Images of Instrumental Duets in the Musical Texts of Haydn’s Keyboard Sonatas and Their Implementation by Means of the Modern Piano

Abstract

The stylistic interpretation and the image-related and semantic expressive articulation in Haydn’s sonatas present pedagogue-musicians and students with difficult challenges. Haydn’s keyboard sonatas are frequently interpreted in the traditions of later time periods, which contradicts the composer’s individual style and the intonational lexis of the compositions. The key to the articulation regulated by the composer’s style may be served by the acoustic images of instrumental ensembles, which is concisely marked in the musical notation. Deciphering them makes it possible to present in a more precise manner the goals of expressive and comprehensive performance. The article presents performance sketches and scenarios, applied in the process of mastery of Haydn’s keyboard sonatas and geared on the formation of the skills of articulation. Practical developments of the exercises presuppose a timbral recreation of fragments of the sonatas by means of digital piano or keyboard synthesizer. The author demonstrates the attempt of work on the sketches on the level of the musical theme, examining it from the point of view of manifestation of acoustic images of instrumental duos: single-timbre (violin and viola, viola and cello) or multitimbre (flute and keyboard, flute and cello). The simplicity of the exposition and the lucid graphics of the placement of the instruments with their typical registral division into “high” and “low” contain a great creative potential for the subsequent variant instrumental ensemble transformations. The practice of amateurish music-making prompts many similar possibilities, some of which are demonstrated in the article: the replacement of the timbre of the soloist instruments, the unfolding of the duo into a quartet, the technique of the vertical shift of timb res. The suggested creative exercises help not only to cultivate timbral thinking, but also to form skills of competent articulation in the work with keyboard instruments of various constructions. Keywords: Joseph Haydn, Haydn’s keyboard sonatas, keyboard synthesizer, digital piano, instrumental duo.