Genre and style metamorphoses of the cycle «The Magic Horn of a Boy» in the German-Austrian musical-historical tradition of the XIX – early XX centuries

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to identify the figurative and semantic specifics of the cycle «The Magic Horn of a Boy» and the peculiarities of genre and style interpretation of his texts in the German-Austrian musical culture of the XIX – early XX centuries. Methodology of work. The following approaches proved to be essential for this work: interdisciplinary, which makes it possible to attract concepts from other fields of knowledge – philosophy, art history, cultural studies, history of literature, philology; historical and cultural, genre and style. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by its analytical perspective, which takes into account both the figurative and semantic specifics of the cycle «The Magic Horn of a Boy» and the peculiarities of its interpretation in the German-Austrian musical culture of the XIX – early XX centuries. Conclusions. «The Boy’s Magic Horn» is an outstanding monument of the German song and poetry folklore tradition, reflecting the most striking features of the German «image of the world», national consciousness, and the position of the Heidelberg Romantics on folklore in general. The authors of the anthology often transform texts, change the composition, use the later version, ignoring the folklore source, supplementing it with their own work. The texts of this anthology were in great demand in German-Austrian chamber and vocal (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, J. Brahms, etc.) and opera music of the XIX century (R. Schumann, E. Humperdink) in line with genre and style guidelines of culture Biedermeier. In the works of composers of the twentieth century (G. Mahler, A. Schoenberg, A. Webern, R. Strauss and P. Hindemith, etc.) appeal to the spiritual and semantic specifics of the «Magic Horn of the Boy» reveals, on the one hand, involvement in the origins of German-speaking cultural area. On the other hand, the expansion of genre-style and poetic-intonational sphere of interpretation of the texts of this anthology is obvious, which reveals their spiritual and deep context both in the late romantic vocal-symphonic tradition (G. Mahler) and in chamber vocal-instrumental searches of representatives of the Novoviden school (A. Webern).

Keywords: «The Magic Horn of a Boy», romanticism, Biedermeier, vocal works of R. Schumann, musical theater of E. Humperdinck, vocal cycles of G. Mahler and A. Webern.