Image-Related and Stylistic Semantics of Modes in the Music of Russian Composers of the 19th-21st Centuries

Main Article Content

Olga A. Urvantseva

Abstract

In the music of 20th and 21st century composers modes become
the bearers of several functions: the indicators of the style (or
stylistic specificity of imagery) of a musical composition, as well
as one of its constructive factors. The stylistic specificity of the
mode in the 20th century may disclose itself on several different
planes: as a style of the present time with the types of pitch
organization ingerent to it; as a sign of pertaining to a certain
national school; as a component of the musical language of that
era about wich the composition narrates; as an expression of the
composer’s individuality of style and, finally, as an “indicator”
of the composition’s style of genre. The modal development,
upon the condition of an organic connection with the structure of
intonation and image, becomes a constituent part of the overall
dramaturgical development.
As an examples, the following compositions are examined:
Rodion Shchedrin’s “Execution of Pugachev,” S. Sirotin’s “The
Death of Ivan the Terrible” and Yu. Poteyenko’s “The Architects,”
where there is a dependency noted between the imagery structure
of a musical composition and its modal relief. A multilayer and
multilevel interaction of genres and styles is created, in the
musical manifestation of which modal dramaturgy plays a leading
role.

Keywords: mode, modal dramaturgy, composers of Russia,
choral music, choral poem

Article Details

How to Cite
Urvantseva, O. A. (2014). Image-Related and Stylistic Semantics of Modes in the Music of Russian Composers of the 19th-21st Centuries. Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, (2), 53–58. Retrieved from https://musicscholar.ru/index.php/PMN/article/view/93
Section
Musical Genre and Style
Author Biography

Olga A. Urvantseva, The Magnitogorsk State M. I. Glinka Conservatory

Doctor of Arts, Professor at the Music Theory
and Music History Department

References

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