Evolution of Amanda Maier’s chamber music work

Abstract

Statement of the problem. In modern performance and musicological practice, there is a clear tendency to revite the works of little-known or forgotten authors, in particular, female composers. The study of their work in modern discourse, mainly English-speaking, is mostly of an overview nature. The work of female composers is often considered from the standpoint of gender inequality and gender psychology. A certain lack of actually musicological studies of the works by female composers is observed. One of such little-known figures is Amanda Maier Röntgen – a Swedish violinist and composer, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and the Leipzig Conservatory, the first woman received the title of “Musik Direktor” and was actively toured in Europe, whose work is practically not studied in Ukrainian musicology. Analysis of recent publications. The figure of A. Maier is briefly mentioned in a number of works devoted to Swedish musical culture, in reference materials (Jönsson, 1995; Karlsson, 1994; Öhrström, 1987; Öhrström & Eriksson, 1995; Riemann, 2017; Laurence, 1978), in the studies devoted to other composers: J. Brahms, E. Grieg, J. Röntgen (Internationaler Brahms-Kongress Gmunden, 2001; Hofmann & Hofmann, 2006; Grieg, 2001; Vis, 2007). The most meaningful study dedicated to A. Maier is J. Martin’s dissertation (2018), but it focuses on the biographical moments and the position of female artists in the 19th century in general, omitting the actual musicological consideration of the composer’s works. Analysis of recent research and publications. The figure of A. Maier is briefly mentioned in a number of works devoted to Swedish musical culture, in reference materials (Jönsson, 1995; Karlsson, 1994; Öhrström, 1987; Öhrström & Eriksson, 1995; Riemann, 2017; Laurence, 1978), studies devoted to other composers: J. Brahms, E. Grieg, J. Röntgen (Internationaler Brahms-Kongress Gmunden, 2001; Hofmann & Hofmann, 2006; Grieg, 2001; Vis, 2007). The most meaningful study dedicated to the creative personality of A. Maier is the dissertation of J. Martin, but the researcher focuses on biographical moments and the position of female artists in the 19th century in general, omitting the actual musicological consideration of the composer’s works. The purpose of this article is to characterize A. Maier’s chamber work, to prorose its periodization and to trace the specifics of evolution of the composer’s chamber-instrumental style. The scientific novelty. For the first time in Ukrainian musicology, a comprehensive study of A. Maier’s chamber-instrumental work is carried out. Methodology of the research. The research results is based on such scientific and culturologic methods as historical and biographical; historical and genrestylistic; also the analytical musicological methods were used when considering A.Maier’s chamber instrumental works. Conclusions. The main phases of A. Maier’s professional development as a composer are the early and mature periods. Taking into account both, the biographical and purely musical stylistic factors, we regarde it inappropriate to talk about the late period of the artist’s work. We consider the early period to be the study time at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. The mature period begins after its end with the creation of the Sonata for violin and piano (1873). The mature period of the composer’s creativity is also subject to internal differentiation, since the time period from 1873 to 1880 (the year of marriage) was marked by much more active creative searches, a greater variety of genres and instrumental compositions, than the later years of A. Mayer’s life (in addition to chamber instrumental works, the Concerto for violin and orchestra, the chamber and vocal pieces were written). In the mature period, such notable opuses as Piano Trio, String Quartet, cycles of miniatures for piano and violin were created. The analysis of A. Maier’s scores revealed the main trends in the development of the composer’s chamber-instrumental style: an aspiration to symphonize the chamber music; the expansion of the imagery palette (the dominance of lyricodramatic impulses in the first mature works, the synthesis of lyrico-dramatic, lyrico-epic, epico-heroic, folklore-genre imagery spheres in the laters ones); active search for an individual solution to the violin miniature genre, in which the Swedish national musical traditions are most vividly embodied.