Symphonism

Symphonism is a generalizing concept derived from the term “symphony” (see Symphony), but not identified with it. In the broadest sense, symphonism is the artistic principle of the philosophically generalized dialectical reflection of life in the art of music.

Symphony as an aesthetic the principle is characterized by a focus on the cardinal problems of human existence in its decomp. aspects (socio-historical, emotional-psychological, etc.). In this sense, symphonism is associated with the ideological and content side of music. At the same time, the concept of “symphonism” includes a special quality of the internal organization of muses. production, his dramaturgy, shaping. In this case, the properties of symphonism come to the fore as a method that can especially deeply and effectively reveal the processes of formation and growth, the struggle of contradictory principles through intonational-thematic. contrasts and connections, dynamism and organicity of muses. development, its qualities. result.

The development of the concept of “symphonism” is the merit of Soviet musicology, and above all B. V. Asafiev, who put it forward as a category of muses. thinking. For the first time, Asafiev introduced the concept of symphonism in the article “Ways to the Future” (1918), defining its essence as “the continuity of musical consciousness, when not a single element is conceived or perceived as independent among the rest.” Subsequently, Asafiev developed the foundations of the theory of symphonism in his statements about L. Beethoven, works on P. I. Tchaikovsky, M. I. Glinka, the study “Musical Form as a Process”, showing that symphonism is “a great revolution in the consciousness and technique of the composer , … the era of independent development by music of ideas and cherished thoughts of mankind ”(B.V. Asafiev,“ Glinka ”, 1947). Asafiev’s ideas formed the basis for the study of the problems of symphonism by other owls. authors.

Symphonism is a historical category that has gone through a long process of formation, activated in the era of enlightenment classicism in connection with the crystallization of the sonata-symphony cycle and its typical forms. In this process, the importance of the Viennese classical school is especially great. The decisive leap in the conquest of a new way of thinking occurred at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Having received a powerful incentive in the ideas and accomplishments of the Great French. revolution of 1789-94, in the development of it. philosophy, which resolutely turned towards dialectics (the development of philosophical and aesthetic thought from the elements of dialectics in I. Kant to G. W. F. Hegel), S. concentrated in Beethoven’s work and became the basis of his art. thinking. S. as a method was greatly developed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

S. is a multilevel concept, associated with a number of other general aesthetic. and theoretical concepts, and above all with the concept of music. dramaturgy. In its most effective, concentrated manifestations (for example, in Beethoven, Tchaikovsky), S. reflects the patterns of drama (contradiction, its growth, passing into the stage of conflict, climax, resolution). However, in general, S. is more direct. the general concept of “dramatology”, which stands above the drama as S. above the symphony, has a relation. Symp. the method is revealed through this or that type of muses. dramaturgy, i.e., a system of interaction of images in their development, concretizing the nature of contrast and unity, the sequence of stages of action and its result. At the same time, in the symphony dramaturgy, where there is no direct plot, characters-characters, this concretization remains within the framework of a musical-generalized expression (in the absence of a program, a verbal text).

Music types. dramaturgy can be different, but to bring each of them to the level of symphony. methods are required. quality. Symp. development can be swift and sharply conflicted or, conversely, slow and gradual, but it is always a process of achieving a new result, reflecting the movement of life itself.

