Dialogue as the basis of the festivalʼs «two days and two nights of new music» creative concept by Anna Stoianova (Ukraine)
Stoianova Anna
PhD in Art Studies
Compositora y pianista
The relevance this article's topic is that within its framework the new music festival as an important musical and communication form for the development of a composer at the present stage is analysed. Festivals allow you to declare the logical principles of modern music and form ways to manage them with the help of interfestival dialogic communication of those who today consider themselves responsible for the logic of modern composer's creativity.
The purpose of this study is to reveal the dialogical conception of the Odessa festival «2 days and 2 nights of new music» on the basis of genre and style trends of performed music, and to determine the possibilities of festival dialogue as a broad artistic phenomenon.
Presentation of the main material.
The phenomenon of contemporary music festivals came to Ukraine in the last decade of the 20th century. Despite the fact that at present the festival movement in Ukraine exists at a very high level (Ukrainian festivals of modern music have firmly established themselves on the international arena), the phenomenon of Ukrainian new music festivals has not yet been properly researched. At the moment in Ukraine there is only one serious work dedicated to the festivals of contemporary music [7].
One of the brightest representatives of the festival movement in Ukraine – the festival «2 days and 2 nights of new music» – takes place every year in Odessa in late April since 1994. It is carried out as a joint creative action, designed for dialogical communication of participants. Creative dialogue is an important communicative basis of the festival, its main idea, manifesting itself at various organizational levels. It is a dialogue of composers with performers, and performers with listeners (sometimes in the most literal sense), and as a dialogue of creative personalities, which is possible due to close contact of all three necessary components of the musical and creative process.
The general character of the festival, above all, its internal cohesion, allows every person in the hall to feel involved in the action (and often among the listeners are present both composers and performers). The verbal dialogue is transformed into the forms of conditional artistic and semantic dialogue, which unites the interpersonal and interethnic form, that is, the dialog is occurring at different levels. This close communication between all the subjects of the dialogue is possible due to the fact that each of them finds something close to their creative intentions at the festival, contributes to the discovery of new broad music possibilities, new horizons of compositional and performing creativity.
The are a lot of works devoted to problem of dialogue. One of the most famous researchers of the dialogical concept is Mikhail Bakhtin, who wrote «To be is mean to communicate in dialogue ... One voice ends nothing and does not decide anything. Two voices – the minimum of life, the minimum of being» [3, p. 294]. The idea of dialogue permeates the entire ontology of Bakhtin, and if you follow its development from early works to late ones, an interesting tendency can be noted: in early works (for example, «To the philosophy of action» [5] and «Author and hero in aesthetic activity» [1], that were written on the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century) Bakhtin presents a phenomenology of «I»; in a book about Dostoevsky (the end of the 20s of the 20th century) he describes the dialogue «I» and «you»; and in the later works – in particular, in the book «Creativity of Francois Rabelais and the folk culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance» [4] (30–40s of the 20th century) – the third stage is presented: the situation of subordination of the «I» to another. Thus, in the works of Bakhtin, philosophy of dialogue turns out to be logically complete.
Projecting Bakhtin’s dialogical concept to the festival realities, it can be noted that the possibilities of dialogue as a wide artistic phenomenon are revealed at the festival, primarily based on the genre-style tendencies of the performed music. Moreover, the dialogue of genre and style is carried out both between the works presented at this festival, and between them and those are sounded at the previous (and subsequent) festivals, turning into a kind of continuous dialogue of music with music.
We can also note the dialogical interaction between the two sides – traditional and innovative, which manifests itself on many levels: stands out the dialogue between the traditional guests of the festival and the debutants, as well as between the usual, traditionalistic musical approaches and innovative searches in the sphere of style, genre and expressive techniques. At the same time, within the framework of the festival, it is innovations that are perceived as something familiar, while traditional models, on the contrary, are somewhat surprising, since they do not quite fit into the framework of the festival of new music.
