The “undying archaic elements” in dramatic oratorio by Arthur Honegger “Joan of Arc at the Stake”

Abstract

The subject of this research is the integration of the elements of old genres in to a composition of Arthur Honegger’s dramatic oratorio. Particular attention is paid to formation of the system of interrelated intonation-dramaturgical spheres and vocal-symphonic development of recurring themes, motifs and sound symbols. The author examines the interaction of verbal and vocal-symphonic elements of sound fabric. The goal consists in identification of the traits of old genres and other archaic elements within the synthetic form of musical/dramatic theatre, as well as determination of the dominant aspect of musical meaning therein. Research methodology is based on the musical-hermeneutic reconstruction of the process of composing, detection of the fundamental principles of musical dramaturgy along with functions of cited by the composer Latin texts in the synthetic form of dramatic oratorio. The main method for this work became the musical-theoretical analysis of polyphonic vocal-symphonic musical fabric, and analysis of the verbal texts of voice part in the French and Latin languages, in de visu score. This article is first to interpret integration of the genre codes of medieval mystery play and citations from liturgical texts of the previous eras, including the Holy Scripture, into the compositions of dramatic oratorio of Arthur Honegger as the means for creating temporal multidimensionality of the synthetic form of French musical/dramaturgical theatre of the XX century within the context of Christian tradition. Honegger has overcome the linearity of narration through integration into the composition of the traits of previous eras. The citation of liturgical texts, including Holy Scripture, lead to expansion of the semantic space of literary text of the dramatic oratorio. This established the idea of synthesis of time and eternity characteristic to Christianity.