Chamber-vocal miniature in Qin Yong Cheng creativity: stylistics of the genre.
Background. The article deals with the chamber-vocal works of the outstanding Chinese composer Qin Yong Cheng (1933–2015), who created a large number of works in different musical genres. Many of them won the awards of national and international competitions. Among the orchestral works of the author – Symphony “Happy Steppe” (1954), Concert “Swallow” for voice and orchestra (1963), “Heroes – oil workers” (1965, in collaboration with Jefu), the piece “Lyrical” for violin and orchestra (1956), the symphonic poems “Two Little Shepherds” (1959), “Seaside” (1962) and “I mine oil for the Motherland” (1964). The chamber-vocal genre, among many, has become a favorite in the composer’s work. Among the most famous songs of Qin Yong Chen, one should mention: “I mine oil for the Motherland” (the same name with the symphonic poem, 1964), “Naively to hope, Beijing” (1965), “Chairman Mao travels around the Motherland” (1972), “My dear Homeland “(1984), “I and My Motherland”(1985), “Our Motherland”(1998), “Petroleum Flame” (2003), “Petrochemical Plant at Night” (2003), music from the films “Business” (1965), “The Day of Love – a sea of hatred” (1989), “Marshal and Soldiers” (1981), etc. The last work of the composer was the song “We reached to the good times” (2015). The famous Chinese vocalists Liu Bing, Li Gui, Deng Yuhua, Lu Jihon, Zhang Jinli, Liu Yuan and others turned to the song heritage of Qin Yong Cheng. Thanks to this, the songs of the composer are well known in the country. In 2005, in Beijing, a collection of works by Qin Yong Cheng “I and My Country” was published, which included the vocal pieces selected from different periods of his creativity and two his instrumental pieces. Objectives. The richest potential of the chamber-vocal lyric poetry of the composer has not been disclosed to date and requires special attention of researchers. The purpose of the article is to reveal the specificity of the musical style of the song genre in the works of Qin Yong Cheng. Methods of research are based on a set of scientific approaches necessary for the disclosure of its theme. The complex approach, combining the principle of musical-theoretical, musical-historical and performing analysis, is taken as the basis of the methodology. Results. The composer heard the pulse of time well, and his own deep understanding of life was transformed in his melodies, became the unique musical language of the composer. His works contain deep affection and love for the homeland, native city, for life, and therefore they are able to produce a strong effect. Another facet of the chamber-vocal creativity of Qin Yong Cheng became lyrical songs, which are distinguished by warmth, smoothness, transparency. Lyricism is one of the most important aesthetic features in his writings, causing the people’s love for the composer’s works. Chamber-vocal lyrics of Qin Yong Cheng represents a gallery of personalities of real, living people, endowed with not only virtues, but also shortcomings. One of the features of Qin Yong Cheng’s songs is the “stinginess” of using complex vocal and technical skills. The composer rarely uses voice ornamentation or melodic ornaments. Qin Yong Cheng is very sensitive to the dynamics of the melody, thanks to which he manages to build large symmetrical wave-type arches. He applies a wide variety of wave forms: from infinitely wide to finely recurring, from increasing to falling down, to full statics. For Qin Yong Cheng, experiments with the asymmetric construction of parts of the whole are not characteristic, for the musical development of his music the contrasting rhythm of the melody and variation in a limited range are more characteristic. This guarantees accessibility of all his vocal works for a broad listener, and the author status as an outstanding composer, which made the people proud of their belonging to the nation and their homeland – China. The vocal miniatures of Qin Yong Cheng are an unique phenomenon in the Chinese songs and romances of the twentieth century. This genre made possible the composer to implement of various nuances of the human voice embodying the synthesis of music and poetry in various forms of intonational expression, both gravitating towards the external showing of emotions, and transmitting the subtlest psychological states. Conclusions. In the vocal lyric of the composer, two aesthetic-stylistic factors stand out as constants: 1) adherence to anthropocentrism; 2) reliance on Chinese national sources. Anthropocentrism is one of the aesthetic differences of the vocal miniatures of Qin Yong Cheng. The main hero of the composer’s songs was the Man and his life in various manifestations. The vocal works of Qin Yong Cheng became a reference point for the works of other composers, since in them, perhaps, for the first time, the elevation and exaltation of the “hero” changed the familiar to the Chinese aesthetics of domination of nature over the “little man”. In this choice lies the semantic basis of the chamber-vocal lyricism of the composer, its linguistic stylistics. From here follow and thematic blocks of songs: heroic and dramatic songs; love lyrics; poetry of contemplation. The melody of the vocal voice in the songs of Qin Yong Cheng gravitates toward cantilena (in lyrical songs) and to recitation (heroic-dramatic songs). The lyric poetry is the basis of Qin Yong Cheng’s sound searches in his chamber- vocal works addressing to deepest and actual human feelings, and his style, in general, and in this genre, in particular, acquires the features of universality.