Servicios personalizados
Inglés (pdf)
Articulo en XML
Referencias del artículo
Enviar articulo por email
Citado por SciELO 
Similares en
SciELO 
Permalink
Introduction
The purpose of the work is to generalize, based on historical data, ideas about the national manifestations of saxophone schools in the art of the 19th - 20th centuries, emphasizing the academic advantage of mastering large and medium forms in composition and performance, among which the fantasy genre for soloist and orchestra takes pride of place.
Specific tasks:
generalization of historical materials about the peculiarities of the genesis of saxophone art in France and its stylistic transformations in the past century and today; highlighting the features of the manifestation of large and medium forms in the saxophone repertoire;
analysis of Fantasia for saxophone and piano by F. Borne as an example of the embodiment of the middle form in the saxophone repertoire.
The research methodology is the intonation approach of the Asafiev school in Ukraine (Androsova, 2008), emphasizing the speech basis of music, which is natural for vocal sound production on the saxophone and which is accepted in the concept of comparative stylistic analysis, widely tested in the works of Burkatsky (2004); and Krupey (2006), etc.
The methodological basis of the work is formed by the interaction of such methods:
historical, compiled for the establishment of developments and further development of the instrument’s repertoire;
genre-style - for the purpose of emphasizing the particular stylistic specifics of the work being examined;
structural-functional - for music-theoretical analysis of their dramaturgy.
The scientific novelty of the work is due to the fact that for the first time, the subject of analysis, in the accepted perspective of the saxophone specificity of discovering national musical thinking, analyzed the works of F. Borne, which fully represent the average form of the saxophone academic repertoire (Villafruela, 1999; Estévez-et al., 2022).
The practical value of the work lies in the fact that its materials can be used in a class of special saxophone playing, as well as in courses on the theory and history of performance in higher and secondary music schools.
Materials and methods
The relevance of the research topic is determined by the significance of saxophone art in the academic field, in which mastery of a large form for both composers and performers constitutes a demonstration of the skill of a professional musician. In recent decades, scientific works have been created devoted to the art of playing wind instruments and specifically works on the art of saxophone (Burkatsky, 2004; Krupey, 2006). However, the intensive development of the art of saxophonists and compositions for them determines the need for new scientific research, to which this work makes a modest contribution.
The psychology of creativity and wickedness is examined by L. Vigotsky (“Psychology of mysticism. Analysis of aesthetic reaction”); O. Garkavy (“Form and vinakhid in the context of musical evolution: psychological aspect of the compositional process”); B. Teplov (“Psychology of musical activities”).
The French instrumental tradition constitutes a fairly independent branch of European instrumentalism, the main features of which are usually described mainly with reference to the German and Italian schools (Hysa et al., 2023). The reasons for this are of a religious and political nature, as rightly noted in the work of Zhongxiao (2007): “The existence of the peoples of Europe was determined by historical circumstances, which promoted two independent stylistic genres to a leading position in the musical world trends: Italian-German and French (Markova, 2010). In this case, we are talking about the countries of Western Europe, for which circumstances were such that from the 8th century the peoples of Italy and the German lands found themselves within one state, which received the solemn name of the ‘Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation’. Gaul-France, which was in the 5th-7th centuries, also depended for a short time on the emperor of this Holy Empire, founded by Frederick Barbarossa. A strong Orthodox state under the rule of the Merovingians... From the time of Charlemagne (9th century), France asserted its independence in state and religious terms”.
This independence was manifested in the musical sphere in a number of genre and timbre settings that differ from other European schools. And this applies, first of all, to the attitude towards wind instruments.
The formation of instrumental culture in modern times, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, distinguished France, in parallel with the establishment of independent opera and ballet schools, moreover, the latter was born three decades earlier than opera, and French opera, unlike Italian, initially incorporated ballet scenes (compare with the practice of jingju in Chinese musical theater). Timbral preferences singled out France: in Italy everything was focused on violin technique, while France gravitated towards wind instruments, French Provence is known as the birthplace of the academic flute in Europe (see about this in the work of V.E. Dzisyuk [Dzisyuk V.E. Playing the flute]), and in operatic practice a special place was occupied by the sound of the trumpet as an instrument, the imitation of which was considered worthy for a singer.
From the end of the 18th century, from the revolutionary military events that marked France on the international stage, the military orchestra and its corresponding wind instruments found themselves in an honorable position - amateur wind ensembles competed in popularity with choral societies. And this was reflected in the practice of early jazz already at the beginning of the 20th century, when in New Orleans, a former French colony in North America, black ensembles played predominantly wind instruments (trumpet, trombone - in an ensemble with banjo and double bass), became the center of attention in musical circles, giving rise to the classics of “hot jazz”.
