Ru
EnA. Tsuker
B. Yavorsky, J. S. Bach and mass music
In the extensive scientific heritage of B. Yavorsky, the problems of mass genres, at first glance, were not affected, the scholar did not address them directly. However, Yavorsky`s works contain ideas that do not lie on the surface, but, collected together, they form a certain holistic, albeit unformulated concept, and outline ways to study it. The purpose of this article is to “decipher” and reconstruct the concept that is presented in the research works of Yavorsky on the material of the musical culture of the past as a historical retrospective allows us to discover certain general patterns in the functioning of popular music. In each specific period they are distinguished by individual originality, but the typological affinity allows one to see “the past in the present.” The most important premise of Yavorsky`s concept is a belief that music reflects the real processes of the surrounding world. The noted interaction motivates the genesis of all elements of musical speech. This involuntarily aroused the scholar`s interest in popular genres. Music was not limited for him to only the “high” art of composition, but also included “grassroots” culture in its everyday manifestations. Popular genres, most directly related with the realities of life itself, determined by society and social processes. Yavorsky`s thoughts on this topic were most fully concentrated in his study devoted to the keyboard suites of J. S. Bach. Using their analysis as an example, the scholar emphasized the everyday origin of the most important dance parts of such cycles. He explains how each dance bears the imprint of a real context, habitat, as it brings new vital information into the sphere of high artistry. Thus, Yavorsky outlined an entire program for the study of popular music, which involves close cooperation between musicology and sociology.
Key words
B. Yavorsky, popular music, keyboard suites by J. S. Bach, everyday genres, dances of the 17th–18th centuries, extra-musical context, musicology and sociology.
For citation
Tsuker A. B. Yavorsky, J. S. Bach and mass music // South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2023. No. 4. Pp. 47-53.
