Artistic and aesthetic ideas in “Plays” for two pianos by P. Dambis
Authors: Sediuk I.O. 
Published: May 2019

Background. The piano ensemble as a special type of chamber music has become popular in recent decades, as evidenced by numerous international piano duo competitions taking place in different countries, music festivals, master classes. Whereas a large number of scientifi c works is devoted to four-hand duo, two-piano ensemble began to attract the active attention of researchers only in the present day. Despite the individual approaches to its specifi cs and selected music examples, the generic properties of this phenomenon, which distinguish it among other forms of duo music, remain uncertain. Also, the ensemble features the numerous works of the 20th century demonstrating the attraction of the newest composing techniques, enhancing the role of sound and numerical structures, the law of symmetry, etc., while preserving continuity with tradition require a profound study. Objectives. The purpose of the article is to uncover a meaningful idea as well as artistic and aesthetic principles in the macro cycle “Plays” for two pianos by P. Dambis. Methods. An integrated approach together with the theoretical and the comparative research methods was used. Results. A series of ensemble pieces for two pianos by the Latvian composer P. Dambis appears as a kind of quintessence of playing performance logic. During the period of 1973 to 1979, the composer wrote a cycle of 10 pieces, organized in 3 series. The author unites all the pieces under a single name “Plays”, thus revealing his understanding of the piano duo possibilities. The fi rst series dates back to 1973–1974 and includes three contrasting pieces that have different image and style reference. All of them bear the imprint of modern compositional technology, while maintaining an organic connection with cyclic genres. Each of the plays has its internal contrasts, as evidenced by the change of texture and intonation complexes. Emphasizing the second-third music phrases, ostinato repetition, multiple transformations variants of the original element very distinctly makes the Piece Nr. 1 resemble the neofolklore searches of the 20th century without a direct connection with folk sources. In the Piece Nr. 2, the play-dialogue unfolds in the image stylistic space of romanticism, creating an allusion to the famous “La Campanella” by F. Liszt, as well as to the unpretentious music world of F. Mendelssohn. The last Piece of this series demonstrates the synthesis of diatonic and chromatic scales, various types of motion, inversion of structures, shifting of accents, repetitious chanting, sonorant aleatoric synchronous performance of sound complexes. The second series of “Plays” (1975–1976) includes two Pieces; it continues with the variety of previously embodied constructive motifs, although it outlines them more sharply through the opposing ensemble parts. The technique of moving each of the parts into their tonal environment in the Piece Nr. 4 emphasizes their independence, causing the exchange of replicas as if in a dialogue. Whereas Piano I part goes in B-dur and its melody is perceived as an allusion to the second movement of Schumann’s Kreisleriana, in Piano II part, we see harmonious fi guration of polytonal connections: G major - Fis-dur. A colorful palette is created, and it generates a “tail” of sonorous effects. They are achieved through the register technique when the parts of the ensemble are gradually mixed together. On the other hand, the whole usage of white and black keyboard appears in a new way, more broadly – of diatronics and chromaticism, which are interpreted in the music of the twentieth century as certain image-bearing spheres that are sometimes opposed to each other, and as the fundamental constants of different music systems. The Piece Nr. 5 is composed in the competitive spirit between sonorous effects, which is typical for the fi nal sections, and the traditional vocabulary of metric music. The third series of “Plays” (1978–1979) is the largest one as it includes fi ve pieces. Whereas in the fi rst two series of “Plays” the principle of randomness comes into effect periodically, then, beginning with the play number 6, it dominates in the creation of themes and forms. In the third series, P. Dambis embodies sonority and aleatory techniques in different ways either through creating the necessary effect by using an unregulated overlay of diachromatic sequences or interval structures, or through combining them with the traditional rhythm and metric methods of writing. The Piece Nr. 8 can be attributed to the samples where the prominent thematic principle prevails: that is, the clearly defi ned “landscape – background” texture, the presence of constructions that refer to certain genre prototypes, the dance scherzo themes, the energy of the dotted rhythm in triad chords etc. The “Plays” Nr. 9 differ by the miniature form, which is easily explained by using the already well-known playing fi gures. P. Dambis retains the contrast of two clearly defi ned sections, the ametric and the metric music presented both in the horizontal and in the vertical projections, written all the texture voices throughout the whole section and the square structure of the interval sequence. Despite the difference between thematic ideas in this piece, their similarity is revealed through more careful analysis. In other words, the composer offers different modes of one and the same thing. In contrast to the statuesque fi gures, typical of P. Dambis, which get their internal mobility through the ostinato repetition, in the Plays Nr 9. the author introduces the hemi-group that chromatically descends in both parts in parallel, and then moves in opposite directions. Although long time values predominate here, their weight is neutralized by the tempo, thrills, and wide steps. The leaps that exceed the octave bring the game factor; additionally, they are emphasized by a syncope. We can observe a theatrical play with different characters involved, which is enhanced with the comic techniques. Conclusions. The macrocycle for two pianos by P. Dambis reveals the composer’s attitude to both tradition and new discoveries in the music of the 20th century. Nine music pieces represent a kind of anthology showing the development of composer’s thought as a whole: from the desire to preserve the connection with folk prototypes, as evidenced by the signs of the “sutatirne” in the fi rst two pieces, through various allusions of the famous classical examples, to sonoric aleatory technique , which appears as a modus of Baroque improvisation on the new stage of the history. In this sense, the title “Plays” the composer chose acquires new semantic overtones, bringing varied experience of musical culture and allowing to attribute the macrocycle to the synthesizing tendency in music of the previous century.