“Agnus Dei” by Alexander Vustin: About Some Aspects of the Author's Compositional Technique

Main Article Content

Yulia A. Kosheleva

Abstract

By using as an example the play by Alexander Kuzmich Vustin (1943–2020) “Agnus Deiˮ for choir, percussion and organ, which was written in the mature period of creative work (1993), some aspects of the authorʼs writing are considered. Among them the principles of formcreation, the approach to literary and canonical texts and performing staff peculiarities as well as the original interpretation of the composition serial technique, marked by him as a “universal serial lineˮ. Calculated by the composer in the early period of his work, this series further determines the specifics of both the pitch and time organization of his works, called by Vustin “temporary twelvefoldˮ. Vustinʼs method of working with musical material fits into the line of developing the multiparameter seriality idea at the macro level of composition organizing and ordering its structure, and it can be characterized as one of the authorʼs interpretations of serialism in general. By the 1990s, the composer supplemented the designated complex by integrating the principles of Y.M. Butsko’s extended everyday series. By giving symbolic meaning to each element of his system, Vustin builds the concept of composition on the basis of uniform laws that determine the direction of the dramatic development of the composition textual and musical layers.


Keywords: Vustin, canonical plot, serial technique, style, composition technique.

Article Details

How to Cite
Kosheleva Ю. А. (2023). “Agnus Dei” by Alexander Vustin: About Some Aspects of the Author’s Compositional Technique. Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, 52(3), 55–63. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/1464
Section
Music of the XX–XXI Centuries
Author Biography

Yulia A. Kosheleva, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Russia

The postgraduate student