N. Duda

Musical-rhetorical figures in the secular solo songs by Henry Purcell

The article addresses the problems of figurative and emotional features of musical-rhetorical figures in the secular solo songs of Henry Purcell. A brief historical overview of the development of theoretical questions of musical poetics in the English musical scholarship of the XVIIth century is given. Historical retrospective of theoretical works on musical rhetoric is used to confirm the fact of using musical-rhetorical figures in the songs of Purcell as a natural affiliation of the English tradition. On the other hand, the author highlights the characteristics of deeply personal approach of Purcell to musical-rhetorical figures associated with the specific tokens. The author divides a large array of musical-rhetorical figures from Purcell's songs into smaller groups according to their «motivic ideas», defining the main emotional and musical qualities of these separate groups. The persuasiveness of the analysis of the musical-rhetorical figures in the songs of Purcell is ensured by the selection of bright examples from the pieces of the English composer, in which the traditional XVII century movement figures – circulatio, fuga, catabasis and anabasis – are used for the embodiment of the bright expressive images. The author believes that when dealing with musical-rhetorical figures the connection with the deep context of the poetic works remained a priority for the composer. Such approach led to distinct versions of the intonational filling of the figures while maintaining their clearly recognizable outline In conclusion, the article put forward the idea of studying the feasibility and prospects of individual composer`s techniques when working with words devoid of figurative and emotional associations – pronouns, interjections, particles and auxiliary part of speech.

Key words

musical-rhetorical figures, Henry Purcell, secular solo song, English music of the XVIIth century, English music scholarship of the XVIIth century.

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