Е. Batovskaya

Contemporary choral music a cappella: the problems of genre typology

The article is devoted to the large-scale problem which is intensively elaborated by the contemporary musicology. It is a phenomenon of genre modifications in the creative work by composers of the XXth – early XXIst centuries. In this connection, a number of urgent issues raised by the typological variety of contemporary choral music a cappella is emphasized. Describing the methodological aspects conformably to study of this genre sphere the author of the article relies upon the works by the famous specialists (A. Sokhor, V. Zuckerman, M. Aranovskiy, O. Sokolov, E. Nazaikinskiy, V. Kholopova and oth.). The researcher examines most prospective approaches to the genre typology of choral music. The first approach depends on the demarcation of the following aspects: external (historical, social, aesthetic and communicative genre functions are meant) and internal (a staff of performers, composition structure, means of musical expression, imaginative-substantial specificity, authorized genre nomination, temporal and spatial parameters of a certain piece). In the author’s opinion, enumerated constants are in various correlations, and gravitate towards the reciprocal complements. Another approach is connected with analysis of genre modifications in choral music realizing on the principles of reciprocity and continuity. The principle of reciprocity is characterized by the leading role of between-genre and poly-genre synthesizing processes. The principle of continuity is guided by processes of intragenre synthesis.

Key words

choral music a cappella, genre typology, genre modifications, external and internal aspects of musical genre.

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