M. RAVEL'S SPANISH RHAPSODY: TO THE QUESTION OF THE GENRE ORIGINALITY OF THE COMPOSITION

Cheremnykh Galina Aleksandrovna Postgraduate at the Department of the History of Music of Dmitri Hvorostovsky Siberian State Academy of Arts 660049, Russia, Krasnoyarskii krai, g. Krasnoyarsk, ul. Lenina, 22 galinka.shidyaeva@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Miagkova Svetlana Ivanovna Miagkova Svetlana Ivanovna, Professor, Department of General Piano, Dmitri Hvorostovsky Siberian State Academy of Arts, Russia. 660049, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, Lenin str., 22 vestasp888@gmail.com

"Spanish Rhapsody" by M. Ravel is a work indicative of the composer's style, therefore, to date it has been subjected to a fairly versatile study in the research literature: from the point of view of the specifics of the refraction of folklore in the composer's work ^[2], as a reflection of the individual manner of M. Ravel's style ^[6], as an example of piano impressionism in the works of French composers ^[5]. A number of researchers have attempted to consider the work in the context of studying the principles of M. Ravel's work with cyclic forms and the implementation of dance semantics in them ^[11]. At the same time, the genre basis of the work has not yet become the object of holistic research attention, which reveals the relevance of the article.

         The perception of images of Spain in the musical culture of Europe had its own peculiarities. The most attractive for European musicians was the culture of the south of Spain – Andalusia with its exotic appearance, a peculiar culture that absorbed the influences of different cultural traditions. The "Spaniade" has manifested itself vividly and in many ways in the piano music of French composers, among whom are E. Satie, M. Ravel, K. Debussy, E. Chabrier. French composers demonstrate free reproduction of essential elements of Spanish music, freely combining features of different Spanish styles.

The Spanish theme is quite widely represented in the works of Maurice Ravel, one of the most prominent representatives of impressionism in music.

Throughout his life, M. Ravel turned to the embodiment of Spanish themes and images in his works, among which the opera "Spanish Hour", "Bolero", as well as "Spanish Rhapsody" became the most famous. The interest in Spanish imagery was due both to a blood relationship with an exotic country (the composer's mother was Spanish) and the developing attraction of artists and musicians to embody romantic images of Spain in their work.

In the original version, the "Spanish Rhapsody" was intended by the composer to be a suite for two pianos, but the work was first successfully presented to the public in 1908 in orchestral sound. The idea of orchestrating the composition belongs to the pianist R. Vignes, with whom Ravel has repeatedly performed the work in four hands. The pianist has repeatedly noted that "some places are almost difficult to perform clearly on the piano in four hands", and suggested orchestrating the composition ^{[8, p. 69]}.

The work was a landmark both for the work of Maurice Ravel himself and for all the music of the early twentieth century. Thus, O. V. Kataeva notes that the rhapsody "being an outstanding work of musical impressionism, was at the same time the most vivid and complete expression of Ravel's Spanish style, whose peculiarity is based on the combination of seemingly completely different aesthetic and stylistic plans" ^{[5, p. 68]}. Certain principles of impressionistic colorfulness in the embodiment of the "Hispaniad" were subsequently adopted by many composers of the twentieth century.

         "Spanish Rhapsody" consists of 4 parts, each of which has a program name: "By night", "Malagenia", "Habanera" and "Feria". Rhapsody acts as the genre basis of the work. The appeal to this genre is not accidental. In European compositional work, rhapsody has traditionally been used in works characterized by the use of folk motifs, epic themes in free form ^{[1, p. 7]}. T. Efremova interprets the genre of rhapsody as "a virtuoso instrumental work, most often in free form, using melodies of folk songs and dances" ^[4]. A similar interpretation of the definition is found in D. Ushakov, who understands the concept of "rhapsody" as "a large musical composition for an instrument or orchestra, consisting of several heterogeneous parts, mainly on the themes of folk songs, legends" ^[10]. Thus, the above definitions are united by the presence of a combination of diverse and diverse folklore elements in a single whole.

Rhapsody has developed in its classical form in the works of F. Liszt as a one-part play based on a free form consisting of a number of episodes. Ravel replaces the one-part form with a cyclic one, combining the signs of rhapsody and suite. The attraction to the rhapsody of the form also has Spanish origins and is associated with the peculiarities of form formation in the compositions of the large form of the Spanish composers I. Albeniz and E. Granados. Like Spanish composers, M. Ravel strives to embody a generalized and picturesque image of Spanish culture in the form of a rhapsody. Also, the composer's appeal to the free rhapsody form shows the connection of his creative method with the traditions of the composers of the "Mighty Bunch". The embodiment of Spanish color in the music of Russian composers was associated not only with the Eastern, but also with the Spanish theme. Like the "kuchkists" in Russian music, M. Ravel laid the foundation for French Spanish studies. The high artistic level of the embodiment of Spanish imagery in M. Ravel's "Spanish Rhapsody" was repeatedly noted by the composer's contemporaries, among them M. de Falla, who noted that "Spanish Rhapsody" "struck with a truly Spanish character, which, in accordance with my own intentions and in contrast to what Rimsky–Korsakov did in his "Capriccio", was achieved not by the simple use of folklore material (with the exception of hota from "Feria"), but through the free use of the most essential rhythmic, fret-melodic and ornamental features of our folk music" ^{[8, p. 77]}.

At the same time, the mixing of the genre principles of rhapsody and suite in the work under consideration is quite justified, since the composer refuses the epic, narrative tone of presentation characteristic of rhapsody, preferring genre. Most of the themes of the work are of a dance nature, and the suite was also originally formed as a series of dances of different tempo. The four parts of the rhapsody are comparable in tempo and character to the four parts of the old suite:

"Prelude of the night" (modere – "moderately") – allemande

"Malagenia" (assez vif – "lively") – couranta

"Habanera" (en demi-teinte et d'un rythme las – "in the penumbra, tired") – sarabande

"Feria" (assez vif – "lively") – zhiga.

