Miniature Cycle Research Articles

«The Viola in My Life» by M. Feldman: the search for meaning on the verge of the timbre feeling

«The Viola in My Life» by M. Feldman: the search for meaning on the verge of the timbre feeling

Evolution of Amanda Maier’s chamber music work

Statement of the problem. In modern performance and musicological practice, there is a clear tendency to revite the works of little-known or forgotten authors, in particular, female composers. The study of their work in modern discourse, mainly English-speaking, is mostly of an overview nature. The work of female composers is often considered from the standpoint of gender inequality and gender psychology. A certain lack of actually musicological studies of the works by female composers is observed. One of such little-known figures is Amanda Maier Röntgen – a Swedish violinist and composer, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and the Leipzig Conservatory, the first woman received the title of “Musik Direktor” and was actively toured in Europe, whose work is practically not studied in Ukrainian musicology. Analysis of recent publications. The figure of A. Maier is briefly mentioned in a number of works devoted to Swedish musical culture, in reference materials (Jönsson, 1995; Karlsson, 1994; Öhrström, 1987; Öhrström & Eriksson, 1995; Riemann, 2017; Laurence, 1978), in the studies devoted to other composers: J. Brahms, E. Grieg, J. Röntgen (Internationaler Brahms-Kongress Gmunden, 2001; Hofmann & Hofmann, 2006; Grieg, 2001; Vis, 2007). The most meaningful study dedicated to A. Maier is J. Martin’s dissertation (2018), but it focuses on the biographical moments and the position of female artists in the 19th century in general, omitting the actual musicological consideration of the composer’s works. Analysis of recent research and publications. The figure of A. Maier is briefly mentioned in a number of works devoted to Swedish musical culture, in reference materials (Jönsson, 1995; Karlsson, 1994; Öhrström, 1987; Öhrström & Eriksson, 1995; Riemann, 2017; Laurence, 1978), studies devoted to other composers: J. Brahms, E. Grieg, J. Röntgen (Internationaler Brahms-Kongress Gmunden, 2001; Hofmann & Hofmann, 2006; Grieg, 2001; Vis, 2007). The most meaningful study dedicated to the creative personality of A. Maier is the dissertation of J. Martin, but the researcher focuses on biographical moments and the position of female artists in the 19th century in general, omitting the actual musicological consideration of the composer’s works. The purpose of this article is to characterize A. Maier’s chamber work, to prorose its periodization and to trace the specifics of evolution of the composer’s chamber-instrumental style. The scientific novelty. For the first time in Ukrainian musicology, a comprehensive study of A. Maier’s chamber-instrumental work is carried out. Methodology of the research. The research results is based on such scientific and culturologic methods as historical and biographical; historical and genrestylistic; also the analytical musicological methods were used when considering A.Maier’s chamber instrumental works. Conclusions. The main phases of A. Maier’s professional development as a composer are the early and mature periods. Taking into account both, the biographical and purely musical stylistic factors, we regarde it inappropriate to talk about the late period of the artist’s work. We consider the early period to be the study time at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. The mature period begins after its end with the creation of the Sonata for violin and piano (1873). The mature period of the composer’s creativity is also subject to internal differentiation, since the time period from 1873 to 1880 (the year of marriage) was marked by much more active creative searches, a greater variety of genres and instrumental compositions, than the later years of A. Mayer’s life (in addition to chamber instrumental works, the Concerto for violin and orchestra, the chamber and vocal pieces were written). In the mature period, such notable opuses as Piano Trio, String Quartet, cycles of miniatures for piano and violin were created. The analysis of A. Maier’s scores revealed the main trends in the development of the composer’s chamber-instrumental style: an aspiration to symphonize the chamber music; the expansion of the imagery palette (the dominance of lyricodramatic impulses in the first mature works, the synthesis of lyrico-dramatic, lyrico-epic, epico-heroic, folklore-genre imagery spheres in the laters ones); active search for an individual solution to the violin miniature genre, in which the Swedish national musical traditions are most vividly embodied.

