Malatsay Lyudmila; Moshkovskaia Ianna

On the musical reading of liturgical texts in the concerto cycle by V. S. Khodosh "Chants of the Liturgy of st. John Chrysostom"

Abstract

The methodology of the article is determined an integrated approach to the analysis of the concerto cycle by V. S. Khodosh Chants of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. The study draws on the foundations of musicology, liturgics, choral studies. Information about the stages of creativity and about the chronology of concerto performance of individual cycle items that preceded the writing of the liturgical cycle by the faculty choir of the Rostov State Conservatory under the guidance of Yu. I. Vasiliev was obtained by the authors of this article in an interview with the composer’s spouse. In the analysis of the cycle, the attention is drawn to the structure of intonationmelodic complexes, the correspondence of the melodic design of prosody of the text of prayers, the dependence of the structure of themes on their location in parts of the whole. The characteristics of the types of textural organization of musical fabric in their connection with the principles of voicing the text of prayers are given, the general colour of the sound is noted as well as its compliance with the logic of compositional deployment. Free transitions from one type of texture organisation to another are noted as a sign of the concert style of chants. A harmonic analysis of the work has made it possible to identify the principles of tonal development within the cycle items, to determine the conditions for the occurrence of tonal displacements, to identify the expressive possibilities of the consonance structure and their sequences in the design of the thematic material. An integrated analysis of the liturgical cycle by V. S. Khodosh has led to general conclusions about the individuality of the author’s reading of the text of prayers and about a peculiar implementation of the stylistic principles shared by Russian composers of the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, manifested in the synthesis of the Russian and the European, classical and modern principles.

Keywords

V. S. Khodosh, сhoral performance, spiritual and musical creativity, Liturgy, concerto style of Orthodox spiritual music, means of musical expressiveness

References

1. Khodosh V. (2017) Pesnopeniya Liturgii svyatogo Ioanna Zlatousta: dlya smeshannogo khora bez soprovozhdeniya [Chants of St. John Chrysostom for a mixed choir unaccompanied]. Rostovna- Donu (in Russian).
2. Khodosh V. (2002) Zoryushki-zori, in Proizvedeniya dlya smeshannogo khora bez soprovozhdeniya. [Works for a mixed choir unaccompanied]. Rostov-na-Donu (in Russian).
3. Malatsay L. (2017) Fenomen ispol'zovaniya kanonicheskikh bogosluzhebnykh tekstov i stikhotvoreniya otechestvennykh poetov v kantate dlya smeshannogo khora V. S. Khodosha «Po prochtenii “Arkhiyereya” A. Chekhova, in Bogosluzhebnyye praktiki i kul’tovyye iskusstva v sovremennom mire [Liturgical practices and religious arts in the modern world]. Maykop (in Russian).
4. Tzuker A. (2017) Pesnopeniya nebesnye i zemnye [Chants of Heaven and Earth], in Pesnopeniya Liturgii svyatogo Ioanna Zlatousta: dlya smeshannogo khora bez soprovozhdeniya [Chants of St. John Chrysostom for a mixed choir unaccompanied]. Rostov-na-Donu, p. 4 (in Russian).

Information about the author

Malatsay Lyudmila

Academic Degree: Doctor of Sciences* in Art Criticism;
Academic Rank: Professor;
Place of work: Orel State Institute of Culture; 15 Leskova Str., Orel, 302020, Russian Federation;
Post: associate professor, head of Department of choral conducting;
ORCID: 0000-0003-0335-5950;
Email: 1441970@mail.ru.

*According to ISCED 2011, a post-doctoral degree called Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) is given to reflect second advanced research qualifications or higher doctorates.

Moshkovskaia Ianna

Place of work: Orel State Institute of Culture; 15 Leskova Str., Orel, 302020, Russian Federation;
Post: senior lecturer;
ORCID: 0000-0002-4246-0844;
Email: m.yanna@mail.ru.