Phenomenology of style as musicological discourse

Abstract

Background. Among the studies of the last five years we note scientific researches which reveal different phenomenological concepts in musicological discourse and reveal the final maximum of the phenomenological study of music essence. R. Kurenkova’s research is one of them, which explores the content of the phenomenological approach to the analysis of musical art works, and traces the analysis of the history and theory of the phenomenological method. In V. Sokolov’s work the attention is focused on the categories of musical thinking, which for the first time becomes the subject of methodologically advanced phenomenological analysis. A. Karipova traces the connection of musical phenomenology with E. Husserl’s temporal concept in her research. T. Ivannykov studies the phenomenon of guitar art. The phenomenology of style, which was first introduced into the scientific musicological circulation, is studied by the article’s author in the PhD research. Objectives. The article’s objective is to form a musicological discourse on the problems of musical phenomenology on the basis of existing scientific sources and to reveal the understanding of composer’s style as a phenomenon of musical creativity. Methods. The research methodology is focused on the synthesis of different approaches: historical, functional and structural, genre, stylistic performing and interpretive, phenomenological approaches. Results. Phenomenology as a direction studies phenomena, reveals their content by means of structural complexes in their integrity. In the 19th century, the search for common interconnection and common methods of a unified process of cognition began in Western European philosophy. The theoretical concepts of the leading philosophers and phenomenologists E. Husserl, F. Brentano, M. Heidegger are considered. Extrapolation of the teachings of outstanding philosophers and phenomenologists to the material of musical art proved that Phenomenology as a process of cognitive knowledge of musical creativity reveals the fact of an individual performer’s experience as well as the experience of his artifact, which at the final stage forms the result of theoretical understanding. The valuable concepts of phenomenology of musical creativity by L. Akopian, O. Losev, M. Arkadyev, Z. Fomin, R. Kurenkova, V. Sokol, O. Krayeva, A. Karipova, I. Konovalova, T. Ivanikov are considered, which determine the musicological debate and give perspective on this issue’s development. Music, as the comprehension of being, is an irrelevant form of its expression, it contains meanings that do not “lie” on the surface, requiring their understanding and recognition. Therefore, the phenomenological approach leads to the isolation of a special subject named “phenomenology of musical creativity”. Accordingly, the phenomenology of musical objects is a method of musical phenomena recognition defining the descriptive function of their essence. Since phenomenology is involved in musical creativity, it should be noted that it is connected with a created, completed and final product (work), its performer, and subject (listener). Therefore, phenomenology can be involved at all levels of musical communication: both external (genre, performer, listener) and internal (work, form, dramaturgy, style). Phenomenological approach to the study of the composer’s style specifics leads to a structured attitude to the content of musical phenomena. The broadest sense for the extrapolation of phenomenology to musical art gives the notion of life-creation, whose meaning implies not only an artist’s belonging to historical age and composing school. The phenomenology of composer’s style is connected with the knowledge of a work’s semantic orientation in its “performanceappropriate” style reproduction. The performance concept is an appropriate task of phenomenology in the sense of knowing the semantic direction and its performanceadequate reproduction that is personal interpretation. Thus, before performing the compositional structure of a work and type of musical dramaturgy, a performer should establish a research position. In order to develop a work’s phenomenological concept, it is suggested to consider all factors of composer’s style as a two-level system: general stylistic intonation and performing concept. Сonclusions. The actualisation of the phenomenological method of cognition is evidenced by the various positions (cognitive attitudes) that relate to the subject who is the subject of “composer – performer – researcher” creativity. The levels of manifestation of creative phenomenology are fixed in the artifacts (a composer’s musical archive, audio and video recordings of different performers) should allow to consider composer’s style through its evolution. The model of style phenomenology is built as a system of functional levels and connections between them that emerge on musical communication basis (author – performer – listener).