The synthetic nature of the violinist-performer’s professionalism (on the material of L. Spohr’s “Violin school”)

Abstract

Statement of the problem. The modern academic violin performance art is an extensive and multi-level phenomenon. Musicians choose one or another direction of self-realization (soloist, ensemble or quartet player, orchestra artist), achieving a certain level of mastery in it. Such a narrowing of specialization, determined by the history of musical art, on the one hand, helps to increase the level of professionalism, and on the other hand, it ruins the integrity of the figure of the performer in the perception of musicians and listeners. The scientific literature devoted to the issues of violin performance in various roles is quite extensive and versatile and makes it possible to understand certain aspects of a musician’s creative life. Recently researches by L. Bishop et al. (2021), E. B. Horwitz et al. (2021), E. Cho (2021), and others gives a chance to understand the creative life of a violinist in a fragmented way, stimulating the desire to achieve a certain integrity when considering the stated problem. Objectives, methods, and novelty of the research. The purpose of the study is to consider the synthetic nature of the violinist’s professionalism and its manifestation in various directions of his / her creative realization. The cognitive apparatus of the study is based on the combination of historical-theoretical, structural-functional, comparative, hermeneutic, and systemic methods of analysis, owing to which the synthetic nature of the violinist-performer’s professionalism unfolds in different angles. For the first time, the professionalism of the violinist is considered from the point of view of its synthetic nature; in the context of the chosen topic, L. Spohr’s thorough views in his “Violin School” are highlighted. Research results. Solo, ensemble, quartet or orchestral playing differs in the functional characteristics of the musician: status that determines his/her behaviour and the type of communication – the role. Acquiring practical knowledge in each of these specializations, the violinist realizes the uniqueness of the respective statuses and roles, enrichs self-own artistic-aesthetic, socio-cultural experience, thereby developing intelligence, expanding the psycho-emotional range and scope of his / her performer art. L. Spohr in the “Violin School” provides his own vision of the universal qualities of a violinist and separately characterizes his / her various statuses and roles. Although this methodical work is almost two hundred years old, the relevance of the author’s advice is not lost even today. Conclusion. Regardless of the chosen status, the violinist faces some circle of art tasks. They are based on the features of the implementation and delivery of a specific composer’s idea to the listener and determine the musician’s use of a particular set of playing skills. Mastering various “roles”, which clearly demonstrate the synthetic nature of a violinist’s professionalism, allows one to demonstrate exactly those qualities that are required by the chosen form of music making and the composer’s intention. In our opinion, the study of the specifics of communicative and role-playing processes can contribute to the rethinking of established pedagogical methods and the value of a comprehensive approach to learning, on which L. Shpor’s “Violin School” is based.