CC BY
27
https://doi.org/10.29013/EJA-20-2-43-47
Zhu Fengdaijiao,
Postgraduate Student, Department of Interpretation and music analysis, Kharkiv I. P. Kotlyarevsky national University of Arts
E-mail: [email protected]
PROBLEMS OF PERFORMING MODERN CHAMBER-VOCAL MUSIC (ON THE EXAMPLE OF WORKS OF CHINESE COMPOSERS)
Abstract. The article defines the performance specifics of modern Chinese chamber-vocal compositions. Outstanding Chinese composers Tang Xiaolin and Luo Zhongrong, whose work has the most innovative character, have been selected as key figures. It is proved that the performer of the Chinese contemporary chamber-vocal repertoire must possess the entire arsenal of expressive means, constantly work to improve his musical and theoretical level of education, constantly develop his intellect, learning new things, developing in musical and personal terms.
Keywords: chamber vocal music, performance, Chinese contemporary music.
The twentieth century has become a new refer- among which the prominent composer Tang Xiaolin
ence point in the development of Chinese musical art. This was made possible thanks to the influence of Western musical culture. Such dramatic changes were made possible thanks to the emergence ofhigher musical educational institutions, the invitation to China of foreign music teachers, composers, and performers, the study abroad of young Chinese musicians.
According to musicologist Bai Ye, the integration of Chinese musical culture into the world ensured "an active dialogue of various cultures and type" [1, 154]. As a result of such a synthesis, innovative musical compositions began to arise that was quite complicated for the performer. For example, in chamber-vocal works by Chinese composers, specific performing difficulties are noted, both for the vocal part and for the instrumental accompaniment. It should be noted that the performance of modern music is of great complexity for both vocalists and instrumentalists.
The musicologist Tsai Jo Yu points out that the concept of "Chinese contemporary music" is associated with specific names of figures of musical culture,
takes pride of place [6, 56]. His musical heritage serves as an example of a combination ofWestern techniques of modern musical composition with national Chinese traditions, which became for Tang Xiaolin the basis for the creativity and training of students.
The composition technology of Tang Xiaolin combined the Chinese ethnic style with the methods of the Second Viennese School, "which gave his music an elegant charm, adding his name to the annals of Chinese classical music" [5, 70]. Since the composer was a pupil of P. Hindemith, he actively performed with his compositions in the USA, in his work Tang Xiaolin gravitated to the neoclassical of the twentieth century, tried to move away from the influence of the traditional harmony of European music. In the song art of the 1940 s. Tan Xiaolin was guided mainly by the mastery of the harmonic structure of P. Hindemith, his tonality structure, as well as characteristic harmonic turns.
In the apt expression of Tsai Jo Yu, the "modernity" of Tang Xiaolin's music is expressed in "the use of harmony, texture, and tonality in his works
is more complex than that of his predecessors. To diversify the music, the composer uses a characteristic technique - multiple variations of tonality, which actively forms the structure and gives form to a musical work. The second feature is the diversification of the traditional structure of chords, which are influenced by the Chinese pentatonic modes" [6, 58]. Working with the musical material of Chinese folk art, the composer very seriously and boldly showed his determination in creating a new one, but at the same time keeping the old.
The composer boldly used compositional techniques of the twentieth century. Differentiating the musical fabric of chamber-vocal composition into instrumental and vocal parts, Tang Xiaolin combined harmonies with the chromaticity of pentatonic keys, experimenting with rhythm, and achieved the required logical structure of the work. Such free use of tempos, rhythms, melodies, and other expressive means contributed to the complexity of the content of a musical work, which, in turn, increases the requirements for a vocal performer. The soloist must possess a high level of vocal technique, good breathing, smooth transitions from register to register, various articulation techniques and strokes, and, of course, an extraordinary performing intellect.
The performance of any chamber-vocal composition by Tang Xiaolin is a rather difficult task for the vocalist, which, first of all, is connected with the difficult conditions of tessitura in which the composer puts the performer. Tessitura requires a certain color of voice from the performer, which is directly related to the embodiment of the artistic image of each of the compositions. An important artistic role is played by the timbre characteristic of the piano accompaniment, as it is colorful and varied. In this case, we can talk about the "harmonic timbre" not as the paint of the sound ofvarious instruments, but as "the colorful harmonic harmonies that run into certain sound associations" [3].