Sax took the lead in introducing the saxophone into the list of educational disciplines of musical institutions (he included the saxophone in the educational process of the Paris Conservatory in 1857) Sax Adolf. Saxophone (Dobrokhotov & Levin, 2001). At the same time, the French composer and researcher of symphony orchestra instruments Georges Castner, author of the opera “The Last King of Judea” (1844), in the score of which he included a saxophone for the first time in the history of music, created and taught the first “School of Playing the Saxophone”.
Hector Berlioz, as one of the most prominent scientists and researchers of symphony orchestra instruments of the 19th century, author of the monumental works “Great Treatise on Instrumentation” (Grand Traité d'instrumentation et orchestration moderns, Paris, 1844) and “An Evening of the Orchestra” (Les Soirées de l 'orchestre, Paris, 1853), was captured by the unusual timbre of the saxophone, not similar to any of the instruments of the symphony orchestra. In his works, he devoted considerable attention to the saxophone, gave a detailed description of its design, orchestral use, and predicted a great future for the instrument. Berlioz's works helped to attract the full attention of Western European composers to the saxophone (Androsova, 2008).
Hector Berlioz, as one of the most prominent scientists and researchers of symphony orchestra instruments of the 19th century, author of the monumental works “Great Treatise on Instrumentation” (Grand Traité d'instrumentation et orchestration moderns, Paris, 1844) and “An Evening of the Orchestra” (Les Soirées de l 'orchestre, Paris, 1853), was captured by the unusual timbre of the saxophone, not similar to any of the instruments of the symphony orchestra. In his works, he devoted considerable attention to the saxophone, gave a detailed description of its design, orchestral use, and predicted a great future for the instrument. Berlioz's works helped to attract the full attention of Western European composers to the saxophone.
The work of M. Krupay emphasizes that the saxophone, invented and introduced in the 19th century, sensitively responded to the operatic and vocal achievements of the said century. Accordingly, the sound of the saxophone is characterized by a special kind of speech intonation “fragility of pronunciation”, which was formed by the “post-Belcanto” stage of opera art from Rossini to Verdi, Wagner (Kruglova, 2003). Professor M.V. Krupei emphasized in his study that for the indicated period - from Rossini to Verdi, Wagner - the intense dynamics of changing multi-timbral characteristics of female voices in the era of Rossini is indicative, and then timbral combinatorics in male voices in connections with the "Dupré revolution".
Thus, the 19th century put forward saxophone solos to capture images - the forgotten moral values of Europe in the form of ideas-symbols that evoke associations with the spiritual Service and Byzantineism, detached by the civilizational passions of post-Renaissance Europe. And according to this historical logic, the saxophone turned out to be in demand in the New World, among American blacks, who responded with spiritual hymns to the values of pure Faith forgotten by Europeans. Accordingly, we obtain the following general characteristic:
“The saxophone has a strong expressive sound, rich and full, a unique, somewhat ‘spicy’ timbre, and great virtuoso technical capabilities; one of the main instruments of jazz". (Dobrokhotov & Levin, 2001).
In the second half of the twentieth century. Female saxophone performance has reached the pinnacle of its development. Among the most famous jazz performers in the world are J. Ederly, T. Fuller, L. Benjamin, S. Gonzalez and S. Bonasina from the USA. Their work had a great influence on the development of jazz saxophone performance in China. A recognized unsurpassed saxophonist of the modern world is the Dutch smooth-jazz performer, singer and composer K. Dulfer. She gives many concerts in Europe and Asia, and in China on the stage of the country's leading modern Opera House in Hong Kong along with singers D. Stewart and Madonna in 2006 and 2008. she gave two concerts (Kruglova, 2003).
To summarize what has been said, we note:
the birthplace of the saxophone - France - is due to the deep historical roots of wind performance in this country and especially in the military environment, which highlighted the brass band as a special quality of manifestation of musical thinking and playing wind instruments in capturing the essential properties of ensemble sound expression;
the enormous influence of operatic vocals on the formation of the aesthetics of saxophone sound engineering and sound production, which determined the demand for solo saxophones, earlier than others, in opera and musical theater works (see the works of J.-J. Kastner, J. Meyerbeer, A. Thoma, J. Bizet, J. Massenet, etc.);
the spread of the saxophone in symphonic music was determined by the initiative of French and Russian composers, who, represented by the luminaries of their composition schools, paid attention to this instrument (C. Debussy, V. D' Indy, M. Ravel, D. Milhaud, A. Glazunov, S. Rachmaninov, S. Prokofiev, R. Gliere), although the initiative to introduce the saxophone into the symphony orchestra belongs to the German composer R. Strauss, which was picked up in the work of P. Hindemith;
the new “fulcrum” for the use of the saxophone was the instrumental environment of popular and mass culture in the United States, in which, in the form of a jazz instrument, the saxophone organically entered the timbre reserve of the actual timbre qualities of the music of the last century, forming a competing parallel to the clarinet; The participation of the saxophone in the rock wave of the second half of the twentieth century, including the one that emerged against the backdrop of the last school of Latin American jazz of the 1960s - 1970s and subsequent decades, has not been forgotten.
