Neoclassicism in music performance

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Neoclassicism in music performance

Journal Title: Вісник Національної академії керівних кадрів культури і мистецтв - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 1

Abstract

Neoclassicism in music is a very complex stylistic phenomenon. Scientific and artistic discussions do not cease to rage around it until this day. The vast amount of research has centered around neoclassical composers’ oeuvre bypassing performing and pedagogical activities which are equally important and closely related to art of composition. The most important prerequisite for the XX century Neoclassicism in music was the emergence of the concept of "classical music" with its canon based on the works of the "classical" period, which was associated with the names of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. In the era of romanticism a phenomenon of simultaneous coexistence of different historical styles appeared in the musical practice. Absolutization of the idea of individual personal expression accelerated the process of permanent renewal of means of expression and put greater distance between the past and the modern (romantic) in music. In the constant search for the new many composers of late Romanticism drew inspiration from the idealized "classical", thus creating a situation of simultaneous deliberate coexistence of different historical stylistic components within the same piece of music. In concert halls such a situation manifested itself in the neighborhood of works by contemporary authors and works of the old masters within one program. The increasingly visible presence in various fields of musical activity of idealized "classical" competing in its impact on the audience with an individualized "modern" led to the splitting of the XIXth century music performance in two trends – more individualized and more idealized. The most important factor which helped such stylistic disengagement was a gradual separation of the two (until the second half of the XIXth century inextricably welded) incarnations of a professional musician – composer and performer. Artists were focused not only on matters of expression, virtuosity, transcendence of performance but also on the problems of the correct rendition of the author’s text, stylistic congruity, interpretive freedom, expanding the repertoire with hitherto little-known works of the past. In contrast to composers whose appeal to the "classical" could be realized in a variety of forms (quotations, resurrection of the old genres and forms, various stylizations and so on) performers could oapproach the "classical" ideal only by strict adherence to the score. Since precise information on the rules of interpretation relevant to the classical era was not available to the artists of the late XIX century (old treatises were not reprinted, old instruments came out of use and fell into disrepair, traditions of performance have undergone drastic changes through many generations) an approach to the musical text was defined by the basic stylistic positions of the Romantic era. Thus not only, as previously indicated, in one concert but also in the performance of one work of previous (classical or baroque) eras there was a situation of coexistence of the ideal "classical" (in this case the musical text) and the "modern" (interpretive approach to the text). Paradoxically the more accurately a musician followed the musical text (the more objective, "classical" was the interpretation), the farther he could find himself from the way this text would have been performed in the era of its writing, due to the lack of knowledge and tradition of deciphering the notation conventions. Such a situation we would call neo-classical. Under the neo-classical, we understand the situation of interaction of multiaesthetic and stylistic elements one of which is perceived as modern, the other – as classical. The origin of the neo-classical situation in the performing and composing music practices of the XIXth century, defined by many musicologists as "classicistic" and "neo-classical" trends, is due to the fact that the historical consciousness of art increased in the era of romanticism and gradually led to the actualization of the ideas of timelessness in art. In practice, this could be realized only in the aesthetic and stylistic simultaneous variety of times. In the performing arts the "classica"l vector of this variety was put in effect through the desire for fidelity to the author's text. As the text of the works of the XVIIIth century seemed modest in comparison with the complex textural and harmonic romantic constructions, the objective style of playing comprised such qualities as a sense of proportion, rigor and restraint. The close interconnection in the development of neo-classical trends in composing and performing resulted in their joint culmination in the 1920-30-ies. It is the heyday of musical neoclassicism in composing, the leading style in music performance of this period is the "fetishism of objectivity" (P. Casals). Due to its orientation to the music of the past, music performance from the end of the XIXth century through the XX century was inevitably realized in the neo-classical situation of interaction between the idealized "classical" and the contemporary "modern" principles, the first of which is manifested in the desire for accurate reproduction of the author's text, the second – in conditions of its reproduction and perception (concert hall, the aural experience of the audience, performing traditions and so on).

Authors and Affiliations

Mariia Riabokoneva

Keywords

neoclassicism in music neo-classical situation objective type of performance.

EP ID EP212813
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