Semantic Depth and the Factor of Artistry in the Concert-Elegy in Memory of Slava Rostropovich by Elena Firsova
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Abstract
The Concerto-Elegy for Cello and Orchestra opus 122 (Concerto for Cello No.4) by Elena Firsova is dedicated
to the memory of Mstislav Rostropovich and written shortly after his death (2008). This composition has proven
itself as one of the most significant among the composer’s output. Its analysis demanded the improvement of the
newest methodology of its disclosure. The semantic depths of the composition necessitated bringing in a diversified
semantic approach. The perfection of this contemporary composer’s musical thinking activated the theoretical quest
for special means of creating the aesthetical harmony of the whole in a unity of musical means. Even in a most
technical compositional structure it was those strata which had almost never been examined by academic studies
of musical form which have become most relevant. An indispensable goal was set up by the comprehension of the
organic unity of the semantic and the aesthetical-compositional aspects of the musical composition, which resulted
in the fact that the focus of our attention has been turned ont o the category of artistry. The dense semantic satiation
of Elena Firsova’s Concerto-Elegy has made it possible to find 9 manifestations of semantics, including: an open
verbal passage, a quotation with a famous text (from Lensky’s Aria “The World Shall Forget Me” in Tchaikovsky’s
Eugene Onegin”), a letter monogram (“Slava”), various genres (the monologue and the funeral march), the role
of timbres, performance techniques and registers. The dramaturgy of the work revealed three semantic spheres:
Life, Death and Doubt. An analysis of the perfection of musical form discloses in the latter various traditional and
innovative means of creation of organics of the whole. The traditional attributes include sonata form and motivic
relation between the primary and the subsidiary theme groups. An unusual feature for a composer pertaining to the
turn of the 20th and 21st centuries has been her incorporation of musical cells in the octatonic scale. A special role
for establishing the aesthetic harmony of the whole has been played by special synthesized entities which in the
article were named “melo-scale” and “melo-rhythm.” Their spanning of the entire large-scale musical form with
variational-ostinato means of development made it possible to label this organization by the term of “sub-form.”
In the artistic content of the Concerto-Elegy the paradox between the tragic semantic content and the aesthetical
harmony of all the elements of composition is also examined.
Keywords: musical semantics, artistry, musical dramaturgy, musical composition, sub-form in music.
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