Изображение окружающего мира, увиденного детскими глазами, в «весенних отрывках» Ф. И. Чудакова «Филик на даче»

The paper aims to identify the ways to picture the world in F. I. Chudakov’s (1888-1918) “spring extracts” “Philik at the Dacha”. The scientific originality of the research is determined by the fact that it analyzes F. I. Chudakov’s cycle of miniatures in this aspect for the first time. The article studies the features of the representation of the main character’s inner world and the means of creating the images of the outside world which allows clarifying the writer’s idea. The results of the research have shown that the writer implements his idea by picturing the process of “discovering” the world by a child: the external events influence the development of the little character’s inner world, the formation of his personal qualities. The images of nature are created with the help of detailing, personification, defamiliarization. The main means to create the main character’s image include direct and improperly direct speech; picturing the inner state through its external manifestations (gestures, mimics).

ПОСЛЕДНИЙ ОПУС АЛЕКСАНДРА СКРЯБИНА КАК МУЗЫКАЛЬНЫЙ «ЭСКИЗ» МИСТЕРИИ

The article is devoted to the last piano opus by A.N. Scriabin - Five Preludes Op. 74 - in whose music one can see a certain artistic intention associated with the general idea of Scriabin - a musician and thinker. For a number of years the composer was completely absorbed in the idea of the Mystery. The grandiose plan involved the involvement of all mankind in a synthetic action in which civilization and culture would come to an end of their existence. The ecstatic feeling was to become the condition of unity in the last act of creation. The obvious impracticability of the Mystery was expressed in a compromise - the creation of a Preliminary Action. In the last years of his life, Scriabin devoted more and more time to composing music and poetic texts for his mystery plan. Refusing to compose major symphonic works, Scriabin worked on piano miniatures and sonatas, the composition of which he considered an intermediate result on the way to his main goal. Researchers note a significant change in the musical language during this period of creativity. The circle of images that worried the composer at that time was connected with the Mystery. The poetic texts of the Preliminary Act and the music composed during the last year of his life resonate in a peculiar way. This is especially true of the cycle of miniatures - Five Preludes Op. 74. Their sound reveals an extra-musical content, in which one can see the ideas and images of the Mystery in a folded form or in "sketches".

НЕРАДІСНІ ЕМОЦІЇ В МІНІАТЮРАХ І ТЕКСТІ РАДЗИВІЛЛІВСЬКОГО ЛІТОПИСУ

The article examines the miniatures of the Radzyvill Chronicle. It attempts to discriminate between real and fictional emotions of a person from the Middle Ages and focuses on the expressions of sorrow and crying. In historical studies of emotions, images are crucial. They record both real manifestations of emotions and ideas about their importance, expediency, essence. The article relies upon iconographic method, as well as upon semiotics, historical-comparative and content analysis. We assume that sad emotions have more expressiveness in the visual manifestations. Reading facial expressions in miniatures or painting can be challenging. Thus, we rely on interpreting a hand near the cheek or the hem of a garment pressed to the face or sleeves that are down as a universally recognized gesture of sadness. This paper offers a first insight into the miniatures of the Radzivil Chronicle, which depict sadness and crying. It examines emotions through narrative and visual strategies of the Chronicle and reveals how it fits within the tradition of showing tears and sadness in medieval society. After studying the Chronicle, we can conclude that it did not deal with emotions extensively. Only 25 of the 613 miniatures of the Königsberg list (which is 4% of all images) convey unhappy emotions. The miniatures from the Radzyvill chronicle confirm the three main states where sadness and weeping corresponded with the decorum of medieval Rus: the death of loved ones, common misfortunes or public troubles like captivity and separation-farewell. Therefore, the emotions depicted in the Chronicle were historically conditioned. Sadness was conveyed in illuminations that dealt with the departure from this world and burials of princes and clerics, the military conflicts, which affected people’s lives. Sometimes the emotions were not mentioned in the accompanying text, but only conveyed through the visual means, which reveals medieval behavioral models and ideas about crying as a natural emotional reaction to the death and burial of the loved ones and to the misfortunes associated with captivity. The absence of illustrations of sadness and tears in the Pechersk cycle of miniatures is generally consistent with the tradition of illustrating texts where attention was paid to actions and not to emotions. This fact, too, may indicate the understanding of tears of repentance and prayer as an internal state that is not conveyed through external means.

Grieg and Violins

Violin was Edvard Grieg’s favourite orchestral instrument. This affinity expanded to other string family instruments and a string orchestra. The article aims to characterise Grieg’s two-movement cycles of miniatures for string orchestra, emphasizing the features of their orchestration. The analysis revealed that these cycles should be considered as original and creative orchestral compositions where the composer efficiently employs the possibilities of string instruments.

