Igor Dubhinin’s tutorial «Harmony» (confined to centenary of authors birth).
Background. The article confined to centenary of birth of Igor Dubhinin, the venerable musical theorist of Kharkiv school. The tutorial “Harmony” by Igor Dubhinin during the half of the century stays only one in Ukraine in Ukrainian. Unfortunately, some musicians still do not even know about its existence. At the same time, others have been turning to him for a long time in educational practice. The theoretical Ukrainian musicology still does not comprehend and not evaluate this manual. The aim of this article is to make analytics of methodology and method of teaching in “Harmony” textbook from the point of view of nowadays. As the results, it was shown contradictions between Dubhinin’s functional and modal approach for study harmony, traced features of the tutorial in historical dynamic of domestic education. Harmony as a practical discipline has a systematic thematic content, which is united into two parts –”Diatonicism” and “Chromaticism”. In the first edition (1968), the tutorial covers the first part entirely and the second section partly; in the second edition (1981–1982), corrected and expanded to 2 volumes, the part of “Diatonicism” is filled with the topics about ninth chords of II and IV degrees. “Chromatics” is vastly enriched; almost all topics of the course (except for one “Major-Minor”) are included here, which greatly broadens the purpose of the textbook. Along with the musical faculties of pedagogical educational institutions, it is necessary to include music training colleges, specialized schools of music and even separate faculties of music institutions of higher education of Ukraine. I. M. Dubhinin’s manual absorbed the traditions and advantages of the Kharkiv musical-theoretical school, which at the time of its publication were represented by professors M. D. Tits, T. S. Kravtsov, O. V. Gusarova, – in particular, interest in natural-modus harmony. The textbook features a wealth of practical and creative tasks for each subject of the course and a comprehensive coverage of musical material for examples. The author himself already notes in the first edition that the manual is somewhat different from the popular and now the textbook of harmony by the group of teachers of the Moscow Conservatoire [6]. Indeed, in the first edition of I. Dubhinin’s manual, all attention is paid to the correlation of the all triads of all degrees and to the means of their connection, that is, harmony is presented as the art of exclusively concordance conducting of the voices of the chords. From here the question of harmonious colorfulness, diversity as such comes. The author considers the harmonic ratios at the distance of second and third intervals equally as the ratios at the distance fourth and fifth, and the triads on the II, III, and VII degrees of the modus – in the same way as the triads on IV or V. Traditional for the harmony study the question about functionality of chords actually does not go up. In the second edition of the tutorial, in two volumes, some adjustments were made to the methodology: a separate topic is devoted to the question of harmonic functions. It is indicated that the sounds are united around the tonic as a main tone, and the laws of gravity are inherent not only to the degrees of the modus, but also to the accords “built on these degrees” [4, p. 20]. The author introduces the notion of the main triads on I, IV, V degrees, and lateral triads, but notes that “such a classification in modern theory can only be used conditionally” [ibid.]. In general, the author’s desire to bring harmony closer to revealing the style of Ukrainian folklore, Ukrainian and Russian music leads to a weakening of attention on the issues of functional logic of chords. As a result, the sense of tonicality as a harmonious content in conditiuons of using of all the triads on all levels is not raised, it is solely about the factors of correlations and combinations of chords directly in practice. Thus, the art of harmonization appears as the art of combinatorial thinking by the triads. This is quite difficult and really requires from the hearing of à musician “liberation from the standards.” However, as far is it necessary? In connection with this methodically “double-headed” way of introducing to harmony (on the one hand, through the techniques of combinations, on the other – through the dynamics of functions), the question of the priority of one of the principles sharply raises: the conducting of voices in chord combinations of various correlation or the logic of harmonic functionality that itself dictates choice of chord sequences? The answer to this question turns out to be ambiguous in the author’s position. In the method of teaching harmony there are, indeed, two sides. And if, conventionally speaking, in the “classical” approach the starting point is the logics of “three proportions” (Rameau), the T-S-D logics, then a number of teachers, nevertheless, are inclined to the initial introduction of triads of all levels on the basis of high-quality conducting of the chord voices. Indicative in this plan is the line “P. Tchaikovsky – A. Myasoyedov”. Namely in this way, going from the all possible correlations and interconnections of the all triads, P. Tchaikovsky acts, which is the author of the first domestic textbooks in the study of harmony: “The Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony” (1872) and “The Brief Textbook of Harmony” (1875). Therewith P. I. Tchaikovsky refers to the musical material on the basis, of which he develops his tutorial: the Russian Church music, which is mostly based on the modal principle of thinking, where ancient moduses with their lack of tonal centralization – the property of classical harmony – are of great importance. On the other hand, P. I. Tchaikovsky is also invokes from the practice of the general-bass. The textbook “Harmony” by A. Myasoyedov, published almost the century later (1980), practically simultaneously with the textbook of I. Dubhinin, following the traditions of Tchaikovsky, also begins the course by studying of the all triads [8, p. 3]. The music material, which I. Dubhinin ontologizes in his methodology, also differs from the material of Viennese classics. Speaking about the peculiarities of natural modus harmony and harmony of Ukrainian and Russian music, he also implies the phenomenon that in modern theory will be called “modality”. However, it is logical to assume that the term “modality” in the 80s of the last century – when the textbook by I. Dubhinin was created – was not yet the term domestic practice of harmonic generalizations. How is the methodical problem of functionality solved in Tchaikovsky’s and Myasoyedov’s manuals, in which also widely develops the connections of triads of all levels? For P. Tchaikovsky-theorist, the supremacy of the three functions is initial and unconditional. A. Myasoyedov, in contrast to I. Dubhinin, devotes a part of the theme “Triads” to the logic of harmonic functions (section 2, §§ 8–10). The author, like N. Rimsky-Korsakov and “brigade” of the theoreticians of the Moscow Conservatoire in the twentieth century, the whole set of triad systems divides into three functional groups – T, S, D, and then shows the levels of instability within the groups. According to A. Myasoyedov, “this approach gives the opportunity to focus on the development of the norms of functional logic”[8, p. 4]. Conclusions. Considered textbooks by P. Tchaikovsky and A. Myasoyedov, in contrast to the I. Dubhinin’s work, have no contradictions in the method of studying harmony. Their method, which includes the two sides – the functionality and the conducting of voices in combinations of chords – is holistic and unique. Nevertheless, some things remain unclear to the end. For example, how one may to explain the triads sequence of II–VI–IV degrees in the textbook by P. Tchaikovsky from the standpoint of functionality? Why A. Myasoyedov forced to supplement the classical full harmonic turnover by its inversion in a natural minor? And how to solve the contradiction between the two approaches in the methodology of harmony of I. Dubhinin? The answer to these questions in all three cases is due to the peculiarities of that musical material, which is ontologized in the methodology. Classical harmony as a pure style ends up to 1820, then the penetration of modalisms begins. And, if the method of studying harmony tends to correspond with artistic practice, its internal contradictions or imperfections become inevitable. In the textbook by I. Dubhinin, unlike the “related” textbooks by P. Tchaikovsky and A. Myasoyedov, they are sharpened and presented in the most “dramatic” form – a kind of “form of contrast”.