A. Batagov's "Selected Letters of Sergei Rachmaninoff": Toward the Problem of "Function-Author" in contemporary musical discourse

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the piano cycle of the modern Russian composer Anton Batagov “Selected Letters of Sergey Rachmaninov” (2013). Deep conceptual idea, reflected in the unusual title of the work, raises the actual problem of the author’s function in musical discourse. The “epistolary” genre form chosen by the composer, which creates in the composition a difficult communicative situation between the sender of the message and its recipients - minimalist composers, calls for this.

The combination of aesthetic idiolects of “addressees” and “addresser” in one artistic narrative is a special creative task stylistically flawlessly performed by A. Batagov. The article presents a detailed analysis of the compositional technique by A. Batagov, who, without resorting to the quotation method, accurately reproduced the stylistic code of several contemporary composers at once - A. Pyart, L. Einaudi, V. Martynov, V. Mertens, S. ten Holt, P. Gabriel , B. Ino, F. Glass.

The methods of organization of pitch, rhythm, texture, and also discourse as a whole show a complex intertextual pattern of interactions and intersections arising between various minimalist idiolects and Rachmaninov's style. The musical representation of the Rachmaninov's style is a special aspect in the study of the work. The article shows that the name of Sergey Rachmaninov is also coded in a special way in the musical texture of the work by A. Batagov. This is a rhythmic intonation formula presented in the extreme parts of the cycle. Specific analytical examples show the differentiation of minimalist writing techniques given by Batagov in the original stylistic interpretation.

Keywords: Anton Batagov, Sergey Rachmaninov, contemporary music, minimalism, author, post-minimalism, musical discourse