Anna Shtrom

On Tone-Painting Elements of Music Language in Vocal Chamber Music by Nikolai Medtner

This article is written in Russian. You can read it here.

References

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DOI 10.34690/32

Author Anna A. Shtrom

Affiliation Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory, St. Petersburg, Russia

Email anna-shtrom@mail.ru

ORCID

0000-0002-9286-2753

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to consider vocal chamber music by N. Medtner in relation to picturesqueness and tone-painting. The author enters the debate with music critics of the beginning of the 20th century, who perceive Medtner’s music as lacking colours, i. e. non-coloristic. To confute this opinion the author refers to the composer’s statements given in his book “Muse and Fashion” and also undertakes the analyses of Medtner’s pieces from the standpoint of tone-painting. Such analyses allows to highlight pictorial elements in the texture of “Arion” (Op. 36 No. 6) and “Night Song” (Op. 45 No. 3) and to demonstrate the inexhaustibleness of the composer’s fantasy in rhythmic organization of “The Cart of Life” (Op. 45 No. 2) and “Sacred Place” (Op. 46 No. 2), in inventing iterative rhythmic formulas in “Calm Sea” (Op. 15 No. 7), in forming of “higher-order bar” — a complex unity of bars with different time-signatures placed one after another in definite succession (“Twilight” Op. 24 No. 4), in realization of poetical image by means of leit-texture (“Vigilance” Op. 37 No. 1). In conclusion the author gives examples of exquisite coloristic use of both pedals by Medtner.

Keywords Nikolay Medtner, chamber vocal music, tone-painting, coloration, texture, rhythm, pedal

For citation

Shtrom, A. A. “On Tone-Painting Elements of Music Language in Vocal Chamber Music by Nikolai Medtner.” Muzykal’naya akademiya [Music Academy], no. 1, 2020, pp. 14–23, doi:10.34690/32. (In Russ.)