Timbre semantics of viola as an artistic metasystem
The article is concerned with revelation of content of the “timbre semantics” term in relation with the art of viola. In order to identify the properties of this phenomenon, it is necessary to involve separate system “units” included to the metasystem of the viola “image” as an integral appearance considered in diachrony and synchrony. In particular, these properties are the following ones: organology of viola as an instrument of the bowed chordophones group, style characteristics of this instrument in the system of personal trinity “master-producer-performercomposer”, its role in the practice of social music-making in different epochs and periods, aesthetic and historical stylistic approach (“unit”) allowing to link viola music’s imagery, language and structures as a coherent whole, as well as the technological approach in its composer and performance expressions. The article emphasizes and classifies the “constants” and “variables” of the viola timbre semantics as an instrument of cross functional capacities, which has taken dominant positions in instrumental music-making as a result of a long evolution process. This determines the scientific novelty of the research undertaken, as well as its relevance for the theory and practice of viola art. Observations of the semantic characteristics of the means of expressively constructive complex of music, considered as a semiotic system, constitute the basic principles of the research undertaken in the present article. It is noted that the semantic aspect was of a primary nature when B. Asafiev has created the foundations of his intonational theory, and the very concept of “intonation” draws together with the concept of “semantics” both in its general and particular meanings. Currently, musical semantics is regarded in a range of such research theories, as hermeneutics and theory of content (by V. Kholopova). Peculiarities of the semantic method, having both advantages (logisation and systematization) and disadvantages (impossibility to take into account intuitive factors in the frames of musical intonation system) are revealed in comparison with the mentioned theories, precisely. While combining the theory of timbres in music with semantic theory, it is necessary to take into account the two sides of them, namely: “special” and “non-special” (by V. Kholopova), which in turn responds to the opposition of “intro-musical” and “extra-musical”. A property of timbre, regarding an opportunity to be recognized “beyond music” as well, imposes a special imprint on its semantics, which can be characterized in the “sign - sub-sign” system (by M. Bonfeld). The timbre of the instrument appears as a special “sub-sign” within the system of priority value musical signs, which is reflected in the concept describing instruments as musical thinking “tools”. The formula of “an instrument is also a person” (by E. Nazaikinskii) constitutes a start point for the process of revealing intonational and tone characteristics of an instrumental timbre, including the viola timbre. In the article it is noted, that the timbre of viola is included to the system of timbre signs of the string-bowed chordophones family by both above mentioned signs, namely, intonational and tonal, which are to be considered as a common (violas and violins). Emphasizing of the timbre as a special musical and artistic sign appears in the system of compositional and performing thinking and corresponds to the listeners’ demand at certain stages of the musical historical process. The “image” of viola has been forming and modifying in accordance with different stylistic vectors and directions, which is recorded in a set of individual characteristics of this instrument, given by some outstanding musicianspractitioners. In the article it is suggested to group them by several “units”, connected among themselves within the framework of an integral metasystem of the instrument’s timbre semantics. These are the following: - an organological unit, that highlights such qualities of the viola timbre, as: 1) fundamental dissimilarity of the viola timbre with the violin; this instrument is closer to the ancient “viola da braccio” (by L. Stokovskii); 2) the initial connection of the viola timbre with the “singing of declamatory and narrative nature” (by S. Poniatovskii), which was further modified due to the expansion of its expressive resource to the scale of an expanded instrumental cantilena; 3) the special quality of the “pure viola timbre”, which should be understood as a general idea of its muffled, sometimes “harsh”, and the noble “tenor” sound is determined to be “dense, bright, with a touch of melancholy” (by E. Vitachek); 4) autonomous specificity of the viola timbre, which distinguishes this instrument from the violin family, implemented through its analogy with one of the specific instruments of the wood band group, namely, the English horn (by D. Rogal-Levitskii), who has come up to advanced positions in instrumental soloing almost simultaneously with viola (“The Swan of Tuonela” by I. Sibelius); — aesthetic and historical style units, which include: 1) “attachment” of the timbre of the viola not only to melancholy, but also to intonations of romantic “languor” — hidden and constrained passion (by M. Grinberg), which has determined the “rise” of the viola as a carrier of similar artistic roles in instrumental music, ranging from “Harold in Italy” by H. Berlioz, “Manfred” by P. Chaikovskii to the present day; 2) historiographical semantics of the viola during the twentieth century (including the beginning of the twenty-first century), expressed by the means of three interpretation timbre stages, such as: romantic (“Harold”), the “shostakovich” one and the avantgarde stage (by S. Marshanskii); - a composer and performing (performer-composer) unit aimed at the technology of using the instrument in the practice of writing for it and playing it (according to R. Schuman’s well-known expression - “playing with the instrument, or playing the instrument”): 1) “fusion” of the instrument and a performer into a single image of sound, which reveals the peculiarity of viola not as a “big violin”, but as a special “timbre style”, the reproduction of which is available only to a professional viola player, but not to a violinist (by E. Vidal); 2) the “two-component” feature of the viola timbre register, which can be profitably used by the masters of violent art to characterize the images of internal contrast: the low register of viola is severe, masculine, the upper one is “excited”, a bit of stressed (by D. Rogal-Levitskii). A more detailed classification of signs of timbre semantics of viola, covering its organological and artistic parameters, is also proposed