Genre music |

French genre, from lat. genus – genus, species

An ambiguous concept that characterizes the historically established genera and types of muses. works in connection with their origin and life purpose, method and conditions (place) of performance and perception, as well as with the peculiarities of content and form. The concept of genre exists in all types of art, but in music, due to the specifics of its arts. images, has a special meaning; it stands, as it were, on the border between the categories of content and form, and allows one to judge the objective content of the product, based on the complex of expressions used. funds.

The complexity and ambiguity of the concept of Zh. m. are also connected with the fact that not all factors determining it act simultaneously and with equal force. These factors themselves are of a different order (for example, the form and place of performance) and can act in diverse combinations with varying degrees of mutual conditioning. Therefore, in music science developed different. systems of classification of Zh. m. They depend on which of the factors causing Zh. m. is considered as the main one. For example, BA Zuckerman highlights the content factor (genre – typified content), AH Coxop – society. existence, i.e. the life purpose of music and the environment for its performance and perception. The most exhaustive complex definition of philosophic music is contained in the textbooks “The Structure of Musical Works” by L. A. Mazel and “Analysis of Musical Works” by L. A. Mazel and BA Zuckerman. The complexity of the classification of Zh. m. is also connected with their evolution. Changing conditions of existence of muses. works, the interaction of Nar. creativity and prof. art-va, as well as the development of muses. languages ​​lead to the modification of old genres and the emergence of new ones. Zh. m. reflects and nat. the specifics of music product, belonging to one or another ideological art. direction (for example, the French romantic grand opera). Often the same work can be characterized from different points of view, or the same genre can be in several genre groups. Thus, opera can be defined in the most general terms as a genre of music. creativity. Then you can attribute it to the wok.-instr group. (method of performance) and theatrical and dramatic. (place of performance and connection with an adjacent claim) of works. Further, it is possible to determine its historical appearance, associated with the era, traditions (often national) of choosing a plot, construction, even performance in a particular theater, etc. (e.g. Italian opera genres seria and buffa, French comic or lyric opera). More individual. characteristics of music and dram. the content and form of the opera will lead to further concretization of the literary genre (Mozart’s buffa opera The Marriage of Figaro is a lyric-comedy opera, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko is an epic opera, and others). These definitions may differ in greater or lesser precision, and sometimes in a certain arbitrariness; sometimes they are given by the composer himself (“The Snow Maiden” – a spring fairy tale, “Eugene Onegin” – lyrical scenes, etc.). It is possible to single out “genres within genres”. So, arias, ensembles, recitatives, choirs, symphony. the fragments included in the opera can also be defined as dec. wok genres. and instr. music. Further, their genre characteristics can be clarified based on various everyday genres (for example, Juliet’s waltz from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet or Sadko’s round dance song from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko), both relying on composer’s instructions and giving their own. definitions (Cherubino’s aria “The Heart Excites” is a romance, Susanna’s aria is a serenade). Finally, we can point to the use of everyday genres or genre features in the themes of arias (the march in Figaro’s aria “The frisky boy”).

Thus, when classifying genres, it is necessary to keep in mind each time which factor or combination of several factors is decisive. According to the purpose of genres, genres can be divided into genres that are directly related to the needs of human life, sounding in everyday life – household and folk-everyday genres, and genres that do not carry certain vital and everyday functions. Many of the genres of the 1st group arose in an era when music had not yet completely separated from related types of art (poetry, choreography) and was used in all kinds of labor processes, ritual actions (round dances, triumphal or military processions, rituals, spells, etc.).

Decl. researchers identify different fundamental principles of genres. So, BA Zuckerman considers song and dance as “primary genres”, CC Skrebkov speaks of three genre types – declamation (in connection with the word), motority (in connection with movement) and chant (associated with independent lyrical expressiveness). AH Coxop adds two more types to these three types – instr. signaling and sound imaging.

Genre features can intertwine, bringing to life mixed, for example. song and dance, genres. In folk-everyday genres, as well as in genres that reflect the content of life in a more complex, mediated form, there is, along with a general classification, a differentiated one. It concretizes both the practical purpose and the content, the nature of the product. (for example, lullaby, serenade, barcarolle as a variety of lyrical songs, mourning and victory marches, etc.).

New everyday genres appeared constantly, they influenced genres of a different type and entered into interaction with them. The Renaissance includes, for example, the beginning of the formation of instr. suite, which consisted of everyday dances of that time. The suite served as one of the origins of the symphony. The fixation of the minuet as one of the parts of the symphony contributed to the crystallization of this highest form of instr. music. With a claim of the 19th century. poeticization of songs and dances are connected. genres, enriching their lyrical and psychological. content, symphonization, etc.

