Philosophy of Intonation in Sergey Taneyev's Cantatas

Abstract

This article aims to give a religious and philosophical interpretation of Sergey Taneyev's cantatas John Damascene and reading Psalm. By means of united philosophical and musicological methodologies, a study of both cantatas is made that shows the connection between the composer's ideas from the Russian religious-philosophical tradition and his creative priority of reviving the tradition of choral music. Keywords—Sergey Taneyev ; cantatas; Russian tradition revealing; St. John Damascene; On reading Psalm; choral music I. INTRODUCTI ON Th e main problem raised in this article is the interpretation of Sergey Taneyev's cantatas John Damascene and reading Psalm in their religious and philosophical aspects. Each language of art expresses the word-view of the artist, his national culture, and the period in which he lived. Musical art, because of the intonation in its nature, shows in the most evident way the essential aspect of culture as an ideal-forming sphere of human life. As such, music can serve as an especially productive material for philosophical and culturological research. A composer's art is a kind of philosophizing. Proper musicology alone is unable to reveal the meaning of a musical composition; only when combined with philosophical and ontological methods can musicology offer a complete understanding of a musical text without destroying the unity of form and content. The study of Taneyev's cantatas using such a combined method shows the connection of the great Russian composer with the theo-philosophical tradition. This tradition is evident in the range of his ideas as well as in his creative priority in reviving the tradition of choral music. It is logical that Taneyev aimed to develop the national music tradition by creating an orthodox cantata. This technique is similar to that of Bach's national tradition in German music. Taneyev attributed to the genre of cantata the ability to express in general (way) the essential features of modern understanding of Man in order to unite people in an ideal community (1). Taneyev realized only religious music, being what he considered a source of the highest national values, could fulfill this task. Taneyev's reflection on the future of Russian music developed in his article What do Russian composers have to do? led to an idea of a certain genre expressing optimally either his own artistic priorities or his understanding of superior aims and the tasks of art. We should mention that Taneyev's interpretation of this genre is similar neither to its Russian form with its hymnal, salutatory character nor to Bach's version of spiritual cantata, although the Russian composer did use it as a kind of pattern.