CONTONATION AND COMMUNICATIVE STRATEGY AS MECHANISMS OF THE 21ST CENTURY MUSIC ANALYSIS
Journal Title: Проблеми взаємодії мистецтв, педагогіки та теорії і практики освіти - Year 2018, Vol 49, Issue
Abstract
The communicative structure of the art of the Newest time reflects a change in the relations in the existing “composer-performer-listener” hierarchy in relation to stereotypical ideas about the work and the forms of its existence. The composition itself is moving away from “presentability”, again becoming “everyday”, being incorporated into new mobile communications and contexts. Many compositions (sonorous, electronic, concrete, and repetitive music) consciously oppose themselves to the established academic tradition and the system of concert-philharmonic forms of existence. Thisis clearly the postulated principle of openness asits main condition. Sometimesthe load on the visual channel of information perception is so great that as a result we do not “listen” to music, but “watch” it. Thus, one of the main ideas of all post music isrealized – the idea of an open composition, which, according to the concept of U. Eco [18], is the key to unlimited interpretation possibilities. Any composition of this kind is a special framework that is filled with the perception ofthis composition by the recipient(the co-creative function of reception). When the presentation (created by the composer or performer) loses its relevance, becoming “everyday”, the connections Nikolayevskaya Yuliya. Contonation and communicative strategy as mechanisms... 38 Ïðîáëåìè âçàºìî䳿 ìèñòåöòâà, ïåäàãîã³êè òà òåî𳿠³ ïðàêòèêè Âèïóñê ¹49 and contexts of the composition become relative, mobile. The ideas of the “open composition” (U. Eco [18]) and the concept of “multiplicity of interpretation, the rhizome as a fundamentally generating model (J. Delouse [7]), the “death of the author” (R. Barth [3]) and the “end of the composer’s time” (V. Martynov [12]) were supplemented with concepts of creativity as metanoia (Anke Hoenig [19]) and contonation (I. Matsievsky [13]), as the key points of the work of composers and performers, as well aslisteners who “complete” the contour-stated form. Within the frames of the present research it is worthwhile dwelling on the question of changing the analytical mechanismsin relation to the music of the second half of the 20th-21st centuries. Namely, that is to explain the need to introduce the category of "contonation" and “communicating strategy” into the theory of musical analysis. This concept wasintroduced by Igor Matsievsky with regard primarily to folklore music. However, it is relevant for the study of new forms of composing and performing searches in the Newest musical art from the point of view of the offered in this research the concept of interpretation as the communicative strategy. The purpose of this study is the experience o 39 process [13]. However, this is not enough to comprehend the processes inherent in the musical creativity of the Newest Time. Objectives. According to I. Matsievsky, contonation is “one of the most important generating mechanisms of musicalstructuring” [13, p. 7]. Differing from intonation (intonation is the process of the experienced movement, of coming the way from sound to sound, “contonation – contemplation, “co-listening” and awareness of objectively existing (greater or lesser) conglomerate ofsounds, co-sounding, co-dimensionality of tones (Latin con – with, co-) and their combinations – in the broad sense of the word, and the formation on this basis of the most diverse musical creations" [13, p.3]), it producesform-building universals different in formation and structure. Among them there are sonority accords, contonation of layers, open forms, poly-timbre scores.If the intonation is characterized by internal tension and the transition of the tone to the tone, then the contonation – listening to the structure of the tone – overtones and harmonics; intonation controlsthe form as a process, and its final result is process-locked forms, then the contonation is more – it is a system of form-making symmetries, aimed at open, additive forms. The researcher notes: “The timbre, coexistence, co-sounding, co-listening, contonation, and not movement (intonation) of both individual sounds, tones, steps, and sonorous sound complexes and linearism layers, becomes more significant in the structural hierarchy; the role ofspatial factors, meditation, contemplation contrary to the pulse, flow, nerves, psychosis, expression is being strengthened" [13, p. 36]. So, the concept of contonation takesinto account co-dimensionality, co-listening, co-presence, co-mirroring of an objectively existing conglomerate of sounds. Contonationality assumes (admits) that sounds can not gravitate to each other (unlike intonation, but objectively coexist