The Art of Hidden Meanings: About the Concept and Musical Dramaturgy of Vocal Cycle “The Last Spring” by Boris Tchaikovsky
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Abstract
The article is devoted to the last and one of the top chamber vocal cycles “The Last Spring”
by Boris Tchaikovsky for mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet and piano (1980). Its uniqueness lies in the multilayered ideological design, which captures the composer’s deep philosophical reflections on the theories of the universe, being and the values of human existence. To implement this idea, the poems by Nikolai Zabolotsky were selected and arranged according to the purely musical development, reflecting the poet’s pantheistic or pananthropic views. The article notes that the correspondence to the verses emotional tone does not obscure the role of music in revealing an original concept. The author interprets the sound-expressive means themselves as a kind of analogue to the universe phenomena. In the dramatic formation of the work, the principles of contrast arising from
the comparison of spring (youth) and autumn (maturity), slowing down as a gradual movement
of life towards “autumn,” as well as the principles of kinship of the material and its variation, that are typical for B. Tchaikovsky are revealed. The significance of contrast correlations is justified through such (reflected in the table) parameters as the tonal and metrorhythmic structure of the cycle, the tempo, forms and duration of parts. The article puts forward a hypothesis about the composerʼs characteristic reliance on five intonation elements, which in the context of the cycle-reflections
on being can be likened to five natural elements. Some attention is also paid to very fine work with timbres. It is known that the composer sought to localize the wind instruments, their removal
to the background, which provided a special kind of surround sound, likened to the art of perspective in the visual arts. The principles highlighted in the article symbolically embody the aesthetic
and philosophical ideas of the “Last Spring” at all levels of the musical fabric.
Keywords: Boris Tchaikovsky, vocal cycle, “Last Spring”, concept, musical dramaturgy.
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