The piano cycle of San Tong "Nine plays on the themes of folk songs": to the problem of interaction of Western European techniques of writing with Chinese folklore
The synthesis of folk and contemporary composer creativity is studied in the article. Indicative in this respect is the piano cycle of San Tong "Nine Pieces for Piano on the Themes of Folk Songs" (1991), where the process of communication with folk art can be traced especially expressively. It is proved that with the polytonal and atonal organization of the music of San Tonga there is an intonational similarity with the elements of Chinese musical folklore. From the point of view of composition this similarity is fixed by the stylistic unity of dissonant and pentatonic writing. The pianistic specificity of the piano works of San Tong is determined by their innovative approach to textural techniques, the use of timbre contrasts, tempo and dynamics, as a result of the use of modern Western writing techniques that change and complicate the national character of music. The piano cycle was created in the late period of creativity, when the composer worked on the inclusion of a large number of Chinese pentatonic vertical chords in the western modern harmony together with other compositional techniques of writing. The basis of the composition was the traditional folk music compositions, their adaptation to the Western instrument. Folk songs chosen as the material of this suite are based on pentatonic, however, while working on the texture of Sang Tong is not limited to pentatonic, typical for Chinese music. He achieves an expansion of tonality due to chromaticity, functional inversion, "wandering" multivalued chords and other phenomena of harmony. The composer realizes a complex idea, involving modern Western techniques in the creation of the work, aimed at diversifying compositional methods. To adapt the pentatonic basis of the folk song, the author applies a wide range of the level pitch in other plays. However, it is not limited to classical pentatonic, but chooses the layering of harmonic, pentatonic and chromatic chords occupying a large space. The composer was able to organically combine the achievements of the West European musical culture with the best traditions of the national musical art, and thereby contributed to a significant advancement of it along the way of internationalization. The intonational turns of the Chinese song and instrumental folklore, the sharp rhythms accompanying the singing of gongs and drums, allow creating vivid images by modern means of composer technology. Piano works of the composer, with all their indisputable connections with national musical traditions, cannot be considered outside the context of European music. It should be noted that the Western experience of sound production is involved in the piano art of Sang Tong for the service of purely national tasks. In other words, the composer uses the compositional and expressive means, formed in the European musical culture, to express and emphasize the national color. This concerns the penetration into the piano music of the composer of elements of atonality, dodecaphony, bold harmonic experiments. "Nine Pieces for Piano on the Themes of Folk Songs" of Sang Tong are based on the synthesis of the pentatonic melody theme and the specific harmonic fret system with extensions of chromatic harmonies. In most of the pieces examined, the tonality is preserved, but in the arranged melody its modal ratio varies. The modal writing technique used in all plays based on the pentatonic scale, which emphasizes their Chinese nationality, but at the same time, this music has pronounced tonal features, gravitating towards the harmonic center, which brings this music closer to modern composition. Sang Tong uses such compositional techniques as atonality, polytonality, chromatic transposition, motive continuation, rhythmic increase and decrease, octave shift, etc. He seeks to combine all these methods for the sake of structural consistency. In other cases, individual and combined effects, such as thematic modulation, elimination with melodic continuation, rhythmic increase and decrease, octave shift - demonstrate the composer’s skill in building intellectual art work. And yet the basic semantic vector on which the composer’s piano style is based is the orientation to the inexhaustible treasury of national traditions. In the works of Sang Tong, with the polytonal and atonal organization of music, there is Chinese specificity. It manifests itself in intonational similarity with elements of Chinese musical folklore. From the point of view of composition, this is expressed in a combination of dissonant and pentatonic writing. The pianistic specificity of the piano works of San Tong is determined by their innovative sound, the variety of textural techniques, and the use of contrasts in timbre, tempo and dynamics, which are the result of the application of modern Western writing techniques that develop, modify and complicate the national musical material