as such.If intonation is more associated with expression, then contonationality – with contemplation, intonation – with a temporal aspect, and contonationality – with a spatial aspect. The possibilities of intonation and contonation awareness of sound images at the psychoacoustic level are equally probable, says I. Matsievsky (the human intellect is ready for multidimensional comprehension of the world, perception of sounds is at least three-dimensional, multidimensional timbre and timbre perception are also objectively caused). Hence, an important point of many innovations of modern music and, accordingly, of its understanding/interpretation is a Nikolayevskaya Yuliya. Contonation and communicative strategy as mechanisms... 40 Ïðîáëåìè âçàºìî䳿 ìèñòåöòâà, ïåäàãîã³êè òà òåî𳿠³ ïðàêòèêè Âèïóñê ¹49 new communication space. We propose to refer to this notion as "communicative strategy", which in the broad sense is a way of translating meaning and a compulsory choice of the vector of communication (in the system "composer-performer-listener"). The idea of a communicative strategy is connected with the rethinking of the status of "Homo musician". We rely on the idea by I. Zemtsovsky, who thought "actual reality" of musical art [8] through the unity of the three hypostases of the subject of music: "Homo musician – Homo intoning – Homo articulating". Making music (both as creativity and performance), intonation (as thinking and semantics), and articulation as a structural and behavioral realization of music-making and intonation, represent a dialectical unity in the universe of Homo musicus. Nevertheless, the reduced triad seemsincomplete. And this is connected, firstly, with the fact that the contemporary creator does not need an observer (even "experiencing"), but the co-author – Homo interpreting, and secondly, with the phenomenon of contonation, the existence of which gives the above said system the desired completeness. It is the ratio of all components that can detect the universalism of the mechanisms of cognition-creation as differentstrategiesfor working with the musical composition of the Newest times: • the composing strategy is the process of organizing a form as a text (in the broadest sense); • the implementing strategy isthe process of manifestation of thisform by directsounding in real time; •the receptive (listening)strategy isthe interpretation of the performer’s text, which sounds, as a semantic and transformative communicative space. Let us consider the possibilities of contonation as an analytic tool in the structure of interpretation in terms of the communicative strategies of Homo interpreting. Contonation at the concept level. Example 1. Let us give an example of the “communicative vacuum” – what J. Cage implemented in communicative situation “4' 33''” for the piano (the composition consists of three parts: the introduction is 30 seconds of silence, the main part is 2 minutes 23 seconds of silence and the conclusion is 40 seconds of even greater silence. Silence in this composition, as it is known, is quite conditional. According to John Cage's avant-garde idea, “4' 33''” forces the audience to listen to the sounds of the environment and, thus, to come 41 into harmony with it). Example 2 demonstrates a change in the communicative situation in the works by the French minimalist Ch. Palestine, who uses an overtone row in his compositions (for the organ, piano, and bells). In the few interviews, the composer, in fact, pointsto the movement of “eventfulness” into the instrument's space: “Sometimes people say they hear very little in music, other people say they hear a lot in my music. Another thing is important: you think that you hear someone (highlighted by us – Y.N.) playing incredible melodies, harmonies and rhythms on the organ, but this is not so! This is an organ that seems to play itself! At the same time I find myself inside the sounding space. I and it are one” [20]. Charlemagne Palestine is considered one of the pioneers of minimalist music, although he refuses to claim this label for himself. His repetitive piano pieces are rather a part of a Gesamtkunstwerk that combines installations and performances. Playing on a Bosendorfer Imperial grand piano surrounded by stuffed animals Palestine unfolds a sound structure that transforms difference and repetition into complex sound clusters. Penetration into themicro-world ofsound entailed changesin the texture of the sound itself, which isfully demonstrated by the creative work of Ch. Palestine. His creative work is presented as a realization of the semantic field, the understanding of which arises due to the communicative strategy. So, the composer (=Homo musicus) is at the same time Homo playing music (that is, presenting his own composition), Homo contonating (the compositions are designed