The parameters of co-creation: a performing look at “The Six Romances for the Words by A. S. Pushkin” by G. Sviridov
Authors: Sun Bo 
Published: May 2019

Formulation of the problem. The development of the concept of “co-creation” is proposed as the necessary condition for the interaction of subjects in the system: the composer – the poet – the performer-singer. The spiritual duality of the poet and the composer becomes a meeting place with its performer. The triple reflection I=I=I is captured in the structure of the artwork. Its result is the content of the category “the author’s concept”; this is an important parameter of the artist’s “entry” into the composer’s text, which is relevant for the analysis of a vocal composition. The theme of the poet’s influences on the composer (spiritual duality), who addressed Pushkin from a different “historical distance”, is at the “epicentre” of the development of the problems of the performing interpretation. The current most important task is to tie together the musicological tradition and the performing look at it. Analysis of recent publications on the topic. From the point of view of the spiritual analysis of the vocal style of G. Sviridov, A. Tevosyan heard a lot and recorded a lot in his work “The Book about Sviridov”. It is necessary to use the epistolary part of “Sviridov-logy”: the memoirs of the singers about the composer directly indicate the phenomenon of “community” as the evidence of their spiritual kinship. The knowledge of this actualizes the work by G. Sviridov in the context of the modern performing practice (including that of the foreign-language singers studying in Ukraine). The article involves such research methods as structural-functional (parameters of the composer’s text), semantic (the poetic symbolism of Pushkin’s texts), and interpretative (performing features). The purpose of the article is to reveal the content of the concept of “co-creation” as a system of objectively existing and interrelated parameters that are amenable to modelling and interpretive analysis. The early vocal cycle of G. Sviridov “The Six Romances for the Words by A. Pushkin” (1935), which received the absolute recognition and fame, was chosen as the material for the analysis. Presentation of the main text. The parameters of co-creation as the necessary condition for the interaction of subjects in the system of “the composer – the poet – the performer-singer” are divided into the internal and external ones. The phenomenon of the authorship, the poetic word, the vocal letter, the premiere performance, the aura of vocal intonation, and integrity are the internal parameters of the vocal style. The socio-cultural (external) parameters ensure the quality of communicative processes in the changed conditions of communication among the subjects of vocal creativity: the time of history, “here and now”, and the time of performance. The composer’s creative process began with melody and singing: he perceived the world through the prism of melody. Sviridov composed using the instrument, sang, trying one, then the other. Even his instrumental compositions are imbued with melodic current (for example, “The Little Triptych”). The main thing for the composer is the voice, which means the vocal. The phenomenon of Sviridov was best revealed by his interpreter, the pianist and researcher M. Arkadiev: “’Not me, but because of me’, – this is the inner experience of creative consciousness.” The word for Sviridov’s creative credo is the key. The composer formulated it the following way: “The artist is called to serve, as far as he can, to the disclosure of the Truth of the World. In the synthesis of Music and the Word this truth can be concluded.” G. Sviridov subtly and with understanding approached the interpretation of the poetic images created by A. Pushkin, his versification. The melody of romances emphasizes the expressiveness of the text, corresponds to its concise and clear form. Each romance is a complete piece of music. Through all the romances one cross-cutting theme passes – the theme of the poet’s loneliness, embodied in a series of reflections of the lyrical hero and the pictures of the nature. The performing musicians who perform the entire cycle are faced with the problem of the integrity of drama, which is adequate to the author’s concept. “The Six Romances for the Words by A. Pushkin” by G. Sviridov is a very repertoire composition: many beginning talented singers learn the laws of the classics of the 20th century with these romances. However, it is very difficult to find the reference execution in the electronic access. Of course, the art of the unsurpassed Dmitry Khvorostovsky claims this role. The contrast between his performance of the romance “Approaching Izhora” and the young interpreters of this immortal music is especially striking. Conclusions. The national image of the world in “The Six Romances for the words by A. Pushkin” by G. Sviridov turns out to be the highest stylistic parameter of the author’s concept of the composition. Against the background of globalization processes in the culture of the 21st century, the value of the national dimension of the meaning of music is increasingly recognized. The musical parameters are revealed on the following levels: melodic and articulation, metro rhythm and tempo-rhythm, texture-harmonic hearing and dramaturgy of the whole. In order to build a continuous line of the development of the cycle, it is important to realize its semantic connections, correctly evaluate all the structural, functional and genre-style parameters of the composition