Household Zh. m., concentrating in themselves typical. the intonations and rhythms of the era, the social environment, the people that gave birth to them, are of paramount importance for the development of prof. music. Household song and dance. genres (German, Austrian, Slavic, Hungarian) were one of the foundations on which the Viennese classic was formed. school (J. Haydn’s folk-genre symphonism is especially indicative here). New genres of music revolution. France are reflected in the heroic. symphonism of L. Beethoven. The emergence of national schools is always associated with the composer’s generalization of the genres of everyday life and nar. music. A broad reliance on everyday and folk-everyday genres, which serves both as a means of concretization and generalization (“generalization through the genre” – a term introduced by A.A. Alschwang in connection with Bizet’s opera “Carmen”), characterizes the realist. opera (P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. P. Mussorgsky, J. Bizet, G. Verdi), pl. phenomena instr. music of the 19th and 20th centuries. (F. Schubert, F. Chopin, I. Brahms, D. D. Shostakovich and others). For music of the 19th-20th centuries. a broad system of genre connections is characteristic, expressed in a synthesis (often within the same topic) features decomp. genres (not only everyday music) and talking about the special richness of the vital content of the product. (for example, F. Chopin). Genre definition plays an important role in the dramaturgy of complex “poetic” forms of romanticism. music of the 19th century, for example. in connection with the principle of monothematism.

Dependent on the socio-historical. environment factors of place, conditions of performance and existence of muses. prod. actively influence the formation and evolution of the genre. from aristocratic palaces to the public theater changed a lot in it and contributed to its crystallization as a genre. Performance in the theater brings together such dec. by components and method of performance of musical drama. genres like opera, ballet, vaudeville, operetta, music for the play in dramas. t-pe, etc. B 17 c. new genres of film music, radio music, and pop music arose.

Practiced for a long time, the performance of ensemble and solo works. (quartets, trios, sonatas, romances and songs, pieces for individual instruments, etc.) in a homely, “chamber” environment gave rise to the specifics of chamber genres with their greater depth, sometimes intimacy of expression, lyrical and philosophical orientation or, conversely, proximity to everyday genres (due to similar performance conditions). The specifics of chamber genres are greatly influenced by the limited number of participants in the performance.

Development of conc. life, transferring the performance of music. works on the big stage, the increase in the number of listeners also led to the specifics of the end. genres with their virtuosity, greater relief of thematics, often elevated “oratorical” tone of muses. speeches, etc. The origins of such genres go back to organ works. J. Frescobaldi, D. Buxtehude, G. F. Handel and especially J. S. Baxa; their characteristic features were most definitely imprinted in the “special” genre of the concerto (primarily for one solo instrument with an orchestra), in conc. pieces for both soloists and orchestra (piano pieces by F. Mendelssohn, F. Liszt, etc.). Transferred to conc. stage chamber, domestic and even instructive-pedagogical. genres (etudes) can acquire new features, respectively. end specifics. A special variety is the so-called plein-air genres (outdoor music), already represented in the works of G. F. Handel (“Music on the Water”, “Firework Music”) and which became widespread in the era of the Great French. revolution. With this example, one can see how the place of performance influenced the thematicism itself with its posterity, lapidarity and scope.

The factor of performance conditions is related to the degree of activity of the listener in the perception of music. works – up to direct participation in the performance. So, on the border with everyday genres are mass genres (mass song), born in the revolution. era and achieved great development in owl music. B 20th century music-drama became widespread. genres, designed for the simultaneous participation of prof. performers and spectators (children’s operas by P. Hindemith and B. Britten).

The composition of the performers and the method of performance determine the most common classification of genres. This is primarily a division into wok. and instr. genres.

Box genres with a few exceptions (vocalization) are associated with poetic. (rarely prosaic) texts. They arose in most cases as musical and poetic. genres (in the music of ancient civilizations, the Middle Ages, in the folk music of different countries), where the word and music were created simultaneously, had a common rhythm. organization. Box works are divided into solo (song, romance, aria), ensemble and choral. They can be purely vocal (solo or xop without accompaniment, a cappella; a cappella composition is especially characteristic of the polyphonic music of the Renaissance, as well as Russian choral music of the 17-18 centuries) and vocal-instr. (more often, especially from the 17th century) – accompanied by one (usually keyboard) or several. instruments or orchestra. Box prod. with the accompaniment of one or more. instruments belong to chamber woks. genres, with orchestra accompaniment – to large wok.-instr. genres (oratorio, mass, requiem, passions). All these genres have a complex history that makes it difficult to classify them. Thus, a cantata can be both a chamber solo work and a large composition for mixed music. composition (xop, soloists, orchestra). For the 20th century typical participation in wok.-instr. prod. reader, actors, involvement of pantomime, dancing, theatricalization (dramatic oratorios by A. Onegger, “stage cantatas” by K. Orff, bringing vocal-instrumental genres closer to the genres of drama theater).