to "stay" inside the sound stream), articulating (Ch. Palestine is a performer on the piano, organ and bells) and interpreting (in this case, the "texture of sound"). This example is provided by us as a manifestation of contonation. Contonation at the level of the timbre. Example 3 – “The Lullaby” by Nikolai Korndorf (1984) for two pianos. Created as a piano version of the composition “Con sordino” (1984) for the strings and harpsichord, it acquired a special expressivenessin its new timbre incarnation. The genre semantics gives the colour to the enlightened contemplation but the key thing upon the realizaion of “The Lullaby” is the timbre of two pianos, in the harmony of which the intonation is inferior to contoning. So, it is clear that the idea of contonation, declared in the context of traditional culture, can be projected onto the structure of academic music Nikolayevskaya Yuliya. Contonation and communicative strategy as mechanisms... 42 Ïðîáëåìè âçàºìî䳿 ìèñòåöòâà, ïåäàãîã³êè òà òåî𳿠³ ïðàêòèêè Âèïóñê ¹49 of the Newest time, and also is able to facilitate analysis of the textural organization (in super-many-voiced compositions, for example, in Yuri Kasparov's "The Castle in theAir" for 24 flutes), fret, rhythmic, and so on. However, we are still interested in the manifestation of contonation at the level of interpretation (revealing, at the same time, the leading role of the interpreter's personality – man interpreting (Homo interpreting). Contonation at the performance level. Example 4 is associated with the composition byAlexander Gugel "Cursustemporis" (2004)for the piano. The composition is a successive descent of two voices from the upper register to the lower one at a slow pace. The idea is extremely simple, but it concentrates the most important concepts for the music of the 20th century. About these kinds of compositions L. Kirillina writesthat in them the immanent logic offormand meaning building essentially changes: "...the composition ("TheAtmospheres" by K. Lighetti – Y.N.) no longer begins, but arises or gradually becomes clear for the hearing from the ancestor- silence; there are no more acting persons in it, but there is a self-contained existence clothed in sounds, to the movement of which our perception undoubtedly givessome meaning, however this meaning is not tied up to a specific architectonics and does not exhaust itself at the end of the composition, and sometimes there is no end as such – there is a removal, fading, wasting away” [10, p. 120]. Certainly, in the process of performance, there is mono-temporality, and, in this connection, thisimage of time (its interpretation by the author or another performer) fundamentally changesthe existing communicative structure. Another decision of contonation is in the creativity by V. Silvestrov. Thus, in his two miniatures of 2004 (an example of his “weak style”), one (a waltz), called “space of memory”, the second – “The Lullaby” – “space of time”. In essence, it is precisely contonationality as a feature of performance (in our opinion, this is an example of “spreading-in-space” time) and allows Homo interpreting to be a performer, adequately embodying the author'sidea.The interpretation byV. Silvestrov is addressed to the Other, and is based on the coming out to Him, and therefore is doomed to infinity ofsemantic intentions. And the last example is the contonationality shown in performance practices. The composition “Shchedryk”, using folklore singing in a live 43 electronic arrangement (Tryanov Maxim), presentsthe possibility of “colistening” to two different intonation systems. So, in our opinion, contonation as a concept of the Theory and analysis of music requires its further development, as it contributes to a new understanding of composing, performing, and listening communication strategies. Contonation as a musical universal combines three parameters: acoustic; psychological and - semiotic and can be developed in musical theory in the following variants(I offer working definitions): • contonation – the idea that models the process of musical creativity; • contoning – the process during which co-listening becomes the mechanism of composition, performance, and listening; • contonationality – the property of a musical text, which determines the fundamental form-building parameters of a musical composition. Thus, it is with the help of special communication mechanisms that Homo interpreting (composer, performer, listener) can change the field of meaning that arises at the “text-composition” levels. Cognitive mechanisms actualize the cognizing essence of musical experience and fix openness as the ontological essential characteristic of the creative consciousness of the Newest time.
Authors and Affiliations
Yuliya Nikolayevskaya
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