Fantasy is a genre established in European music from the 16th century, representing a type of instrumental (occasionally vocal) composition, in which, in comparison with the aria and sonata as the first genres of professional art, certain individual traits are expressed, the manifestation of which is expressed in “deviation from the usual for its time, norms of construction, less often - in the unusual figurative filling of the traditional compositional scheme" (Kyuregyan, 1981). This genre is indicative of the Baroque era, demonstrating the combinatorial principle of mathematized thinking of this era.
In the 20th century, fantasy as an independent genre is rare (Kyuregyan, 1981), the interpretation of the concept of fantasy is directed in the 19th-20th centuries. on the genre quality of instrumental or orchestral music, “based on the free use of themes borrowed from one’s own works or other composers, as well as from folklore” (Kyuregyan, 1981). As we can see from the given characteristics, this typology is focused on large and medium forms, initially forming an offshoot of the sonata-symphony-concert (which, according to the observation of Bobrovsky (1981), at the beginning meant the same thing.
This kind of approach is extremely useful in the analysis of “Brilliant Fantasia on Themes from 'Carmen'” by François Born (1840-1920), which presents themes borrowed from the famous opera by J. Bizet. The composition features a masterfully over-represented soloist’s part, defining the concert affiliation of the work, while the general plan - suite-variation - creates analogies with the sonata when performed for soloist and piano, while the transcription for chamber orchestra and soloist forms a tilt to the side symphony-concert.
The fantasy was written by a French composer and virtuoso flutist in one person, who was the first flutist at the Grand Theater in Bordeaux. It is clear that the author’s version is for solo flute and piano, while in practice the sound has acquired its own meaning with a solo saxophone, as well as in a version with orchestral accompaniment (Zakharova, 1983). There is also an interesting transcription for solo accordion accordion.
“A brilliant fantasy on the themes of 'Carmen'” by François Born (“Fantaisie brilliante sur Carmen”) represents the central image of the opera by J. Bizet, given as if framed by the characters interested in it, Jose (“Aria with a Flower” from Act II) and Toreodora (Couplets of Toreodora from Act III). From the part of Carmen, numbers are highlighted that present the heroine in victorious splendor, bypassing the tragic-dramatic positions of Acts III and IV. The position of the Habanera is naturally centered (volumes 140-237 with a total duration of 364 tons), presented in the form of a theme and two brilliant figurative-passage variations.
Please note that the melodic image of the Habanera (“Songs of Havana,” the capital of Cuba, which in the 1870s, when Carmen was created, was associated with the struggle of José Martí, the great poet and revolutionary, for the Freedom of the socially humiliated) is the sequence catabasis . We are talking about a melodic movement from top to bottom, symbolizing since the Middle Ages, the path of the soul from Heaven to earth, the path of Repentance-redemption, redemptive suffering. The latter is emphasized by the chromatic series, defined in musical rhetoric as Passus duriscuelus, that is, “hard move.” In combination with the rhythmic formula of the habanera, a song-dance from Havana, this church sign forms a capacious metaphor for a representative of the lower social classes accepting the heights of moral atonement for the sin of pride, predicting a tragic outcome.
The above makes us realize the choice of themes from the arsenal of the parts of Jose and Toreodor; in the melody of the numbers chosen in this case, there is also a reliance on the catabasis sequence, only given in truncation and in melodic coloring. Thus, in the melody of Jose's Aria, shown in vol. 18-24, the basic sequence for melodic development is the sequence g² - f² - es² (in the notation of the musical text of Bourne’s Fantasia), shown first in the original motive (t. 18), and then determined by the initial (g²) and final sounds (f² - t. 19, es² - v.21) phrases. This version of catabasis is diatonic, shortened, but also involved in the meaning of Repentance-atonement (Markova & Hoa, 1995).
The couplets of the Toreodor, the main form of the melody of which is presented in the Allegro moderato section from volume 331, capture a character whose profession is associated with an archaic ritual ceremony, in which the animal brought out for slaughter is often capable of drawing the sacrificer himself into the sacrificial action. The theme of the Toreodor is based on the catabasis, which is not clearly expressed in progression, but is oriented towards it, the supporting melodic foundations of which are the series c² - b¹ - as¹ - g¹ - f¹ - es¹ - b (in the musical notation of Fantasia), representing the completeness of the sextachord (sexta - interval associated with the sextachord of the Perfect Theme ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la; see the sextachord in the melody of Jose's Aria).
This is how a variant coverage of the main themes is built, representing the image of Fantasy - in the form of a brilliant procession of characters associated with the high life ritual of Sacrifice of oneself and others in the Atonement of sin - one's own and that of others.