It should be noted that the dialogical interaction within the festival program takes place quite actively also because each of the sections of the festival’s «blocks» turns out to be contrasted with respect to the previous and subsequent, thus entering into dialogue with them. This was particularly vividly felt at the 24th festival «2 days and two nights of new music», which was held in the Odessa Philharmonic on April 21st and 22nd, 2018. Each transition in the festival program turned out to be absolutely unexpected, and the dialogical contrast between the festival blocks was intensified due to the fact that, the program was included so many compositions, that it was often necessary to abandon the breaks, preventing the listener from escaping from the festival context to the real world.
In order to present a complete picture of this dialogical interaction, let us turn to an analysis of how the festival program was developed.
According to the established tradition, the festival action was preceded by a concert-prelude in memory of Boris Lyatoshinsky performed by Alexander Kozarenko and Lydia Shutko (Great Hall of the Odessa National A. V. Nezhdanova Music Academy), as well as workshops of a Chilean composer Boris Alvorado and Snezhana Nešić from Serbia (now she lives in Germany) (accordion, composition) – her concert-portrait was later presented in the festival program.
The festival itself, as always, was opened with the composition «Clash music» by Nikolaus Huber (Germany) performed by the regular guests and partners of the festival – the Freiburg percussionists. It was preceded by welcoming words, after which the festival was already officially opened.
Traditionally, the official part was followed by a block of percussion, in which several compositions were presented using unusual instruments – electronic metronomes, a «synthesizer» for the drummer («A-frame»), and even everyday objects and the human body. As an example, the composition of Yorgos Apergis (Greece / France) «Returning Home» began with hugs and pats, and then moved to the «table» plane with the appropriate attributes.
The next block was performed by the Italian duet «Isacar» (Isabella Stabio – saxophone, Carmello Lucas Sambatar – piano, composition). This performers were the festival debutants. The presented program sounded quite traditional in terms of musical content and expressive techniques, even with recognizable «romantic» intonations. However, for the festival appeal to such traditional methods turned out to be innovative.
In a dialogical contrast with the Isacar block, the following ensemble sounded – the trio Sen Tegmento (soprano Nao Higano from Japan, Martin Adamek (clarinet) and Zuzana Bischakov (piano) from Slovakia). Within the frames of this block, a rich program of the newest music was presented (all compositions were written after 2000), almost entirely consisting of works by Slovak composers (with the exception of one Polish and one Ukrainian compositions). Of the ensemble participants, I especially want to mention Nao Higano – her voice harmoniously woven into the ensemble as an instrument, entering into a dialogue with the clarinet.
The next section of the festival program is a large block called «Transfer-Fantasy» (such names can be attributed to a group of author's genres that have been formed within the festival itself in accordance with its terms). At the current festival, the main theme of this block was percussion. Compositions with percussion were alternating with chamber instrumental compositions for solo instruments or for duets with piano. A bright accent was the performance of the «Mosaic» folk instrument ensemble with the composition of Alexei Surovykh (Ukraine) «The Game of Flame», in which the composer revealed the expressive possibilities of the instruments by proposing musical material not related to folklore sources.
The next block was a kind of festival discovery. This was a performance of traditional festival guest – the ensemble of new music of Zurich – with a completely unexpected program «When a new music is kissed by jazz». Two members of the ensemble are jazz musicians, and one of them, Philip Schaufelberger, guitarist and composer, is the author of the composition «Hello Mellow Tone» (by genre it can be attributed to a jazz suite based on a single thematic material), which took a whole block. Here, the participation of the traditional guest was contraposed to the jazz style that was absolutely innovative for the festival.
