E. Batovskaya

Experimental tendencies in contemporary choral works

The article is devoted to actual problems associated with experimental phenomena in contemporary choral art. The author examines the specifics of individual style by Kharkiv composer V. Muzhchil in the sphere of choral music a cappella. As an model, it is selected the first part («Letters») of the cycle for mixed choir – «Performance: Three Phonic Essays». The latter serves a striking example of the interpretation of experimental innovative achievements in contemporary choral works and in the performing practice. A set of musical means which are used by V. Muzhchil embraces innovative (phonematic technique, with the leading role of the rhythmic and articulation approaches) and traditional (a pitch singing a cappella, in the orthodox liturgical and everyday amateurish manner) components. The executive store includes some features of «performance» (another reality, tactility, game principles, the availability of the script, making of «a garish novelty», plotness, shockness, the presence of the author-personage, the adopted language of popular culture). Owing to this fact, the advices of different arts – choral singing (traditional and contemporary ones), cinematography (using of «musical shots»), theatre (plastic gestures in parts of choir artists), painting – are represented in the named work.

Key words

choral music a cappella, experimental tendencies, V. Muzhchil, «Performance: Three Phonic Essays», contemporary performing practice.

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