In the generalized refraction of the dance genres of the old suite, the composer's individual creative method is revealed in the interpretation of the genre features of the suite and "the variability of interpretations of the semantics of the same genre prototype" ^[2].

The composer quite often turned to dance genres in piano and symphonic compositions, having developed the principles of mediation of primary dance genre models characteristic of his creative method. That is, models of dance genres act as style-forming factors in his compositions.

At the same time, the parts of the "Spanish Rhapsody" are connected with the dance genres of Spanish folklore with more obvious parallels. The folklore basis of the parts is a factor that unites in the composition the features of suite (combining different parts into a single whole) and rhapsody (comparing contrasting folklore genres in one form). Thus, the second part of the "Rhapsody" – "Malagenia" – has genre features of the Spanish folk style and Flamenco dances, which received an original implementation in the context of the composer's individual creative method. M. Ravel, without quoting folklore sources, recreates the sound atmosphere of the Andalusian piano by pianistic means (playing timbre, performing techniques, percussion and impressionistic interpretation of the piano). dancing, expressed in imitation of guitar tunes, reproduction of the knock of castanets, an original combination of rhythmic and melodic folklore beginnings. Ravel uses in this part a lively movement in the three-part meter, reliance on ostinate rhythmic formulas, syncopation in the 2nd piano part, emphasized the non-square of the initial rhythmic formula of the exposition of the part.

At the same time, as V. V. Bass notes, "the muffled sonority and sparseness of the texture evoke associations with the prelude and postlude of the tokaor (guitarist of the Cante flamenco style) rather than with the dance itself" ^[2].

The genre basis of the third part of the "Spanish Rhapsody" is habanera, the most pronounced feature of which is rhythm. The rhythmic peculiarity of the "Habanera" consists in the synchronous or sequential interaction of two rhythmic formulas forming a polyrhythmy. In addition to the rhythmic originality, the origins of the folklore primary source in this part are the colorful alternations of the eponymous minor and major within the sections of the form. At the same time, in "Spanish Rhapsody", the genre basis of habanera is enriched by impressionistic writing techniques and the composer's coloristic findings. So, the second theme of habanera is based on a sequence of short motifs and phrases that are separated from each other by pauses, which creates the effect of understatement and mystery.

The finale of the "Spanish Rhapsody" is a grandiose "Feria", fascinating from the first bars of its sound with intense musical development.  The exposition section of the part is a landscape painting, solved in watercolor, transparent tones by impressionistic piano means (up to 6 digits). The thematism of this section has a pronounced sonorous basis, is based on a wide register range, differentiated detailing of the piano texture, exquisite timbral colors of the instrument, which emphasize the picturesque imagery of the grand finale.

As the echoes of dancing coming from afar, brief relief-outlined motifs are perceived, carried out in different voices of the piano texture and dissolving into figurative elements. The basis of these fragments are variably transformed segments of folklore material.  In their melodic and rhythmic structure, signs of the Spanish dance culture find indirect expression.

Thus, the suite principle of the structure of the "Spanish Rhapsody" finds its embodiment in the composer's refraction of genre features of Spanish dance folklore in three parts of the work. At the same time, in each of the considered sections of the composition, the refraction of the features of Spanish dance folklore has an individual character. The most detailed and consistent embodiment is observed in the second and third parts of the "Spanish Rhapsody" – "Malagenie" and "Habanere". Here the composer reproduces the choreographic vocabulary and rhythmic features of Spanish national dances by pianistic means, as a result of which the presented images acquire a special relief, visibility.  A generalized embodiment of the features of Spanish folklore is obtained in the finale of the "Spanish Rhapsody".  Here the composer tried to reproduce a picture of a Spanish holiday, embodied in spontaneity, a riot of colors, a life-affirming flavor of the piano sound.

At the same time, referring to the genre prototypes of Spanish national dances in "Spanish Rhapsody", the composer follows the principle of genre generalization, freely interpreting the ethnographic authenticity of folklore material, striving to convey a diverse image of Spanish national culture.  Musically, this method finds its embodiment in the fragmentary structure of themes, their continuous updating, playing with dynamic and textured contrasts, free handling of genre rhythmic formulas. Such generalization of work with folklore material in each of the parts of the "Spanish Rhapsody" indicates the manifestation of suite features in the interpretation of the form of the work, the main features of which is precisely the composer's desire to embody a generalized image of Spanish culture in the work. This interpretation of the suite principle becomes characteristic of the compositional thinking of the early twentieth century. As S. Y. Masliy emphasizes, "if the basic framework of Bach suites is represented by dances, then the genre appearance of suites of the XIX and XX centuries is undergoing significant changes. The rejection of the predominance of dance parts leads to the perception of the suite as a collection of genre and everyday signs of culture" ^{[9, p. 22]}.   The refraction of the genre features of the suite in M. Ravel's "Spanish Rhapsody" contributed to the free understanding of Spanish imagery in the work, which did not bind the composer with any restrictions and rules, and gave him the opportunity to uniquely interpret Spanish folklore by means of the impressionist method, which forms the basis of the composer's individual style.

Thus, the genre peculiarity of Maurice Ravel's "Spanish Rhapsody" lies in the interpenetration of two principles of shaping – rhapsody, expressed in the comparison of contrasting folklore layers in a single whole, and suite, expressed in a generalized interpretation of Spanish imagery on the one hand and the composer's appeal to the genre model of the baroque dance suite on the other.