-A. Hamelin chose the same creative strategy when composing “Variations on the theme of Paganini” for piano solo. A playful piece “Waltz-Minute” is another example of the laughter potency. It resembles either a relative transcription of the famous work by F. Chopin, or a music sketch, or a fi xed improvisation. In the reprise, the graceful and airy waltz turns into a friendly caricature through using the dissonant seconds, the change of touche and an excellent artistic presentation. This creates the effect of distance in time, in epochal or individual style, even in the own “Me”. Another area of the laughter direction employment is the actualization of the playing sound image of the instrument. These are music pieces designed for a player piano. It is signifi cant that the composer tends to the theme of circus, which echoes with carnival, stunts, and fun. Conclusions. Being a universal personality, the artist determines the predominance of combinatorics as a guiding principle of author’s thinking. The key to understanding the composer’s style is the laughter tradition. The main artistic ideas are: portrait, character, mask, “rebus”, competition, creation of “shapeshifting” music pieces, “duality”. Talking about the level of musical stylistics, these features appear through the usage of a quoted material, stylization, grotesque, caricature and pamphlet elements. They are also expressed through the transformation of the original themes, re-interpretation, using multiple rhythmic layers, redesign of modes and counterpoint ingenuity.