Ru
EnR. Chistyakov
Sonata for Oboe and Piano by Henri Dutilleux in context of the early composer’s work
This article is devoted to the Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1947) as a characteristic example of the early chamber music of Henri Dutilleux. The individual originality of the composer’s concept of this work, due to the interaction of various tendencies, is noted. The first of them is related to the specific purpose of the Sonata as “new music” created in order to fill up the “competitive” (educational and concert) repertoire for oboe and piano. Appropriate addressing determines not only the scale of this cycle, the level of artistic, expressive and technical complexity of the oboe part, but also the targeted use of individual performing techniques (for example, permanent or chain breathing, which was rather slowly mastered by the majority of oboists in the mid-20th century). The second tendency is characterized by the special nature of the author’s perception conformably to genre traditions and current intentions in the French musical culture of the late 1940s–1950s. An undeniable commitment to the heritage of the romantic era, an interested attitude towards neoclassical artistic strivings are combined in Dutilleux’s early work with a persistent desire to discover certain (at this period only vaguely realized) “new horizons” of musical language, principles of form-building, organization of sound space, etc. It is quite possible the certain “un-realization” of these intentions resulted in the composer’s negative attitude towards his early works (including the mentioned opus), which is hardly permissible to agree with.
Currently, Dutilleux’s Oboe Sonata is positioned as one of the most striking examples of French chamber ensemble music of the 20th century for woodwind instruments. This predetermines the significant place given to this composition in the concert and pedagogical practice of our days.
Key words
Henri Dutilleux, Sonata for Oboe and Piano, French musical culture of the late 1940s–1950s, oboe concert and pedagogical repertoire, style interactions.
For citation
Chistyakov R. Sonata for Oboe and Piano by Henri Dutilleux in context of the early composer’s work // South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2024. No. 1. Pp. 119-129.