The next block was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel and called «Our Memory». The performers were Odessa musicians, Senza Sforzando ensemble members Alexander and Marina Perepelitsa (piano), Valentina Solonenchuk (bayan) and Austrian bass-baritone Rupert Bergmann (all of them are regular participants of the festival). The block includes three chamber-vocal compositions by Israeli composers: «Cabaret Songs» by Ella Milch-Sheriff for bass-baritone and piano, «Canzonetta» by Karl Kohn for bass-baritone and bayan, and «Thought about love and death of the cornet Christophe Rilke» by Victor Ulman (melodrama for bass-baritone and piano) – this work was the most voluminous and deep in content, as well as the most theatrical of all. Before the music starts sounded itself, the audience was introduced to the tragic history of the life of the cornet, who lived during the war with the Turks in the 17th century and who is an ancestor of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (his verbal text became the composition basis). The fate of the composer was not less tragic, he was burned in Auschwitz. The story helped the listeners to penetrate deeper into the content of the composition, this was also facilitated by careful scenic realization. The soloist – Austrian baritone Rupert Bergmann – was consulted with a specialist in heraldry and personally made an authentic flag with a coat of arms, and also he paid a big attention to the choice of wardrobe and scenery according to the era. Thus, this performance was the culmination of the first day of the festival in its dramatic development.
The next block was very contrasting – there were triple solo-Solissimi, presented by «Innovation Duo» (violinists Anna Savitskaya and Yakub Dzyalak), and bayanist Roman Yusipey (all musicians are frequent guests of the festival). The performance of bayanist was framed by violin solos to create a three-part form. This block consisted works of different composers from different countries and different years of creating, including world premieres (composers quite often specially create new compositions for the premiere at the festival). Separately, we can highlight the performance by Roman Yusipey of the «Symphony of Wind Instruments» by Igor Stravinsky, which was unexpectedly and interestingly sounded in the transcription of Leonid Grabovsky.
The next block is the traditional format of the concert-portrait on the festival, this year it was representing the new guest of the festival – Snezhana Nešić from Serbia (bayan, composition). As a composer, Snezhana graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine named by P. Tchaikovsky in the class of Gennady Lyashenko, which, of course, reflected in her work. The violinist from Germany Lisa Vergan also took part in the block. There were compositions for solo bayan, for violin and magnetic tape, as well as duets for violin and bayan. A master class held on the eve, which became a kind of preamble for the concert, made up with him a complete picture of the creative portrait of the composer.
The first day of the festival was completed by an unusual percussion block «Sound Containers» performed by Italian Simone Beneventi (debut at the festival). He presented three compositions for different instruments: «Mani. Gonxha» by Pierluigi Billone for Tibetan singing bowls (2012), in which the bowls were used unusually (the style of the game was more like playing on cymbals), «Fzzl» by Dan van Gassel for the snare drum and live electronics (2011) and «The Book of celibacy» by Giorgio Batistelli for a single performer (1976). The last composition is quite often performed, receiving a new interpretation each time: each performer must create his own set of tools in order to realize the author's idea, similar to the idea of «The Book of Dove» (medieval Russian religious ballad). The audience saw a small box, from which the performer, like a magician, pulls out more and more new tools. This box thus becomes the source of everything – music, action, meaning; and at some point it seems that it is inexhaustible.The feeling of a certain sacred act is reinforced by that the performer starts playing the instrument even before it shows to the audience, so the viewer is constantly waiting, constantly trying to guess what will happen after.
The second day was opened by a new form for the festival – the presentation of the musical anthology of Yevgeny Gromov «Kiev avant-garde» of the 1960s. (composer school of B. Lyatoshinsky) [6]. The anthology includes 4 CDs with piano compositions by Kyiv composers (L. Grabovsky, V. Godzyatsky, V. Silvestrov, E. Stankovich, P. Solovkin, S. Krutikov, V. Zagortsev) performed by Gromov. At the presentation, Eugeniy told the whole history of the creation of the anthology (from the moment of birth of the idea to the moment of its realization more than 10 years have passed), and also presented records of several fragments of compositions by different composers. Silvestrov's cycle, including works belonging to the early period of the composer's creativity, was almost completely performed later in the framework of the festival program.
The festival program of the second day itself opened with the percussion block, which included a work by Ukrainian composer Kira Maidenberg-Todorova «Time» (2011) for percussion (xylorimba, marimba and vibraphone), which reflected the endless flow of time and its inexorability.