The beginning of Fantasia is indicative - on the motive of the tragic fate of Carmen, which in this textured form in the opera anticipates the sound of Habanera, and in Fantasia introduces the full scope of the musical solemnly brilliant and broadcasting the tragedy of the musical action. In this beginning, the contours of the antithesis lines catabasis - anabasis are connected in the form of texture-register sequences (vols. 1-4 and 4-5). The role of the first of these symbols and what really reveals the sound of Fantasy was discussed above. As for the second, its outline highlights individual turns of melodic constructions, but at the same time demonstratively completes the entire composition - see vol. 360-361. True, the last “jerk” in volumes 361-362, the move from g3 to es¹, still affirms the energy of catabasis, but in the illumination of the idea of Perfection, which is demonstratively shown in the passage volumes 360-361.
As we see, the general principle of “potpourri”, that is, the demonstration of popular and easily recognizable themes, dictates the suite structure, the individual links of which, as noted above, are connected by focusing on the figure catabasis. The latter is most openly and harshly given in the Habanera melody, but co-present in the textural and register indicators in all of these themes in Fantasia, as well as in the melodic title motifs of the themes of Jose and Toreodor. This indicates a compositional orientation towards suite-variations, traditional for the national instrumentalism of France, consecrated by the spiritual salon of the harpsichordists.
In addition to the above-mentioned variation in the suite cyclization, the tonal symmetry es - B - es/Es Fantasia creates signs of a complex three-part form, and repetitions in the main key at the end of the form of the motif from Habanera in the main key (vol. 356-357) and others introduce additional sonatas relationship (Havanera in b/As in the center of the composition performs the function of a side part in the sonata layout, symbolically passing in a reprise key to the conclusion of the work). This is how poetry is designated, combining the indicators of suite-variations and sonata - cf. classic poems by R. Strauss such as “The Life of a Hero”, “Don Quixote”, etc.
In the bottom row of the diagram, a structure of rondality in meaning emerges, since themes directly related to the image of Carmen and others clearly alternate. Again, by analogy with R. Strauss (and the time of the composition of the Fantasia, the beginning of the twentieth century, coincides with the peak of fame of the brilliant Wagnerian composer and conductor), we point out that the noted combination of various structural indicators in the complex single-part poetic form, including signs of rondality - correlated with a “poem in the form of a rondo”, namely, with “Till Eulenspiegel” by R. Strauss.
The organic nature of the replacement of the flute by the saxophone is determined by the fact that the flute performing in Fantasia is interpreted in its masculine guise, which is determined by the Provencal genesis of the academic flute, representing a purely male instrument, which determined the entry of the flute into the military orchestra in the countries of the European West. However, the ancient instrumentation that fed medieval and Renaissance Europe shows us female musicians performing the aulos tibia. Women mastered flute performance in the 20th century. before all other wind instruments.
The saxophone was born oriented towards a masculine type of playing, but quite early it was determined in female performance, which makes it correlated in the general culture of expression with woodwinds, and the alto saxophone with the flute in particular.
To summarize the analysis, we note the following indicators:
The fantasy of François Born represents this genre at the level of combinatorics of poetry as a sign of the instrumentalism of the past 19th century and the variation-suiteness of the classics of French Rococo, which for the representative of the nation Francois Couperin the Great is the holy of holies of aesthetic prerogatives;
Fantasia presents the soloist’s part in an excessively virtuoso manner, first of all, demonstrating the contrasts of the cantilena and motor skills (and in this regard constituting the “perfect baroque instrument” of the violin), but also revealing a “jumping” ability that is actually not achievable on the violin (see vol. . 32-40, etc.); The articulatory variety is also impressive, perhaps unattainable in such quantities on another instrument;
the above-mentioned structural and stylistic alloys in the structure of Fantasia (French suite, German poetry, coupled with neoclassical and impressionistic or pro-romantic methods of expression) indicate interpretive lines of interpretation of the whole, depending on the stylistic experience of the interpreting musician.
Conclusions
The intensive development of saxophone performance in the 20th - 21st centuries is organically connected with the production of compositions for this instrument, which, in addition to highly professional improvisation, which is the central point of the jazz use of this instrument, are designed to maintain the academic status of saxophone art as a whole as an indicator of belonging to the highest professional manifestation of music.
The works taken for analysis record, as it were, the obligatory “points” of the saxophonist’s repertoire, since the works of François Born determine the “calling card” of the academic saxophone as a whole. And the basis of this special openness of the saxophone to national rethinking of its performing principles is largely determined by its “binational” genesis - the invention of the instrument in France, intended for the applied (military orchestra) and artistically self-sufficient sphere of symphonic and operatic art.
The path to introducing the saxophone into instrumental academic practice in Europe is demonstrated by the practice of interpreting François Born's virtuoso concert work for the saxophone.