Like a Psalter for a Queen: Sancha, Melisende and the New Testament Cycle in the Chapter-House at Sijena

This article discusses the paintings of the chapter-house of Sijena, most of which were destroyed by fire in 1936. To this end, the paper makes use of earlier photographic material, proposes a new reading of the biblical cycle, reconstructs the architectural and ornamental setting of the chapter-house and examines the historical and largely unknown liturgical context that lay behind the selection of images. The striking correspondence between the New Testament cycle at Sijena and the prefatory cycle of miniatures in the Melisende Psalter (1131–43), as well as the use in the nunnery of a liturgy based on that of the canons regular of the Holy Sepulchre and the presence of a Lignum crucis in the chapter-house, sheds light on Sijena’s links to the art and liturgy of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and on Queen Sancha’s motives as patron of this Hospitaller foundation. Thus, we hope to present a holistic interpretation of the chapter-house in relation to queenship, pious devotion and the evocation of the Holy Land. This ultimately points up the cross-cultural interests of the Kingdom of Aragon and its developing projection into the Mediterranean.

Новые результаты визуализации утраченных миниатюр Хлудовской Псалтири середины IX в. естественнонаучными методами

The article is devoted to the use of modern natural science methods in the study of medieval figurative sources within the framework of a joint project of the State Historical Museum and the Russian Space Institute. The method of multispectral macrophotography followed by software processing of digital images made it possible to visualize the extinct and erased drawings in the outstanding Byzantine monument of the middle of the 9th century — the Khludov Psalter. The focus of special attention was a cycle of miniatures depicting the Resurrection of Christ. The extinct drawings obtained by natural scientific methods provide new possibilities in the interpretation of this plot. It also touches on the issue of the separation of the original painting and the later restoration of the 14th century. The method of multispectral photography allowed us to see the inhomogeneity of the paint layer of miniatures. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant 17-29-04476 ofi-m “Methods for visualizing extinct texts and other graphic information in medieval written monuments (manuscripts) using electromagnetic radiation of various spectral ranges and digital image processing technologies”.

Didactic qualities of piano pieces for children by Miłosz Magin (1929-1999)

Miłosz Magin was a renowned Polish pianist and composer. He was born in Łódź, studied in Warsaw, was a prizewinner of several international piano competitions, successfully concerted all over the world and in 1960 he finally settled down in Paris. His compositional output covers numerous piano pieces, orchestral, chamber and vocal works, as well as a ballet. Pieces for children constitute an important and relatively large part of his oeuvre. The article discusses five cycles of miniatures (38 pieces in total), dedicated to pupils at the elementary level of piano learning: Obrazki z Polski (1982), Miniatury polskie (1982), Kółko graniaste (1987), Karnawał lalek for four hands (1990) and Zaczarowane zabawki (1996). The pieces have didactic qualities and play the two roles: they gradually introduce a pupil into the world of music and they help to master the piano technique. They develop, in particular, fingers’ dexterity, chordal and arpeggio technique, precision while realization various rhythmic structures, mastery of large leaps on the keyboard. Performing Magin’s music sensitizes to the timbre of pitches in different registers, to changeable dynamics, original harmony, bitonality, phrasing, articulation, agogic and proper interpretation. His compositions develop children’s imagination and familiarize them with diverse timbres of the piano. They are little masterpieces, put into a terse form of a miniature.

Three Lost Miniatures in Codex Sinopensis (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, supplément grec 1286; Gregory-Aland O/023)

Codex Sinopensis (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, supplément grec 1286; Gregory-Aland O/023) is one of the earliest examples of an illuminated gospel book. This article examines instances of transferred paint in the codex along with textual and paratextual features to identify three lost miniatures that once adorned the pages of Codex Sinopensis. Thus, our knowledge of one of the earliest cycles of miniatures in a gospel book can be extended with the addition of the three identifiable but now-lost miniatures: The Miracle of the Coin from the Mouth of the Fish (Matthew 17:24–18:4), the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard (Matthew 19:25–20:9), and Christ’s Entrance into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:5-12).

