10.36871/hon.202402137

Abstract

This article is devoted to the musical style of Yuri Kasparov (b. 1955), Russian composer and music teacher, Professor at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, who writes primarily chamber music. Many of his compositions are scored for a chamber orchestra comprising flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, harp, piano, percussion, two violins, viola, cello and double bass (an instrumentation derived from A. Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1). His works include over 80 chamber compositions of different genres written for one to 17 instruments. He tends to use non-standard instrumentation rather than ensembles typical for classical music such as string quartet, string trio, piano quintet, etc. Most of the techniques common to the avant-garde music are found in Kasparov’s works: the twelve-tone technique, sonorism, aleatoric music, electroacoustic music, musique concrète, performance, instrumental theatre, sound collage. Still, he remains quite a traditional composer that does not break down the boundaries of what is considered “musical” and “non-musical” sound. Kasparov’s music is beautiful, emotional, easy to understand, full of melodies and continuous instrumental solos. A simple word “beauty” becomes a stylistic innovation in his music. Kasparov believes that contemporary music can be divided into two categories: sonorism and “musical graphics”. Sonorism is focused on timbre, while “musical graphics” is distinguished by a greater use of pitch. Most of Kasparov’s works can be considered sonoristic, but today he prefers “musical graphics” — “colorless black and white composition” in which “line is important”.