V. Chuvilkin

About the Nature of the Musical Theme of the Jazz Fugue

In the article certain features of the musical theme of the jazz fugue are determined. Similar works arise in the creativity of the twentieth–twenty-first centuries various musicians belonging both to academic and jazz traditions. Despite the temporal and geographical gap between those works, a number of their general characteristics of thematism can be distinguished. The examples of B. Evans`, G. Bachlund`s, O. Gorchakov`s and N. Kapustin`s compositions, which were not studied before by Russian musicologists are given in the article. In the course of the study, a set of qualities that enable to define the fugue musical theme as a jazz theme are found. The set includes genesis, specifics of rhythm and typical turns of various jazz styles. Jazz fugue as a phenomenon exists at the intersection of jazz and academic musical traditions. The influence of jazz on the modes, structural and rhythmical parameters of the thematism is established. The peculiarities of jazz thematism, first of all, contribute to the individualization of a musical theme. The article briefly observes the principles of jazz rhythm. Finally, the principles of the baroque-classical theme are revealed. In the jazz fugue one can find original implementation of the traditional rules of fuge composition.

Key words

jazz fugue, fugue musical theme, jazz, Third Stream, N. Kapustin, O. Gorchakov, G. Bachlund, jazz rhythm.

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