Pastoral poetics in the compositions for the flute by European and Chinese composers of the 20th –21st centuries
Authors: Youjie Wang 
Published: August 2024

Statement of the problem. The pastoral complex, which is expressed in the genre and stylistic components of musical works, starting with the musical art of the Ancient World, constitutes a separate direction of modern musical semantics. Such a complex is relevant for the flute works of Chinese composers, but it is no less relevant for European flute art. In 20th–21st centuries, the compositions with pastoral semantics were created by the composers of Europe (C. Debussy, A. Honegger, J. Mouquet, O. Messian, S. Gubaidulina) and China (Tang Mizhi, Huang Huwei, Bright Sheng, He Lutin, Li Guochen, Jin Fuzai and Le Zufeng). Given the large body of compositions for the flute, the identification and study of pastoral semantics within a specific instrument becomes a relevant issue. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to identify a stable and mobile genre-style “pastoral complex” in the flute compositions of European and Chinese composers of the 20th– 21st centuries. The methods of researching are based on the principles of analytical interpretology (Nikolaievska, 2020) and the materials of the Department of Interpretology and Analysis of Music at Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts (accenting, in particular, the components of performance thesaurus of modern music science, such as the concepts of performance formation of sound and sonorous image of the instrument, compositional strategy, contonation); also systematic approach and comparative analysis have been involved. The genre method is appropriate for researching the genre system of flute music of the 20th–21st centuries, and individually the pastoral genre, the stylistic one – when referring to specific composer solutions for the embodiment of pastoral themes. The novelty of the study is connected with the development of a comparative analysis of the compositions of pastoral semantics, the definition of a stable and mobile pastoral complex in the compositions for the flute of the 20th–21st centuries. Research results and conclusion. In the continuation of the research of pastoral in musical art, our own definition has been proposed. Pastoral in music is: a meta-genre of musical creativity expressing the close connection of earthly and heavenly principles; composition reflecting a certain theme (natural, religious, mythological, symbolic). Pastoralism as a quality of a musical text is: a complex of means of expression related to the reflection of idyllic motifs; the embodiment of a conscious compositional strategy through contonation (joint listening of space) aimed at creating a specific sound image. On the basis of the sound image model of 4 levels – acoustic, intonation, compositional-dramaturgic, extra-musical (Nikolaievska, 2020) – stable and mobile components of the pastoral sound image of the instrument have been determined. The tendency of the composer’s creativity has been formulated, which primarily reflects the use of a fairly specific program quality, which, of course, by the middle of the 20th century significantly expands its boundaries. If at the beginning of the century the flute was often used to solve the pictorial and image-creating and sonographic-coloristic tasks, achieving unusual transparency and brightness, then starting from the second half of the 20th century, the perception of the timbre of the instrument by composers completely changes. Undoubtedly, all of the above required the enormous performers’ resources. It is shown that in the compositions by Chinese composers (both original and transcriptions), the flute mostly obeys the pastoral complex, combines archaic halftone-free scales and chromatics. The instrument is mostly associated with the theme of nature, images of mountains, rivers, and the sun. This is reflected even in the names. If in the European tradition the compositions are often called simply “Pastoral” (that is, the genre name implies a full complex of recognizable musical expressiveness, as well as a reference to mythological images that appeals to pastoralism), then there are almost no “simple” pastoral names for the compositions by Chinese composers, all of them are more poetic, pictorial, picturesque, moody, with many symbols and themes from folk songs, iconic geographical names (for example, Tien Shan, Pamir, etc.). In the European tradition, pastoralism permeates almost all genres (except the flute concerto) – miniatures, sonata, concert piece, suite; in the Chinese one – mostly miniatures (flute solo, with the piano, in ensemble, arrangement of solo singing). In the European tradition, mono-timbre quality is indicated, in the Chinese one – poly-timbre quality (there are many allusions to timbres of Chinese flute varieties – dizi, hulusi, sui, yue, etc.). Conclusion. Summarizing the features of pastoral sound image of the flute in the creative work of European and Chinese composers, it has been noted that in the analysed examples, the instrument is interpreted mainly in the aspect of pastoralism, the stable components of the stylistics of which are: in the music of the European tradition – the acoustic level; in the music of the Chinese tradition, there is a combination of archaic anhemitonicity and chromaticism. The given examples prove that unlike the European genre-style paradigm of the instrument (which contains a variety of semantic and sound-image manifestations), in the music of Chinese composers the flute remains mostly primarily an instrument related to the theme of nature (images of mountains, rivers, the sun, the east). The most stable complex (intonation thesaurus) is a high register, intonations-crosstalk, sound assimilations, fast passages of various directions, a large number of ornaments, the predominant meter (4/4, 6/8), tonalities (modes), etc. The compositional and dramaturgical and extra-musical levels have been designated as mobile zones of the pastoral complex. In the European tradition, the pastoral is limited to genre forms (there are sonatas, miniatures, and concert pieces). In the Chinese musical culture, the influence of other types of art (in particular, poetry) is more tangible and often concrete, which affects the performing reproduction of pastoral semantics.