Development, which is the essence of S., involves not only a consistent process of renewal, but also the significance of qualities. transformations of the original music. thoughts (themes or themes), the properties inherent in it. In contrast to the suite juxtaposition of contrasting themes-images, their juxtaposition, for symphony. Dramaturgy is characterized by such a logic (direction), with which each subsequent phase – contrast or repetition at a new level – follows from the previous one as “its own other” (Hegel), developing “in a spiral”. An active “direction of the form” is created towards the result, the result, the continuity of its formation, “drawing us tirelessly from center to center, from achievement to achievement – to the ultimate completion” (Igor Glebov, 1922). One of the most important types of symphony. dramaturgy is based on the collision and development of opposing principles. Tension rises, climaxes and declines, contrasts and identities, conflict and its resolution constitute a dynamically integral system of relations in it, the purposefulness of which is emphasized by intonation. ties-arches, the method of “exceeding” the climax, etc. Symptom process. development here is the most dialectical, its logic is basically subordinate to the triad: thesis – antithesis – synthesis. The concentrated expression of the dialectic of symph. method – fp. sonata No. 23 by Beethoven, a sonata-drama, imbued with the idea of ​​heroic. struggle. The main part of the 1st part contains in potency all the contrasting images, which later enter into confrontation with each other (the principle of “one’s own other”), and their study forms internal cycles of development (exposure, development, reprise) that increase but tension, leading to a culminating stage – the synthesis of conflict principles in the code. On a new level, the logic of dramaturgy. contrasts of the 1st movement appears in the composition of the sonata as a whole (the connection of the major sublime Andante with the side part of the 1st movement, the whirlwind finale with the final part). The dialectic of such a derivative contrast is the principle underlying the symphony. Beethoven’s thinking. He reaches a special scale in his heroic drama. symphonies – 5th and 9th. The clearest example of S. in the field of romanticism. sonatas – Chopin’s b-moll sonata, also based on the through development of dramaturgy. the conflict of the 1st part within the entire cycle (however, with a different direction of the general course of development than that of Beethoven – not towards the heroic finale – culmination, but towards a short tragic epilogue).

As the term itself shows, S. summarizes the most important patterns that have crystallized into sonata-symphony. cycle and music. the forms of its parts (which, in turn, absorbed separate methods of development contained in other forms, for example, variational, polyphonic), – figuratively-thematic. concentration, often in 2 polar spheres, interdependence of contrast and unity, purposefulness of development from contrast to synthesis. However, the concept of S. is by no means reduced to the sonata scheme; symp. method is out of bounds. genres and forms, as maximally reveals the essential properties of music in general as a procedural, temporal art (the very idea of ​​Asafiev, who considers the musical form as a process, is indicative). S. finds manifestation in the most diverse. genres and forms – from symphony, opera, ballet to romance or small instr. plays (for example, Tchaikovsky’s romance “Again, as before …” or Chopin’s prelude in d-moll are characterized by a symphonic increase in emotional and psychological tension, bringing it to a climax), from sonata, large variation to small strophic. forms (for example, Schubert’s song “Double”).

He justifiably called his etudes-variations for piano symphonic. R. Schumann (later he also named his variations for piano and orchestra S. Frank). Vivid examples of the symphony of variational forms based on the principle of dynamic development of images are the finals of Beethoven’s 3rd and 9th symphonies, the final passacaglia of Brahms’s 4th symphony, Ravel’s Bolero, the passacaglia in the sonata-symphony. cycles of D. D. Shostakovich.

Symp. method is also manifested in large vocal-instr. genres; Thus, the development of the ideas of life and death in Bach’s h-moll mass is symphonic in terms of concentration: the antithesis of images is not carried out here by sonata means, however, the strength and nature of the intonational and tonal contrast can be brought closer to sonatas. It is not limited to the overture (in sonata form) of Mozart’s S. opera Don Giovanni, the dramaturgy of which is permeated with an excitingly dynamic clash of Renaissance love of life and the tragically fettering power of rock, retribution. Deep S. “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky, proceeding from the antithesis of love and passion-play, psychologically “arguments” and directs the entire course of the playwright. development to tragedy. denouement. An opposite example of S., expressed through dramaturgy not of a bicentric, but of a monocentric order, is Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, with its continuity of tragically growing emotional tension, which has almost no resolutions and recessions. The entire development proceeding from the initial lingering intonation – “sprout” is born from the concept opposite to the “Queen of Spades” – the idea of ​​the inevitable fusion of love and death. Def. the quality of S., expressed in the rare organic melodic. growth, in a small wok. form, is contained in the aria “Casta diva” from the opera “Norma” by Bellini. Thus, S. in the opera genre, the brightest examples of which are contained in the work of the great opera playwrights – W. A. ​​Mozart and M. I. Glinka, J. Verdi, R. Wagner, P. I. Tchaikovsky and M. P. Mussorgsky, S. S. Prokofiev and D. D. Shostakovich – is by no means reduced to orc. music. In opera, as in symphony. prod., the laws of concentration of muses apply. dramaturgy based on a significant generalizing idea (for example, the idea of ​​the folk-heroic in Glinka’s Ivan Susanin, the tragic fate of the people in Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina), the dynamics of its deployment, which forms the knots of conflict (especially in ensembles) and their resolution. One of the important and characteristic manifestations of secularism in opera is the organic and consistent implementation of the leitmotif principle (see Leitmotif). This principle often grows into a whole system of repetitive intonations. formations, the interaction of which and their transformation reveal the driving forces of the drama, the deep cause-and-effect relationships of these forces (as in a symphony). In a particularly developed form, symph. The organization of dramaturgy by means of the leitmotif system is expressed in Wagner’s operas.

