Musical iconography of Annunciation: personal experience

Abstract

Background. The objective of the article is to analyze the interaction, for sake of artistic unity of a work, of the musical, textural and theatrical structures and solutions in the contemporary opera as in a synthetic genre. The author uses his chamber opera “Annunciation” as an example of these processes and shows the ways certain dramatic and theatrical ideas determine musical solutions. Although since the middle of the 19th century composers sometimes wrote an opera text themselves, the common case was still a collaboration of two (sometimes more) creators: a composer and a librettist, each of them being an expert in their own particular field. Their collaboration and mutual flexibility are of great importance, especially at the initial phase of creation, when a composer makes a decision concerning fundamental features and structures of a future work. Since an opera libretto often consists of the fragments borrowed from previously created texts, a composer should comprehend the libretto in its new integrity. Understanding dramatic intentions of a librettist is extremely important, too. On the other hand, a good libretto should contain some elements of incompleteness (let’s call it “dramatic gaping”) to ensure the composer’s freedom in building musical forms and to encourage him / her to elaborate self-own personal solutions both in musical and dramatic (theatrical) fields. The results of the research. The text of Alexander Shchetynsky’s chamber opera, “Annunciation”, is inspired by the dialogue described in Chapter 1 of St. Luke’s Gospel between the Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel, who announced about future birth of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Gradual transformation of Mary who prepares to become the mother of God forms the action. Since both characters are positive and no conflict is developed between them, dramatic tension appears basing on the contrast between Mary’s happiness, when she hears the message, and the presentiment of her own and her Son’s future tragedy. Instrumental scoring (piano, celesta and metal percussion) is in no way the klavier variant, but the only possible version for performance of this opera. Percussion instruments, played by the pianist and partly by the singer, symbolize the Heaven. The pianist plays the grand piano, which stays at the stage. He is not a common accompanist but the second character (the Angel Gabriel) taking a direct part in the stage action, so the sounds of the piano is Angel’s secret speech. The idea to shape two characters with totally different means was suggested by the librettist Alexey Parin. His concept of putting the speech of the Angel not into a human voice but into the wordless “voice” of an instrument looked extremely promising and innovative. This “secret utterance” of the Angel, then, became the starting point of the opera and the source of its genre definition: the stage dialogues without accompaniment. The structure of the work is as follows (all the episodes go one after another without a break). Episode 1. “Presentiment” (aria). Mary is occupied with the spinning wheel. The Angel has not yet come, only the tinkling of percussion instruments hints at grace descending upon Mary. Episode 2. “Whiff “(recitative). The Angel is entering. The mood is strange, unreal, as if in a dream, when the common logic of action is broken. Episode 3. “Good Word” (scene). The first dramatic climax. The piano part is resembling a choir singing, which Mary is understanding and answering to it. The general mood of the music is tragic: it is the presentiment of a terrible ordeal and human grief awaiting Mary. Episode 4. “Ecstasy” (aria). The Immaculate Conception. The climax is of lofty, lyrical substance. There is free soaring of the voice and feeling of the miracle and happiness. Episode 5. “Fear” (scene). The second dramatic climax: Mary has been realizing her future. The vocal style is unstable; recitation and Sprechgesang follow cantabile closely. Episode 6. “Farewell” (aria). Happiness mixed with bitter presentiments. At the very end the music resembles a lullaby. The musical language of the opera does not contain any elements of traditional Church music. This is spiritual music intended for the theatre or concert performance, without any allusion to Divine Service. In style the work tends toward musical modernism and 20th century avantgarde, with their attributes of atonality and modality, rhythmical complication, emancipation of timbre component and dissonances. The latter were used both in atonal and modal context. Both horizontal and vertical elements of the texture have their common roots in several micro-thematic interval structures, exactly, in the combinations of a triton and minor second (including octave transpositions, the major seventh and minor ninth). These structures form the common basement of all musical components and lead to thematic unity of the opera. Despite the modernistic orientation, cantabile style prevails in the soprano part, making use of various types of singing such as recitation, arioso, parlando, Sprechgesang, whisper, and others. Conclusion. The musical solutions in “Annunciation” appear as a consequence and elaboration of the dramatic concept of libretto. Analysis of its peculiarities led to forming their musical equivalents, which helped to achieve the integrity of all the main components of the work.