The next block was a piano concert-portrait of Valentin Silvestrov (Ukraine), already announced earlier in the presentation of the «Kiev Avant-garde» anthology. As part of the concert, the early works of the composer were performed by Yevgeny Gromov (Triad, 1962, Elegy, 1966 and Sonata No. 2, 1975).
Afterwards, the trio block «Sen Tegmento» sounded, within which the work of the Ukrainian composer Yevgeny Petrichenko «Light for three enlightened by acute psychological disorders» was performed. By the way, the performance of a single work by a Ukrainian composer within the block is a prerequisite for each ensemble wishing to take part in the festival, which certainly contributes to the popularization of Ukrainian music throughout the world.
The next block was the second performance of the Zurich ensemble, which included a composition by Yevgeny Stankovich (Ukraine) «Mirages» for flute, clarinet, vibraphone, piano, violin and cello (2014). But the main attention of this block was paid to the world premiere of two vocal cycles by Anna Traufer (Switzerland) with the common title «Songs». The first cycle was written from 2011 to 2017 on the own poems by composer, as well as on Tennessee Williams poems, the second was written in 2017 on the words by James Joyce, Raphael Urvayder and Paul Zelan. The expressive techniques of both cycles are similar (slow tempo, transparent texture, blues rhythms, soft voice timbre), thus creating the feeling of a single cycle.
Next block was presented by the solo performance of Odessa pianist Tatiana Kravchenko, who played sonata for piano by Lebanese composer Khutaf Khuri (2013) and «Čiurlionis Sketches» for piano and video by Lithuanian composer Anatolius Shenderovas (1994). And pianist also performed «Self-Reflexion» for piano and magnetic film by Ukrainian composer Karmella Tsepkolenko (1997), which became a kind of unifying center between East and West.
The next block was first culmination of the second day and one of the cathartic points of the entire festival. This was block of mini-monooperas with the participation of the Austrian bass-baritone Rupert Bergman and Ukrainian musicians from the ensemble «Senza Sforzando»: Valentina Solonenchuk (bayan), Alexander and Marina Perepelitsa (piano). Within the frames of this block mini-monooperas by Ukrainian composers Julia Gomelskaya and Lyudmila Samodaeva were performed. Both compositions are very personal, emotionally filled, brightly revealing the creative portraits of the authors. Julia Gomelskaya's «Esenin-Pastels» for bass-baritone, bayan and piano on Sergey Yesenin's poems (2014) were written and translated into German specifically for Rupert (he said this was the last work of the composer dedicated to him). Lyudmila Samodaeva’s mini-monoopera «Salamandra» for voice and pianist (piano, percussion) on poems by Octavio Paz (2014) reveals that the composer had lived in Mexico for a long time. In the sound and visual text of the work the images of salamandra, fire, as well as some runic symbols were reflected. Certainly, the image of the salamandra is central – it most often appeared on the screen and it was with this word that every vocal line began (the repeats of this word had a common intonational basis, thanks to which we can speak of the salamandra's leitmotif). In relation to the piano part, it is worth noting that most of it was played on strings, and at the end the pianist switched to a small hand drum.
The next block was performed by Odessa ensemble «Senza sforzando», which was organized by Alexander Perepelitsa Jr. for performing new music, as well as for popularizing the work of Ukrainian (in particular, Odessa) composers. To date, the ensemble includes more than 20 musicians, it takes part in various festivals of contemporary music. Within the framework of this block, music by both already recognized and very young composers was performed. The compositions written from 1958 («Sequence 1» by Luciano Berio) until 2016 («Alfred, the bird mourns his dead» by Boris Alvorado) were sounded. Odessa composition school in this block was represented by Anna Stoyanova with composition «After forever» (2016) for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello (originally there was French horn used instead of flute, and version with flute was made specifically for «Senza sforzando» ensemble).
The peculiarity of next block's content was determined by its name – «Media Intermission-Fantasy». There were two media projects presented within this block framework. The first of them – project «Bridge» by Ukrainian-American production. The central image here was the bridge, it was broadcasted on the screen, and silhouettes of people were constantly replaced each other walking through it. There were symbolic associations with the continuous flow of life, where people are constantly in a hurry somewhere. They lives their lifes just like crosses the bridge – they are aspiring from the past to the future and do not pay attention to the present.
