Female chamber vocal cycle of the 1960s–1970s and the “new folk wave”. Part 1. In search of intonational authenticity

Abstract

The subject of the study is the chamber and vocal work of Soviet composers of the 1960s–1970s, the works of the undisputed leaders of the young post-war generation of musicians from the “sixties”. The author of the article studies the neo-folklore searches and experiments of R. Shchedrin, B. Tishchenko, S. Slonimsky, V. Gavrilin, E. Denisov, which became the most important component of the significant artistic movement “new folklore wave”. During these years, there was a peculiar accumulation of outstanding sample compositions, striking in their originality and brightness, new recording techniques, and the authors’ extremely conscientious attitude towards original materials collected in conservatory folklore expeditions. At the turn of the 1960s, the chamber-vocal cycle took leading roles in the work of many Soviet composers and Russian music in general. Vocal compositions, with their inherent versatility, capable of flexible modifications, turned out to be a fertile area for the creative efforts of musicians of different generations. The article uses the following scientific research methods: comparative analytical, structural and functional, as well as cultural method. The author of the article uses literary-textual and musical-textual methods for research, and also relies on the fundamental provisions of general historical methodology, in particular, sociocultural, historical-chronological, and biographical. The main conclusion of the study is the idea that the chamber-vocal works of the “new folklore wave” have a “female face”, since most of them were written for performance by female voices. Folk melody and rhythm, a lively intonation environment, the direct emotionality of folklore became not only a kind of “counterweight” to sophisticated avant-garde techniques in the music of the second half of the twentieth century, but the most important component of the composer’s language and even thinking, and sometimes the main support of creative expression. The author for the first time deeply and fully explores the “female” vocal cycle of the 1960s–1970s, those works that are associated with the unique and powerful artistic movement “new folk wave,” a phenomenon that was at the forefront of the radical renewal of Russian music in the second half of the twentieth century.