Performing school in piano art: the concept of leadership (on the example of works of T.B. Verkina)
The article is devoted to the topic of the performing school in piano art. Despite the large amount of literature on piano issues, this question is one of the least studied. The parameters of studying the phenomenon of "piano performing school" are generalized and systematized including paradigmatics, style characteristics, communication system, art models, cultural problems of its functioning in society. Special attention is paid to the problem of leadership in the piano performing school, where the "teacher-student" model is of fundamental importance. In this context, leadership is understood in terms of "actual intonation" (T. Verkina) as a reflection of artistic and technological tasks, which are solved in the school system at the certain stage of its functioning. It is noted that performing music is a creative process and is classified as a separate kind of musical art. It means that the categories of the art history level are fully applicable to the characteristics of performing art, among which style is the main and defining one. The global nature of this phenomenon extends to the hierarchical system of its varieties, where the performing style is the style of creative individuals. Another level of manifestation of the performing style of music is the style of the performing school, the parameters of which can be studied in various aspects, among which the systemic paradigm is the main one (J. Dedusenko). It also includes other particular characteristics, arising from the specific characteristics of a particular performing school. We are talking about the historical and style conditions for its emergence and functioning, as well as about the type of performance that it cultivates (vocal or instrumental with their respective internal divisions for certain varieties). The most important condition for the functioning of the performing school is its communicative aspect, expressed both within the school, in the system of relations of its representatives, and in external communication - relatedness with other schools and social context. External and internal communications (Y. Lotman) characterize the collective character of the performing school as a community oflike-minded people. The horizontal aspect of the school (members of the school collective) is combined with the vertical one (the "teacher-student" system), which is the most important criterion for the functioning and public recognition of a school "paradigm". The article specifically considers the features of the piano performing school, which differs from other similar schools primarily in its "mono-instrumental" status. A piano is an instrument, in which one performer recreates a sound picture of a universal type and in this connection, the "piano image" (L. Gakkel) refers to one of the highest priorities in the system of instrumental music. The word "mono-instrumentality" of the piano school determines the special importance of the type of the performing model (J.D. Dedusenko), acting as a paradigmatic "axis", on which the interpretative concepts offered by the representatives of this school seem to be threaded. The performing school, in particular, the piano performing school, acts as a sociocultural phenomenon of a stable mobile type. It means, on the one hand, the certain stability of "school paradigms" that change slowly enough, and the susceptibility of these paradigms to changes determined by the principles of actual intonation (T. Verkina), consonant with this or that public "demand", on the other hand. The piano performing school functions within the framework of diverse subjects and working conditions of pianists singled out by the general concept of "piano culture" (V. Syryatsky). In the modern piano culture (the 20th — the beginning of the 21st century), the piano performing schools are variously differentiated and divided according to the "piano images" (academic piano, jazz, etc.), the period and places of "dislocation". Among the varieties of piano performing schools, there are regional, metropolitan ones, connected with the leading musical centers and traditions of piano performance. One of the leading problems in the study of such schools is the problem of leadership, acting as the basis for revealing the correlation of traditions and innovation, universalism and specificity in a particular piano-school system. The leader of the modern piano school is a figure of cultural and social significance that combines professionalism in such manifestations as performing skills, scientific, methodological and pedagogical background, organizational talent, the ability to establish "interscholastic and interpersonal" connections of the school headed by him and other advanced schools of the same profile. All these qualities are inherent in the leader of the Kharkov piano school — T.B. Verkina, the People’s Artist of Ukraine, Professor. In her works, the features of topical leadership that go beyond the limits of her own performing school are fixed, which are based on her creative principles that, as noted in the conclusions of this article, form the essence of the phenomenon being studied.