Symptom manifestations. method, its specific forms are extremely diverse. In production various genres, styles, lstorich. eras and national schools on the 1st plan are those or other qualities of symph. method – conflict explosiveness, sharpness of contrasts or organic growth, unity of opposites (or diversity in unity), concentrated dynamics of the process or its dispersal, gradualness. Differences in the methods of symphony. developments are especially pronounced when comparing conflict-dramas. and lyric monologue. symbol types. dramaturgy. Drawing a line between historical types of symbols. dramaturgy, I. I. Sollertinsky called one of them Shakespearean, dialogic (L. Beethoven), the other – monologue (F. Schubert). Despite the well-known conventionality of such a distinction, it expresses two important aspects of the phenomenon: S. as a conflict drama. action and S. as a lyric. or enich. narration. In one case, the dynamics of contrasts, opposites, is in the forefront, in the other, internal growth, the unity of the emotional development of images or their multi-channel branching (epic S.); in one – an emphasis on the principles of sonata dramaturgy, motive-thematic. development, dialogue confrontation of conflicting principles (symphonism of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich), in another – on variance, the gradual germination of new intonations. formations, as, for example, in the sonatas and symphonies of Schubert, as well as in many others. prod. I. Brahms, A. Bruckner, S. V. Rachmaninov, S. S. Prokofiev.

Differentiation of types of symphony. dramaturgy is also determined by whether it is dominated by strict functional logic or relative freedom of the general course of development (as, for example, in Liszt’s symphonic poems, Chopin’s ballads and fantasies in f-moll), whether the action is deployed in sonata-symphony. cycle or concentrated in a one-part form (see, for example, major one-part works by Liszt). Depending on the figurative content and features of the music. dramaturgy, we can talk about dec. types of S. – dramatic, lyrical, epic, genre, etc.

The degree of concretization of ideological art. production concepts. with the help of the word, the nature of the associative links of the muses. images with the phenomena of life determine the differentiation of S. into programmatic and non-programmed, often interconnected (symphonism by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, A. Honegger).

In the study of S.’s types, the question of manifestation in the symphony is important. thinking of the theatrical principle – not only in relation to the general laws of drama, but sometimes more specifically, in a kind of internal plot, “fabularity” of symphonies. development (for example, in the works of G. Berlioz and G. Mahler) or theatrical characterization of the figurative structure (symphonism by Prokofiev, Stravinsky).

S.’s types reveal themselves in close interaction with each other. Yes, dram. S. in the 19th century. developed in the directions of heroic-dramatic (Beethoven) and lyrical-dramatic (the culmination of this line is Tchaikovsky’s symphonism). In the Austrian music crystallized the type of lyric-epic S., going from the symphony in C-dur by Schubert to the work. Brahms and Bruckner. Epic and drama interact in Mahler’s symphony. The synthesis of epic, genre and lyrics is very characteristic of Russian. classical S. (M. I. Glinka, A. P. Borodin, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. K. Glazunov), which is due to Russian. nat. thematic, melodic element. chant, picture sound. Synthesis decomp. symbol types. dramaturgy – a trend that is developing in a new way in the 20th century. Thus, for example, Shostakovich’s civic-philosophical symphonism synthesized almost all types of symphonies that historically preceded him. dramaturgy with a special emphasis on the synthesis of the dramatic and the epic. In the 20th century S. as a principle of music. thinking is especially often exposed to the properties of other types of art, characterized by new forms of connection with the word, with the theater. action, assimilating the techniques of cinematography. dramaturgy (which often leads to deconcentration, a decrease in the proportion of symphonic logic proper in the work), etc. Not reducible to an unambiguous formula, S. as a category of muses. thinking is revealed in new possibilities in each epoch of its development.