Programmatic Idea in the Cycles of Piano Miniatures of Ukrainian Composers of the Second Half of the 20th Century

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of the concept of descriptive music on the development of the genre of the piano miniature cycle of Ukrainian composers of the second half of the 20th century. Research methodology. The author suggests the methodological support of the characteristic features of a programmatic idea in the cycles of piano miniatures of Ukrainian composers of the second half of the 20th century drawing on a system approach and musicological analysis.Results. The paper considers the programmatic idea as a feature of the development of the genre of piano miniature cycle in the works of Ukrainian composers of the second half of the 20th century. The author studies the following genre subgroups of programmatic cycles: memorials, collections of diverse musical compositions, children’s music, and pieces of music written on the basis of sources of literature, the cycles inspired by the works of fine art, music opuses with historical and geographical names, “individual projects”. The paper demonstrates that for many composers a miniature is a kind of creative laboratory where they are gaining proficiency with various techniques of the performance. However, for most composers, the genre of programmatic cycles of piano miniatures becomes self-sufficient and able to reflect deep philosophical ideas or serves as a basis for reflection of their inner world.The practical significance involves the analysis of the programmatic idea as a feature of the development of the genre of the cycle of piano miniatures in the works of Ukrainian composers of the second half of the 20th century and the study of features of programmatic cycles of piano miniatures, that encourages the performers to master their skills as virtuoso pianists.

Genre and stylistic complex of “Three Pieces in C Major” for piano by M. Karminskyi: compositional and performing aspects

Genre and stylistic complex of “Three Pieces in C Major” for piano by M. Karminskyi: compositional and performing aspects

Prose miniatures as an experience of self-identification (author's mini-texts in the Vepsian language)

Prose miniatures of Alexander Ulyanov are analyzed not only as a way of self-expression of the author's ego, but also as an experience of self-identification, awareness of their place in the social world order and historical time. The format of the miniature cycle appears as a convenient form of reproducing key moments of a person's life, which corresponds to the mechanism of memories as processing pop-up engrams of episodic memory into a complete self-reflection. At the same time, focusing on a particular idea unfolds in a specific situation in life. The creative principle of the author of miniatures serves the pragmatics of social adaptation in the surrounding stressful world. It is creativity that turns out to be a tool for assembling the personality in its multiple forms and serves as a way of integration into a heterogeneous external environment. The mechanisms of constructing miniatures in the perspective of achieving self-reliance and integration into the surrounding world are considered. Namely, the thematic diversity, the author's initial data representing a «fluid identity» typical for a person of the twentieth century with the help of a cumulative attitude to «collecting stones» are successfully overcome in the choice of a reflective style of description and the absence of hasty subjective conclusions. The core of self-identification of the series of miniatures by A. S. Ulyanov translates to the reader dignity, self-confidence and readiness for any tests.

The Semantics of Virtuosity in Genre-Stylistic System of C. Saint-Saëns’s Album for Piano op. 72

The Semantics of Virtuosity in Genre-Stylistic System of C. Saint-Saëns’s Album for Piano op. 72

M.-A. Hamelin’s composing and performing style in the context of postmodern aesthetics

M.-A. Hamelin’s composing and performing style in the context of postmodern aesthetics

Temporal Models of Expansion of the Present Tense in the Grammatical System and Literary Text (With Reference to Krokhotki by A. I. Solzhenitsyn)

The aim of this article is to carry out a conceptual analysis of the usage of present forms in the mini-stories Krokhotki (Eng. Miniatures or Prose Poems ) by A. I. Solzhenitsyn. The author tries to show the relevance of grammatical semantics to the study of perception of time in a given language community. The features of the Russian tense system are defined by the interaction of tense and aspect. Imperfective present forms express all types of present semantics bringing together the current, generalised, and metaphorical present (Praesens Historicum). Thus, there appears a mechanism of expansion of the present in the Russian language. The image of time in the Krokhotki , defined in literary studies as “coarsening of a moment”, becomes particularly important in connection with the comprehension of changes in the perception of ontological parameters of time described in sociology. Such changes occur under the influence of modern computer technologies and the global Internet. More particularly, the notions of experiencing a moment in a linear flow of time, and the boundaries of the present time change. The model of time in Krokhotki is characterised, on the one hand, by the effects of time dilation and concentration of the narrator on the current moment with maximum detail of all aspects of the depicted events, and on the other — by the expansion of boundaries of the current moment due to its generalisation. This is how the full conceptual potential of the present tense is implemented. A wide range of grammatical semantics of the present tense allows for the creation of a multi-dimensional image of time, revealing the value of life moments with maximum detail of all aspects of the depicted events and generalisations of their significance. Such an image of a moment of time serves as a semantic dominant of the whole literary work consisting of 17 miniatures. The composition of two cycles of miniatures in the Krokhotki is very important for the image of time, too; each cycle ends in miniatures in the form of prayers. As a literary genre, the poetic prayer, keeping the basic features of a religious prayer, gets some features inherent in lyrical literary work: it allows the artist to reveal the deep layers of the creative and the human “I” and to express what generally refers to the area of the ineffable. The analysis of temporal patterns of language is important to determine the cognitive landmarks in the cognition of time ontology preserved in the Russian language.