An opera using the same performers (soloists, xop, orchestra) and often the same components as the wok-instr. genres, is distinguished by its stage. and dram. nature and is essentially synthetic. genre, in which combine diff. types of claims.

Tool genres originate from dance, more broadly from the connection of music with movement. At the same time, wok genres have always influenced their development. music. Main genres instr. music – solo, ensemble, orchestral – took shape in the era of the Viennese classics (second half of the 2th century). These are symphony, sonata, quartet and other chamber ensembles, concerto, overture, rondo, etc. The generalization of the most important aspects of human life (action and struggle, reflection and feeling, rest and play, etc.) played a decisive role in the crystallization of these genres. ) in typical sonata-symphonic form. cycle.

The process of forming a classical instr. genres took place in parallel with the differentiation of performers. compositions, with development will express. and tech. tool capabilities. The way of performance was reflected in the specifics of solo, ensemble and orchestral genres. Thus, the genre of the sonata is characterized by a large role of the individual beginning, the symphony – by greater generalization and scale, revealing the beginning of the mass, collective, concerto – a combination of these trends with improvisation.

In the era of romanticism in instr. music, so-called. poetic genres – ballad, poem (fp. and symphonic), as well as lyric. miniature. In these genres, there is the influence of related arts, a tendency towards programming, the interaction of lyrical-psychological and pictorial-painting principles. A major role in the formation of romantic. instr. genres was played by the disclosure of rich expressive and timbre possibilities of FP. and the orchestra.

Many ancient genres (17th-1st half of the 18th centuries) continue to be used. Some of them are romantic. era were transformed (for example, prelude and fantasy, in which improvisation plays a large role, the suite, revived in the form of a romantic cycle of miniatures), others did not experience significant changes (concerto grosso, passacaglia, the so-called small polyphonic cycle – prelude and fugue, etc.).

The most important for the formation of the genre is the content factor. Music typing. content in a certain music. form (in the broad sense of the word) is the essence of the concept of Zh. m. The classification of Zh. m., directly reflecting the types of content, is borrowed from the theory of literature; in accordance with it, dramatic, lyrical and epic genres are distinguished. However, the constant interweaving of these types of expressiveness makes it difficult to define this kind of classification. So, a dramatic development can bring out the lyric. miniature beyond the lyric. genres (C-moll Chopin’s nocturne), narrative-epic. the nature of the ballad genre can be complicated by the lyric. the nature of the thematic and drama. development (Chopin’s ballads); dramatic symphonies can be associated with the song-lyrical principles of dramaturgy, thematics (Schubert’s h-moll symphony, Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, etc.).

The problems of Zh. m. are affected in all areas of musicology. About the role of Zh. m. in the disclosure of the content of muses. prod. It is said in works devoted to a variety of problems and phenomena of muses. creativity (for example, in the book by A. Dolzhansky “Instrumental Music of P. I. Tchaikovsky”, in the works of L. A. Mazel about F. Chopin, D. D. Shostakovich, etc.). Attention pl. domestic and foreign countries, researchers are attracted by the history of the department. genres. B 60-70s. 20th century problems of Zh. m. are more and more closely associated with muses. aesthetics and sociology. This direction in the study of female music was outlined in the works of B. V. Asafiev (“Russian Music from the Beginning of the 1930th Century”, XNUMX). The credit for the special development of the theory of musical music belongs to the Soviet science of music (works by A. A. Alschwang, L. A. Mazel, B. A. Zuckerman, S. S. Skrebkov, A. A. Coxopa, and others).

From the point of view of owls. In musicology, the elucidation of genre connections is a necessary and most important component of the analysis of muses. works, it contributes to the identification of the social content of muses. art and is closely connected with the problem of realism in music. Genre theory is one of the most important areas of musicology.

References: Alschwang AA, Opera genres “Karmen”, in his book: Selected Articles, M., 1959; Zuckerman BA, Musical genres and foundations of musical forms, M., 1964; Skrebkov CC, Artistic Principles of Musical Styles (Introduction and Research), in: Music and Modernity, vol. 3, M., 1965; musical genres. Sat. articles, ed. TB Popova, M., 1968; Coxop AH, The aesthetic nature of the genre in music, M., 1968; his, Theory of musical genres: tasks and prospects, in collection: Theoretical problems of musical forms and genres, M., 1971, p. 292-309.

EM Tsareva