The piano part in the chamber vocal works of Tang Xiaolin is outwardly simple, technically, and pianisti-
cally comfortable. On it lies an important semantic load, since it performs the function of"arranging" the phrases of the soloist. The timbre of the instrument is transparent, crystalline clear, sonorous. The scale of the composition is very condensed, concentrated, solo fragments in the piano part are almost absent or minimized, as the composer often refuses detailed instrumental introductions and conclusions.
The soloist is a very important emotional mood, which he should "get" from the accompanist. To do this, you must carefully listen to the unusual specific sound of dissonant chords, which cover a wide register range of instrumental accompaniment. In collaboration with the ensemble, the soloist's voice does not just rise above the sound of the piano, but maintaining its dominant position, is woven into the instrumental fabric, being its integral part. All of the rich timbre shades listed above made it possible to designate as "modern Chinese sound" Tsai Jo Yu, and call their author Tang Xiaolin "pioneer and founder of «modern Chinese sound», which opened up new horizons for posterity inspired by his valuable experience" [6, 59].
Among modern followers of Tang Xiaolin in the field of application of modern composing techniques in chamber vocal music, his student Luo Zhongzhong occupies a worthy place. His chamber-vocal compositions are distinguished by a vivid Chinese flavor using the modern Western dodecaphonic technique. It innovatively combines a 12-tone scale with a pentatonic scale. For many of his vocal works, the composer chooses the texts of ancient Chinese poets. According to the musicologist and singer Wu Hunyuan, the composer's work is characterized by a desire for "harmony of wisdom". His music "expresses the ideas of humanism, various qualities of a human character - joy, anger, sadness, happiness, wisdom. The works of Luo Zhongzhong are based on intelligence, rational thinking. His works contain elements of innovation that the composer called "new motives", which in his work resemble sparkling pearls that reflect the light of wisdom" [4, 136].
Such a synthesis of national and modern requires special efforts from the performer in the process of translating the artistic image of the works of Luo Zhongzhong. Thus, musicologist Yue Guang notes that the serial technique, still not used in Chinese vocal works, brought a significant artistic enrichment in the lyrical interpretation of the work and significantly expanded the imaginary boundaries of the space of song art. But she also posed more difficult tasks for the singer [7]. In this regard, the consideration ofthe performing difficulties of chamber vocal music by Luo Zhongzhong is a very important issue today.
The most important task of the performer of modern chamber-vocal works of the composer is the awareness of the artistic depths of the author's intention. The singer must be imbued with the poetic content of the text of the vocal work, embodied in his character. In the process of singing, he must convey the image of his hero of the work. The main creative goal for the soloist and the instrumentalist accompanying him is artistic creation in the field of musical sound.
A new attitude to sound paint is because the performer should be guided by the composer's installation, which consists in the rejection of strong feelings and emotions in a conceptual and intellectual sphere. The appeal to the poetic text and singing voice was connected with the composers' desire to more clearly convey to the listener their conceptual intent, to reveal substantial ideas. The vocal part is also subjected to rethinking, "interpreted in the context of new expressive means not as the dominant cantile figurative-semantic dominant, but as one of the parts of the overall sonorous-texture whole" [2]. This imposes a kind of emotional detachment on the performance, encourages the search for an exquisite style, the desire for clarity, well-structured design.
The vocal part becomes one of the lines of the dodecaphonic-serial texture of the work, acquiring an "instrumental depersonalized character" (T. Bataga-rova). Since the principles of performing modern chamber-vocal compositions are based on instru-
mental intonational accuracy of singing, the vocalist will have to abandon the usual methods ofvocal singing sound, because Luo Zhongzhong's voice line has sharp jumps, dissonant intervals, and a change in dynamic nuances. The musicologist T. Batagarova notes that "the radicalization of the novelty of the vocal part is connected with the idea of the spontaneity of composer creativity, with the expression of the intuitive depth of the artistic and aesthetic space" [2].
The range of many songs of the composer is significantly expanded, which requires the singer to abandon the idea of belonging to a particular timbre, in order to achieve instrumental clarity of sound. One of the most difficult performing techniques is the moves connecting the extreme sounds of the singing range in climaxes. Another performing problem is the frequent metric variability, which is directly related to the reliance on the speech type of intonation of the poetic text. The use of rhythmic groups with various rhythmic patterns is also characteristic. Their sharp alternation greatly complicates the vocal part.
The piano part is distinguished by the pointil-lism of the texture, a colorful variety, often changing combinations of harmonies in different registers. It is quite technically complicated, has a sufficient level of independence, requires the instrumentalist to be able to subtly hear different layers of texture, interacting with the vocals. This indicates that the tasks assigned to both participants in the vocal-instrumental ensemble require a high level of performance technique and possession of expressive means - metro rhythmic flexibility, dynamic and articulatory mobility, register timbre diversity, and perfect ensemble interaction.
