Instrumental Concerto from Baroque to Classicism: Ways to Modernise the Genre

Abstract

The genre of the concerto arose at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries in church music as a choral work, in which instrumental accompaniment was often used. The presence of an instrumental part in a spiritual concert had a great influence on the emergence and development of the instrumental version of the instrumental genre of the concert. The purpose of the article is to highlight the ways of modification and features of the instrumental concert genre during the period of stylistic transition from Baroque to Classicism. The research methodology is based on a comprehensive approach based on historical-cultural, hermeneutic and music-theoretical research methods. The main theoretical methods of work are: historical-comparative, genre-stylistic, systematisation, generalisation, analysis. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that questions of the evolution of the instrumental concert are considered in the context of stylistic changes from Baroque to Classicism. Special attention is paid to intra-genre changes, which have not been received due attention by musicologists. Conclusions. The genre of the instrumental concert of the transition period from Baroque to Classicism is marked by a certain dual character. First of all, this manifests itself at the level of form, which is characterised by both ritornello and sonata principles of thematic organisation. Along with the alternating exposition of sections of the sonata form by the orchestra and by the soloist, which comes from the baroque concerto grosso, in the early classical samples of the instrumental concert, there is a dialogic type of exposition of the material at the level of thematism, approved in the classical samples. The coming to the fore and dominance of the soloist in the concert causes a change in the texture of the solo part, which acquires extraordinary virtuosity and improvisation. This affects the strengthening of the role of the soloist, the rejection of his participation in the tutti, leadership in the presentation of the material, which leads to the multiplicity and diversity of thematics. At the same time, the orchestra, in addition to performing an accompanying function in support of the soloist, gets the opportunity to "express" itself in independent "plays", thereby violating the clear distribution of the sections of the sonata form. The specified transformations contributed to the stratification of the sound space and the duality of its perception, characteristic of the classic models of the genre.