The second project – duet «Mixed sound personnel» composed of Victoria Vitrenko (soprano, Ukraine / Germany) and Lukas Gérin (drums, France). They were present a very interesting program together with the Ukrainian composer Alla Zagaykevich, she was also participated in performance behind the electronics panel. Victoria showed high mastery of voice and intonation accuracy in a very difficult vocal part with wide-interval jumps and extremely high notes, and also she was easily switching between singing and sound effects. The block culmination became a work by Spanish composer Oscar Escudero «{custom #1}» for soprano, percussion, video and electronics. This composition was written as step-by-step instructions for users of social networks, however, with ironic overtones. Before the performance was started, the listeners were asked whether there are people in the hall who do not use any social network, and no one raised their hands. From this we can conclude that the subject of this work is extremely relevant, because modern people cannot imagine their lifes without the Internet and social networks.
The next block was presented by «Innovation DUO» (Anna Savitskaya and Yakub Dzyalak, violins), and Marina Perepelitsa (piano). Within this block, four compositions for two violins, as well as «Introduction and conflict» by Ivan Karabits for two violins and piano (1993) were performed. Musicians demonstrated not only high performing skills, but also artistry, figurative expressiveness, as well as special attention to the composer's idea.
After that, a concert-portrait of the Ukrainian composer Volodymyr Runchak were sounded. That is a traditional genre form for the festival, with one atypical accent: for the first time at the festival, the entire concert-portrait was devoted only to the saxophone works by composer. The compositions for a saxophone-solo, for a saxophone and a magnetic film and for two saxophones were performed. Four saxophonists took part in the block, and it was interesting to trace the difference in interpretations.
The next block (solo-solissimo) for the first time at the festival was completely devoted to double-bass's solo in a brilliant performance by Nazar Stets. There were six compositions for double-bass solo, three of which were written by Ukrainian composers («Double-bass's Dances» (2013) by Bogdana Frohlyak, «Cadence» (2017) by Denis Bocharov and «Music by Erich Zann» (2017) by Alexey Voitenko (world premiere).
The next block, «To the Future», that was recently become part of the festival (since 2015). But each year it becomes one of the culminating points of the festival program. Within the framework of this block, young composers (students, postgraduates), despite their young age, are demonstrated the high mastery of work with various instruments, expressive means, and compositional techniques. This time compositions by seven Ukrainian composers (three from Odessa, two from Lviv, one from Kiev and one from Kharkov) were presented to the listeners. The range of expressive techniques in young composers works was quite wide (someone included elements of rock music, someone had folklore motifs, someone focused on only one effect, someone used theatricalizational effects), which indicates that young composers are not afraid to experiment, while trying to develop elements of they own author's style.
«The closing speeches» of the festival, according to tradition, were performed by percussion: «Maxi-music» by James Tenney (1965) was sounded. But the most interesting thing began after the official end of the festival and the traditional phrase of Karmella Tsepkolenko «See you in 365 days». After this, the guests had the opportunity to improvise on the instruments left on the table after the performance, joining the general musical space of the festival and becoming the «co-authors» of a new musical composition created right at the festival.
Thus, we can conclude that the festival «2 days and two nights of new music» is a compressed model of contemporary composer's creativity (compressed by the time constraints of the festival), which makes this model particularly convex, vivid, and memorable. The idea of Odessa festival is to contribute to the stylistic expression of each participant, and his external dialogical, communicative and artistic conditions evoke the ability for creative reflection – the desire to respond with his own creative act to what is happening around. In this awakening of the creative activity of the personal consciousness, we find the main task of the Odessa festival, which defined its dialogical concept.
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6. Kiev avangard of the 1960s: Borys Lyatoshynsky school (2017). Anthology [4 CD + booklet (24 p.)]. Kyiv. [in Ukrainian]
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