Semantics of fugue themes in the context of figurative distinctiveness of J. S. Bach’s cycle “Three Sonatas and Three Partitas for Violin Solo”

Abstract

The statement of problem. The article is an attempt to comprehend the semantic originality of the text of three Fugues in Bach’s Sonatas for solo violin. Despite the fact that J. S. Bach’s music has long been the basis of the musical culture of mankind, interest in the scientific study of his work does not fade away: new attempts to penetrate the world of the composer’s creative ideas, to discover the unknown secrets of his thoughts appear again and again.For the first time in Ukrainian Bach studies, an attempt is made to explore the similarity of semantics of the Canonical Church texts and the themes of the Fugues for solo violin. The purpose of the article is, by analyzing the themes of three Fugues (G minor, A minor, C Major), to prove the semantic kinship with the Canonical Latin text and, taking this into account, to clarify the symbolic and artistic content of other parts of J. S. Bach’s solo violin Sonatas (Siciliana in B Flat Major, Andante in C Major, Adagio in C Major), and to give some tips for performers when playing fugues. The methods of intonation and semantic analysis, deductive and comparative approaches are used in the study. Discussion and results. Particularly important is the fact that Bach’s Three Sonatas and Three Partitas for solo violin are traditionally treated in musicology as a “meta-cycle”, whose image sphere is linked to the key events of the Gospel: Christmas, Passion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (Wolff, 2000, Kogut, 2008; Lebedev, 2016, Pavliy, 1989, etc.). The study reveals high probability of closeness of the semantic content of the fugue theme and the canonical text of Latin prayers, which are the textual basis of the key parts of the Mass: “Christe eleison” – close to the theme of the Fugue in G minor, “Kyrie eleison” – the Fugue in A minor, “Et resurrexit tertia die” – the Fugue in C Major. Since fugues are the main parts of Bach’s Sonatas, this comparison reveals the symbolic meaning of the entire “metacycle” in a different way, more fully, and allows us to comprehend other parts of the Sonatas (“Siciliana” in B-flat Major, Andante in C Major, Adagio in C Major). Taking into account the above mentioned semantic guidelines, the article provides some recommendations for the performance phrasing and articulation of the musical text. Conclusion. The model of perceiving the thematisizm of three Fugues, which (along with the famous “Ciaccona”) are key parts of the cycle, proposed by the author of the article, makes it possible to find new interpretive solutions and greatly facilitates the searchfor high-quality means of expression, helps to choose rightly the tempo, articulation, dynamics, phrasing, strokes; contributing to achievement of textural transparency and completeness of entire form, it determines the figurative and emotional reinterpretation of other parts of the cycle.