All the above information confirms the fact that interpreting chamber vocal music by Luo Zhongzhong is a difficult task for vocalists. The more accurately and personally brighter the performance interpretation reflects the composer's intent, the more convincing and aesthetically valuable the result is presented to the audience. A successful interpretation of chamber-vocal compositions written in a
complex language, atonal, dodecaphonic, serial, and other techniques, involves the singer introducing a new style of performance to the aesthetics.
An actively tuned musical ear is a glorious "instrument" of the singer's musical equipment. In this regard, the vocational training of the vocalist should be thorough and versatile and, in addition to excellent, finely developed melodic-rhythmic and harmonious hearing, include honed skills of ensemble performance, possession of a variety of modern types of performing technique.
Of great importance in the process of interpreting the chamber-vocal composition is the performer's intellect and his artistic data, which determine the ability to fully understand and embody modern music, as well as its technical vocal abilities. The process of working on an essay should be of a co-operative nature because the creation of vivid national images unusual for Chinese music using the latest means of expression requires innovative courage, artistic maturity, developed performer intelligence, and creative thinking.
The vocalist, who turns to chamber vocal compositions by Luo Zhongzhong, needs to remember that it was important for the composer to create his own unique sound world, reflected through the play of musical and poetic series. In this case, the pentatonic steps are closely interconnected, and the auxiliary steps do not destroy them but form the pentatonic scale. Thus, the serial technique used by Luo Zhong-
zhong in Chinese chamber vocal works brought significant artistic enrichment to Chinese lyric songs and significantly expanded the imaginary boundaries of the space of national art. But their implementation poses a very difficult task for the singer.
The problem of the interaction of the ancient Chinese literary text with modern musical means of expression should be solved very sensitively and delicately, so high demands can be made on the performer who has acting charisma, personal integrity, highly developed intellect, breadth of creative interests and aesthetic taste, which contribute to revealing the fullness of interpretative possibilities and discovering new perspectives on musical perception. It is known that musicians-innovators and musicians-intellectuals, creating their truly performing masterpieces, significantly influenced the process of updating and updating the space of aesthetic values.
Conclusions. Summing up, it should be noted that the modern Chinese performer of the national chamber-vocal repertoire must own the entire arsenal of performing means, constantly work to improve his musical and theoretical level of education, listen and read a lot in order to develop his intellect. Only by constantly learning new things, developing as a musician and as a person, the singer will be able to comprehend the complexity of modern art, find the necessary performing means of expression in order to create an integral artistic image of a musical composition.
References:
1. Бай Е. Китайская фортепианная музыка в контексте интеграционных процессов мирового музыкального искусства: Монография.- Харьков, 2016.- 270 с.
2. Батагарова Т. О некоторых эстетических аспектах исполнения отечественной вокальной музыки авангарда-II // Вестник Московского государственного университета культуры и искусства: сборник научных трудов, 2018. URL: http://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/o-nekotoryh-esteticheskih-aspektah-ispolneniya-otechestvennoy-vokalnoy-muzyki-avangarda-ii (date of the application 03.03.2019).
3. Мелюкова М. В. Исполнительские сложности камерно-вокальных сочинений Антона Веберна. URL: http://kazanconservatoire.ru/images/Magazine/Melyukova_17.pdf/ (date of the application 02.03.2019).
4. Хунюань У Китайская художественная песня: теория и история жанра: дис. ... канд. искусствоведения.- Харьков, 2016.- 231 с.
5. Цао Шули. Особенности развития камерно-вокальных и хоровых жанров в музыке Китая: дис. ... канд. искусствоведения.- Минск, 2010.- 216 с.
6. 2009. - № 1. - P.56-59. (Tsai Jo Yu. The Folk and Contemporary Character of Tang Xiaolin's Creativity // Encyclopedia of Music. 2009.- Issue 1.- Р. 56-59.).
7. ^ s (Yue Guang. Luo Zhongzhong's Song "Hibiscus Flowers on the River": Performing Analysis // Poetic Music, Ancient and Modern Literary Grammar). URL: http://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.as px?dbcode=CJFV&dbname=CJFDLAST2016&filename=YYCZ201607017&v=MDc4NzhS0GVY MUx1eFlTN0RoMVQzcVRyV00xRnJDVVJMT2ZaT1pvRkNqa1VMelBQRFRJZExHNEg5Zk1xS TlFWTQ(date of the application 01.03.2019)