References: Serov A. N., Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, its contribution and meaning, “Modern Chronicle”, 1868, May 12, the same in the ed.: Izbr. articles, etc. 1, M.-L., 1950; Asafiev B. (Igor Glebov), Ways to the Future, in: Melos, no. 2, St. Petersburg, 1918; his own, Tchaikovsky’s Instrumental Works, P., 1922, the same, in the book: Asafiev B., About Tchaikovsky’s Music, L., 1972; his, Symphonism as a problem of modern musicology, in the book: Becker P., Symphony from Beethoven to Mahler, trans. ed. AND. Glebova, L., 1926; his own, Beethoven, in the collection: Beethoven (1827-1927), L., 1927, the same, in the book: Asafiev B., Izbr. works, i.e. 4, M., 1955; his, Musical Form as a Process, Vol. 1, M., 1930, book 2, M., 1947, (book 1-2), L., 1971; his own, In memory of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, L.-M., 1940, the same, in the book: Asafiev B., O Tchaikovsky’s music, L., 1972; his own, Composer-dramatist – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in his book: Izbr. works, i.e. 2, M., 1954; the same, in the book: B. Asafiev, about Tchaikovsky’s music, L., 1972; his, On the Direction of Form in Tchaikovsky, in Sat: Soviet Music, Sat. 3, M.-L., 1945, his own, Glinka, M., 1947, the same, in the book: Asafiev B., Izbr. works, i.e. 1, M., 1952; his own, “The Enchantress”. Opera P. AND. Tchaikovsky, M.-L., 1947, the same, in the book: Asafiev B., Izbr. works, i.e. 2, M., 1954; Alschwang A., Beethoven, M., 1940; his own, Beethoven’s Symphony, Fav. op., vol. 2, M., 1965; Danylevich L. V., Symphony as musical dramaturgy, in the book: Questions of Musicology, yearbook, no. 2, M., 1955; Sollertinsky I. I., Historical types of symphonic dramaturgy, in his book: Musical and historical studies, L., 1956; Nikolaeva N. S., Symphonies P. AND. Tchaikovsky, M., 1958; her, Beethoven’s Symphonic Method, in the book: Music of the French Revolution of the XVIII century. Beethoven, M., 1967; Mazel L. A., Some features of the composition in free forms of Chopin, in the book: Fryderyk Chopin, M., 1960; Kremlev Yu. A., Beethoven and the Problem of Shakespeare’s Music, in: Shakespeare and Music, L., 1964; Slonimsky S., Symphonies Prokofieva, M.-L., 1964, ch. one; Yarustovsky B. M., Symphonies about war and peace, M., 1966; Konen V. D., Theater and Symphony, M., 1968; Tarakanov M. E., The style of Prokofiev’s symphonies. Research, M., 1968; Protopopov V. V., Beethoven’s principles of musical form. Sonata-symphonic cycle or. 1-81, M., 1970; Klimovitsky A., Selivanov V., Beethoven and the Philosophical Revolution in Germany, in the book: Questions of Theory and Aesthetics of Music, vol. 10, L., 1971; Lunacharsky A. V., New book about music, in the book: Lunacharsky A. V., In the world of music, M., 1971; Ordzhonikidze G. Sh., On the question of the dialectic of the idea of ​​rock in Beethoven’s music, in: Beethoven, vol. 2, M., 1972; Ryzhkin I. Ya., Plot dramaturgy of Beethoven’s symphony (fifth and ninth symphonies), ibid.; Zuckerman V. A., Beethoven’s dynamism in its structural and formative manifestations, ibid.; Skrebkov S. S., Artistic principles of musical styles, M., 1973; Barsova I. A., Symphonies of Gustav Mahler, M., 1975; Donadze V. G., Symphonies of Schubert, in the book: Music of Austria and Germany, book. 1, M., 1975; Sabinina M. D., Shostakovich-symphonist, M., 1976; Chernova T. Yu., On the concept of dramaturgy in instrumental music, in: Musical art and science, vol. 3, M., 1978; Schmitz A., “Two principles” of Beethoven …, in the book: Problems of Beethoven’s style, M., 1932; Rollan R. Beethoven. Great creative eras. From “Heroic” to “Appassionata”, Collected. op., vol. 15, L., 1933); his same, the same, (ch. 4) – Unfinished Cathedral: Ninth Symphony. Finished comedy. Coll. op., vol.

H. S. Nikolaeva