Envisioning Episcopal Exemption: The Life of Christina of Markyate

This article examines the biography of a twelfth-century English holy woman, theLife of Christina of Markyate—particularly its account of a vision that she had in which she was crowned in the likeness of a bishop's miter—within the context of campaigns undertaken by English monasteries in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries to obtain the papal privilege of full exemption from the sacramental and juridical control of their diocesan bishop. Reading Christina's vision in view of the bids for independence made by St. Albans—the community responsible for commissioning and writing her biography—especially helps to shed light on why theLifeseems to figure her in a distinctly episcopal cast. Significantly, theLife's account of this vision may have been shaped by a miniature cycle of the passion and miracles of St. Edmund, produced by Burycirca1125, seemingly in an effort to provide further confirmation of the abbey's exempt status. In a miniature depicting Edmund's apotheosis, the saint divinely receives a miter-like crown, which is nearly identical in its ornamentation to the one that Christina would later receive. Ultimately under investigation in this article is whether St. Albans' campaign for exemption was one of the influences dictating the composition of theLife of Christina.

Sacred Queens and Warrior Kings in the Royal Portraits of the Liber Testamentorum of Oviedo

The Liber Testamentorum, a twelfth-century cartulary produced by Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo, is distinctive for its elaborate cycle of miniatures depicting the kings and queens of Asturias and Castilla-León. Produced to influence and impress Queen Urraca, ruling Castilla-León in her own right at the time, they show kings with traditional insignia of power and military strength, and queens with objects associated with religious life and practice, like haloes, Psalters, and chalices. Interpreted in the light of the discussion of sacred kingship in Ernst Kantorowicz’s The Kings Two Bodies, this article suggests these images show not the king himself with two bodies, secular and spiritual, human and Christ-like, but rather the spiritual and secular functions literally divided between two bodies, those of the king and queen, with the king in change of protection and the queen responsible for prayer for the kingdom.

FOUNDATION LEGENDS IN THE ILLUMINATED MISSAL OF SAINT-DENIS: INTERPLAY OF LITURGY, HAGIOGRAPHY, AND CHRONICLE

A missal for the royal abbey of Saint-Denis, made around 1350 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London), contains a rare cycle of miniatures depicting the abbey's foundation legends for the feasts of Dedication of the Church and Invention of Saint Denis. This pictorial representation is closely related to a specific version of illuminated manuscripts of hagiography and chronicle, composed by monks of Saint-Denis, such as Vita et passio sancti Dyonisii (Paris, BnF MS Lat. 5286) and Grandes chroniques de France (London, British Library MS Royal 16 G VI). Liturgical texts for these feasts and the anniversary of King Dagobert as well as an extensive corpus of vita manuscripts, including Gesta Dagoberti, are analyzed to demonstrate the fusion of liturgy, chronicle, and hagiography stressing a special bond between the community and King Dagobert, an eternal patron in its collective memory, as appeared in writings of earlier Dionysian authors like Hilduin and Suger.

Gestures in the manuscripts of Terence and late revivals of literary drama

Several manuscripts of Terence feature a cycle of miniatures depicting masked actors. The miniatures mark scene-headings and on this account have often been dismissed as merely decorative and irrelevant to the history of ancient theater. Nevertheless, the pictures project an illusion of theatricality so irresistible and lively, that it is hardly possible that the illustrated Terence does not reflect some sort of performance practice. This paper focuses on the code of gesture depicted in the miniatures and examines its relationship with late revivals of literary drama. I first discuss the iconographic and textual evidence pertaining to the date of the prototype of the miniatures; I then examine Quintilian’s remarks on dramatic gesture in order to outline the code he associated with the stage. This outline serves as a comparandum for the typology of gestures depicted in the Parisian codex of Terence (B.N. 7899), which is based on an analysis of the set of hand positions used to illustrate the Andria. (A glossary decoding the gestures of the Andria and comparing them with both hand positions from Quintilian’s catalogue and those known from earlier iconography is appended to the end of this paper.) The results of this comparison, along with some observations on the artist’s technique, suggest an answer to the question of which (if any) performance practice the miniatures could reflect.