Graphic signs in musical texts by Johannes Brahms

Abstract

The relevance of the chosen problem is determined by the lack in the scientific sources of any approach to graphic signs as a system of units of musical text, which reflects its content, and wider – serves as indicator of the individual style properties of the author of the musical work. The purpose of the article is to reveal with specific reference of certain conditions in which the communication of the composer and the performer is carried out by means of understanding the functional and semantic content of graphic signs. The choice of research methods are determined by the existing approaches to reading of the graphic signs and their role in the interpretation process. In this regard we involve the materials of the works of D. Blagoy, A. Sokol, S. Feinberg, M. Venable. Analytical observations concerning disclosure of the functional and semantic meaning of the studied phenomena became the results of the research. The conclusions propose classification of graphic signs in accordance with the purpose of their use by composer. Two groups of graphic signs are identified: slurs and dynamic signs («<» and «>»), which contain information about the structural and procedural principles of the musical text organization. The interaction of graphic signs with pitch and rhythmic ones has been discovered. In the contextual field of J. Brahms’ piano pieces, graphic signs are intended to warn interpreters against approach to the musical text from the point of view of the usual representations, limited to such considerations as the natural attraction to the reference tones or a strong proportion of tact. The logic of the musical process within a single theme or a phrase may be subject to other laws in Brahms’ musical texts, which are conditioned by the movement of the interior meaning. Thanks to graphic signs, the rhythmic structure of the theme reveals certain measure of freedom due to alternating strong and weak beats, and in the texture – certain temporary independence of voices in relation to each other. Thus, graphic signs in J. Brahms’ piano pieces are not additional, but decisive factors in many ways for understanding of the composer’s thought, which allows us to see in them some special form of manifestation of the author’s stylistic properties.